Gabri Christa

Last updated
Gabri Christa
Born
Curaçao, Dutch Caribbean
Nationality Dutch
EducationBFA
MFA in Dance
Occupation(s) Performance artist, choreographer, professor, film-maker and writer
Spouse Vernon Reid
Career
Former groups Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, DanzAbierta, and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
Website https://www.gabrichrista.com/

Gabri Christa is a Dutch performance artist, choreographer, professor, film-maker and writer. She is an associate professor of Professional Practice at Barnard College and also the Director for the Movement Lab there. [1]

Contents

Christa is a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health [2] and received a Guggenheim Fellowship for Choreography. [3] She is affiliated with the New York Women in Film and Television, [4] is on the board for Dance Theatre Workshop and on the advisory board for Dance/NYC. She was also on the Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission of the City of New York, appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio for a three-year term in 2015, until 2022. [5]

Early life

Christa was Born in Curaçao, Dutch Caribbean. She received her BFA from the School of New Dance Development, Amsterdam in 1986 and she got her MFA in Dance, with an additional study in Anthropology, Ethno-musicology and Women Studies from the University of Washington in 1998. [6]

Career

Christa began her career as a performer and choreographer, with critically acclaimed work Orangemelted in the Netherlands and then started working with Danza Contemporanea de Cuba in 1987. [7] She further went on to becoming a founding member of DanzAbierta. [8] When she moved to New York in 1993, she started working at the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company as a part of the group's eclectic repertory. Along with this, she kept up with her choreography and started her own company Danzaisa, after leaving Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane in 1999, which went on to perform in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. [9]

Some of Christa's administrative positions include being the Artistic Director and Curator of Snug Harbor Cultural Center [10] and founding and curating a Festival of the Moving Body on Screen: called Moving Body-Moving Image. [11] From 2010 to 2014, she was the Director of Performing Arts for the Consulate General of Netherlands in New York. [12]

A few of Christa's academic appointments as a teacher of dance and a lecturer have been at Princeton University, University of Washington and Barnard College Dance Department. She has also been on the faculty of City University of New York (CUNY) College of Staten Island in the Performing and Creative Arts department. [13]

Works

Stage performances

Christa has performed at the Symphony Space, Central Park Summer Stage, Lincoln Center Out of Doors and for five seasons at New York Live Arts. Her work, Dominata, was a multimedia piece of dance theater that used spoken word, video, dance and theatre to capture the emotions and issues surrounding immigration. Writing about it, Jennifer Dunning at The New York Times wrote that "She transforms the theater and transports you [...] she directs without seeming to lift a finger." [14] Some of her other evening length choreographies were for the 2009 Landscape on Hold, a collaboration with Marianela Boan and Tania Isaac at the Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia. [15] and Remember this moment Duet, collaboration with Niles Ford in 2008. Some of her shorter works were for Five Fingers make a hand at Staten Island Ballet, St. George Theater [16] and Longing for what is lost in 2011 for CUNY Center for the Arts, Staten Island, NY. Her dance conduction project, Burnt Sugar Danz, later started with Greg Tate. [17]

Magdalena is a one-woman multimedia piece which is a culmination of dance, storytelling and visuals as Christa shares personal experiences of her mother's past, her dementia, an interracial marriage, Holland during World War II and her take on motherhood. This is a series of short films which was listed as one of the "7 Dance Performances to See in N.Y.C. This Weekend" by The New York Times. [18] Elizabeth Zimmer at The Villager described this as "A tissue of fine and funny verbal detail" with "passionate, energetic dancing", [19] while Carrie Lee O'Dell at The Review Hub called her performance "rich and moving" and said that "we're lucky that she's generous enough to invite the audience along." [20] According to Eva Yaa Asantewaa at Infinite Body, it is "an act of loving discovery, recall and reclamation." [21] Fire on fire is one of the musical performances that she directed and orchestrated multimedia for. This performance brought together ten African American musicians and ten gypsy musicians in Symphony Space, New York.

Screen work

Christa has produced and directed many short films that have been screened in galleries. Her short film "High School" won an ABC television award for creative excellence and Pangea Day Festival's one of the World's 100 most promising filmmakers. She made the short film, Another building, which follows the Dutch African Diaspora and highlights historic buildings in connection to the different environments where people from different cultures reside. [22]

Writing

Christa's written publications for film and dance have been featured in The Scholar & Feminist and in "Caribbean Dance; from Abekua to Zouk". Her creative publications include "Screendance Festivals and Online Audiences" where she talked about moving the 2020 Moving Body-Moving Image Festival online, an essay called "This Little Black Doll" discussing her performance piece Magdalena and a memorial for Leo Floridas called "In Loving Memory of Leo Floridas". [23] She published an essay in "A Life in Dance: A Practical Guide" (May 2017) called "The Wisdom Of Insecurity As a Guide To Music And Dance Collaboration". [24]

Awards/honors

Filmography

Short films

Feature films

Music videos

Documentary

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Page (ballerina)</span> American ballerina and choreographer (1899–1991)

Ruth Page was an American ballerina and choreographer, who created innovative works on American themes.

