Awards and Residencies

  •  James W Ray Fellowship Awardee (2018)                                                                                     

  • Dance Crush Reader’s Choice Award for Outstanding Contribution (2018)                              

  • Bring This: Amii LeGendre  (NY, ISR) Winter Intensive  (Seattle, WA)   (2018)                                

  • Nominated for James Ray Venture Award (2017)                                                                          

  • Office of Arts and Culture Grant—Beautiful Carcass outreach (2017)                                         

  • 4Culture Smart Venture Grant—Beautiful Carcass outreach   (2017)                                           

  • Cornish Arts Incubator Residency  (Seattle, WA)  (2017)                                                                  

  • Catapult Winter Intensive with Michele Miller  (Seattle, WA)  (2016)                                             

  • Velocity Dance Center with 10 Degrees (Seattle, WA)   (2015)                            

  • Exit Space Studio to Stage Program (Seattle, WA)  (2014-2015)                                               

  • Cornish Arts Incubator Residency (Seattle, WA)  (2014)                                                       

  • Higher Ground (Bend, OR)   (2014)                                                                                      

  • Samurai Project Residency at Velocity Dance Center (Seattle, WA)   (2014)                             

Kind words from The Press

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SIDF James Ray Residency Award

Seattle International Dance Festival Commissioned a new work which was featured in Seattle Dances.


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Beautiful Carcass Featured on the Cover of The Stranger’s Spring Arts & Performance Guide

Nico Tower
voted a 2018


Seattle Dances “Dance Crush”

The 2018 Reader’s Choice Award was given for outstanding contribution to Seattle’s Dance community. Photo: Vitamin Dee Photography

City Arts Magazine has called Beautiful Carcass one of 29 performances you shouldn't miss.

Fresh ideas, original voices, and brand new, boundary stretching work.”
                    -City Arts Magazine

Stranger Recommended!​

Beautiful Carcass is listed by The Stranger as one of
"The Best Theater, Dance, and Comedy Events in Seattle."



The prim soundscape provided by live musicians Nico Tower and Daniel Mullikin quickly broke into a much more modern beat as the dancers on stage erupted in sweeping limbs and extensions. The standout musical moment of the night came from Tower’s breathy, ethereal vocals.
— Megan Stevenson- Seattle Dances

Nico Tower was musician and mysterious omnipotent being in Laura Beth Rodriguez’s 0:00. As a film projection of a 24-hour digital clock counted down on the back wall, Tower wove her singing way through the dancers, who seemed oblivious as they were moved by the currents left in her wake. The dancers, clad in costumes suggesting dreary office jobs, were alternatively ruled by the ringing, buzzing smartphones in their hands, or by the addict’s withdrawal of the loss of their devices. They ran, twitched, and at the end fell to the ground in exhaustion. Was Tower a benevolent siren, suggesting the possibility of a different world with her music, or was she a hypnotizing force, keeping the dancers in thrall to their ruling machines just as she captivated the audience?
— Karena Birk- Seattle Dances

Nico Tower added spice to the muted vibe of Holloway’s same.other.known. Tower began with vocalizing into the microphone, then kept busy at her keyboard throughout the dance while she manipulated and created music on the spot. One couldn’t help but be baffled when she casually pulled out an electric violin, adding yet another shade to an already masterful creation.

In addition to Tower’s stellar accompaniment, dynamic choreography was prominent in same.other.known, which began with one dancer somersaulting over the shoulder of another. Holloway showed off a gifted cast of movers in individual break-out moments from unison phrasing—these short solos, including Holloway’s own potent performance, are what made this piece shine.
— Gabrielle Nomura Gainor- Seattle Dances

With original music composed and played by the brilliantly talented Nico Tower (accompanied by cellist Daniel Mullikin), Believe Me Or Not took audiences on a whimsical tea-time journey through the curious ponderings of peacekeepers, groundbreakers, and artistic rebels in a beautiful mix of reality and dream.
— Miranda Chantelios- Seattle Dances (2015)

Joined by the skilled and undeniably talented musician Nico Tower (whose vocal and instrumental improvisations conversed elaborately with the movement), dancers of The Samurai Project made no patchwork creation; to the contrary, they provided a holistic look into the creative process while simultaneously addressing contemporary conceptions of what it means to make art.
— Miranda Chantelois -Seattle Dances (2014)
She dances across the stage as the music starts in a dynamic yet unassuming manner...She seems to grow to fill the stage she’s on, possessing a stage presence well beyond her years. She demonstrates a vocal range and musical savvy most American Idol contestants would die for – a woman born for the stage... This is sophisticated music, classically structured and yet containing various elements, rhythms and genres. Artistically, she moves through the wide plains separating Massachussetts’ Paula Cole from Mexico City’s Magos Herrera, incorporating jazz, pop, alternative and spoken word styles likely to hijack the attention of anyone within earshot... She uses her voice similarly in both high and low range plus rapid fire spoken word torrents. Broad pauses sometimes punctuate her songs, allowing time for the lyrics to sink in.
— Don Bain - La Voz (2006)

The music on Out of Harm’s Way isn’t just all over the map — the CD sports enough twists and turns for an entire atlas…singer-songwriter Nicole Torres’s feverish eclecticism … leaves a mark, “Kind of Kind” rocks convincingly, and “Impotent Dragon” finds Torres delivering agitated poetry with all the attitude of a pissed-off rapper… it’s also kind of endearing, in a totally eccentric way. Even when Torres doesn’t seem to know where she’s going she finds her Way.
— Michael Roberts - The Westword (2007)

If you like to keep track of what’s hot and happening on the local music scene, Nicole Torres is one musician you’ll want to keep your eyes-and ears- on. Whether solo or with her band, The Affiliates, Torres kicks out the sounds of urban life that her fans love.
— Matt Kailey - Out Front Colorado (2007)

Fans who missed Ani Difranco’s show last weekend in Lyons can make up for it with a show from Nicole Torres, Denver’s answer to Ani...Torres and her trio, My Pet Alex, sound a lot like DiFranco’s jazzy “Evolve”-era folk music. They share both slow funk rhyghms and spoken-word vocal stylings…She also has a deep alto voice with shades of Tracy Chapman, as well as faint rhythmic influences from her parents’ native Cuba.
— Steven Graham - Wheat Ridge Transcript (2006)

Each of the trio members is high energy and multi-talented. Sparrow’s [bass] guitar and Brooklyn-born John Minardi’s drum frame the talents of featured singer/songwriter Nicole Torres, 23. She plays acoustic guitar with classical style and writes heartfelt music with folk and Latin influences to accompany her melodic singing with sharp spoken word poetry. She joins the class of Ani Difranco, Alanis Morissette and Fiona Apple…
— Staff Writer - The Daily Gate (2006)

As the music by Nico Tower built in intensity, the dancers tested the limits of their balance and spinal extensions until finally they fell and ran into several illuminated corridors of light, dodging and rolling in canon as if avoiding the physical or metaphorical projectiles that threatened their safety. The lighting, also by Tower, incorporated numerous hallways of light and frequent changes in design, closely related to both the musical score and the dancers’ formations, pauses, and restarts. The tight-knit interplay of lighting, sound, and choreography speaks to the benefits of collaborating closely with a talented multi-media artist. Eventually, sounds redolent of high noon at the O.K. Corral permeated the driving soundscape, and the dancers mimed the typical posturing of cowboys in the Wild West, complete with a shootout, to comedic effect. By the conclusion of the piece, a clear, satisfying arc had developed: the dancers who began by running in fear had found a way to embrace their inner strength and courage.
— Phillipa Myler- Seattle Dances
Tower’s tunes were just as mesmerizing as the dancing, ranging from electronic beats to acoustic guitar serenades to Tower vocalizing a melody a capella. In one notable section, Tower passionately recited a spoken-word poem, repeating, over and over: “There are pieces of me missing.” Throughout the monologue, Soto feverishly darted through the space, hurling herself off and into the floor as though controlled by an outside force. This was only one example of Tower’s sound score and Soto’s choreography working in harmony to produce a whole greater than the sum of its parts.
— Imana Gunawan- Seattle Dances

A musical Chameleon of sorts her latest work has incorporated an electronic touch, but whatever she’s feeling on a particular night comes off pretty effortlessly.
— Staff Writer - Inside.Out (2009)

Divine woman, you have the poison that fascinates in your look” – it pretty much summed up the piece and I need to add no more. The music was beautiful, and the performance of the four women hit straight in my heart. The biding ropes on their body were the rope that bound all of us; none could have escaped, not with any songs or with any costumes. After watching them, I know I need more music and dance in my life, because how hungry they made me feel. The flow of their movement was breathtaking, especially at the moment when the dancer in the front broke free from her chair and kicked it off to the side. She was privileged and was the only person who could break away from it. Not a second of elegance was left behind. This piece made my night.
— Reva Cappitone- On the Boards

...Paired with composer Nico Tower’s live-mixed “Vox Humana,” “I AM the Bully” has stayed with me days beyond the performance.
— Marcie Sillman- And Another Thing (2014)

Far from the ear-candy shop of bubblegum Pop and mainstream monotony, a young doe-eyed songstress shares her own brand of bold, passionate, and poetic music... Her expressive style of writing is honest and sophisticated. Her energetic performances are engaging. Nicole Torres and the Affiliates create acoustic-driven, urban Jazz/Rock compositions that are best experienced live...Torres seems more interested in filling hearts through their ears than filling stadiums through the years. Given the growing fan base she’s been accumulating, one may indeed lead to the other.
— Tommy Nahulu - Colorado Music Buzz (2005)

Her music is permeated with hip-hop- fused jazz and electronica, but, ultimately, she’s an urban-music pedigree. On top of it all, the girl can write. Damn, she can write. She’s a modern day poet-turned-musician. The music, however, is her path to the pen.
— Christy Fantz - Colorado Daily (2007)

She’s one of the top young female artists around. And a wonderful down to earth person as I can attest to. Her style as a songstress has been compared to Ani Difranco and Fiona Apple, but with a mix of spoken word and light rap. Her latest album from 2007 is titled “Out of Harm’s Way.” I personally love her juxtaposition of steady toe tapping grooves with sudden bursts of soulful rock as demonstrated in the song “Impulsive.” Mellow, ambient chill music like “Synopsys” rounds out a truly unique style.
— James Van Dellen - Future Gringo (2008)

Contributing to Folk Fusion’s growing fame is singer-songwriter Nicole Torres, 23. Nicole plays acoustic guitar with classical style and writes music with Folk and Latin influences. Her lyrics compete with the poetic grace of Bob Dylan...
— Karen Sparrow - Keokuk Confluence (2006)

... It is obvious that they are best listened to live...It needs to be seen and felt in person...In the words of fellow performer Chuck Mitchell, it is amazing to see such a new band perform that tight. Being true technical musicians, they sound as though they’ve played together for decades...The lyrics deserve equal acclaim...Torres has a depth to her writing that is so rare. Every Lyric Torres sings, speaks and nearly yells at you, however, still, melodically, feels so personal that you want to give her comfort like a best friend would as she confides to you on stage...they are spreading their truly different sound and making waves in a flood of unoriginal and over-marketed bands of today.
— Jessica Martin - Daily Gate City (2006)