Sabrina Matthews is a Canadian ballet choreographer. She has created pieces for some of the most prestigious ballet companies in the world, including multiple pieces for the renowned Stuttgart Ballet. This in-demand choreographer has premiered works on three continents in over a dozen cities from Beijing, to New York, to London. She was recognized as one of Canada's Amazing Women to Watch, alongside Oscar nominees. Recently, Sabrina Matthews has received commissions from Stuttgart Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, Boston Ballet, England's Royal Academy of Dance's Genee International Ballet Competition, and the National Ballet of Canada. Over the past few years, her works have been performed by major international ballet companies in Canada, the United States, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

Laura Dean is an American dancer, choreographer and composer. She is known for her collaborations with Steve Reich, a number of commissioned works for the Joffrey Ballet, and works for her own dance companies. Dean's earliest works were marked by a minimalist approach and an affinity for spinning; her later work saw more use of traditional dance methods.

Kate Weare is an American choreographer. She is the founder and artistic director of the Kate Weare Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heike Hennig</span> German choreographer and dancer

Heike Hennig is a German dancer, choreographer and director of the opera and dance ensemble "Heike Hennig & Co".

Misnomer Dance Theater is a modern dance company based in Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 1998 by Artistic Director and choreographer Chris Elam. In addition to producing and touring the choreographies of Chris Elam, Misnomer Dance Theater has launched signature programs that provide dance opportunities for artists.

Christine Dakin is an American dancer, teacher and director, a foremost exponent of the Martha Graham repertory and technique.

Noémie Lafrance is a Canadian-born choreographer living and working in New York since 1994. She is known for making large-scale site-specific dance performances that use the architecture of the city as the setting for her work. She is the founder and artistic director of Sens Production—a not-for-profit dance production company based in Brooklyn founded in 2001. She has received a Bessie Award and an MVPA award for her work. The Feist music video1234 that she choreographed was nominated for a Grammy.

Merián Soto is a choreographer and performance artist. Soto is best known for her interdisciplinary solo, group and collaborative works that explore and reflect upon the legacy of colonialism and Latino heritage, history and culture. Simply, Soto creates choreographic works that intertwine improvisational movements and post-modern structures she calls “energy modes”. By means of her choreography that accesses the personal history of Puerto Ricans, expresses the experiences of Puerto Ricans, and elicits the cultural memory of Puerto Ricans, Soto attempts to “blur the line between “real” life everyday/commonplace movement/dance/performance and staged/”artistic” dance and performance.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camille A. Brown</span> American dancer

Camille A. Brown is a dancer, choreographer, director and dance educator. She is the Founder & Artistic Director of Camille A. Brown & Dancers, and has congruently choreographed commissioned pieces for dance companies, Broadway shows, and universities. Brown started her career as a dancer in Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence, A Dance Company, and was a guest artist with Rennie Harris Puremovement, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Brown has choreographed major Broadway shows such as Choir Boy, Once on This Island and Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert! that aired on NBC. Brown also teaches dance and gives lectures to audiences at various universities such as Long Island University, Barnard College and ACDFA, among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dianne McIntyre</span> American dancer, choreographer and teacher

Dianne McIntyre is an American dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Her notable works include Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Dance Adventure in Southern Blues , an adaptation of Zora Neal Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, as well as productions of why i had to dance,spell #7, and for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf, with text by Ntozake Shange. She has won numerous honors for her work including an Emmy nomination, three Bessie Awards, and a Helen Hayes Award. She is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and the Dramatists Guild of America.

Ze'eva Cohen is an Israeli American dancer and modern/ postmodern dance choreographer who founded and directed the dance program at Princeton University between 1969 and 2009.

Laura Taler is a Romanian-born Canadian artist. Beginning her career as a contemporary dance choreographer, she now works in a range of media, including performance, film, sound, sculpture, and installations. Taler's films The Village Trilogy and Heartland are heralded by Dance International Magazine as marking the beginning of the dancefilm boom in Canada.

Okwui Okpokwasili is an American artist, performer, choreographer, and writer. Her multidisciplinary performances draw upon her training in theatre, and she describes her work as at "the intersection of theatre, dance, and the installation." Several of her works relate to historical events in Nigeria. She is especially interested in cultural and historical memory and how the Western imagination perceives African bodies.

Melanie Greene is an American writer, dancer, and choreographer. She is best known for being part of a dance ensemble, the skeleton architecture, which won a Bessies Award in 2017.

Nancy Louise Spanier is an American dancer, choreographer, artistic director, filmmaker and educator. Her body of choreographic works includes pieces commissioned internationally by museums, universities, dance companies and foundations. She is the founder of the Nancy Spanier Dance Theatre of Colorado, a repertory company known for its highly theatrical and imagistic performances that explore themes through the integration of sculpture, props, and film. Spanning her career, she has incorporated a variety of performance genres and has collaborated, among others, with award-winning playwright Jean-Claude van Itallie, and Anaïs Nin, who documented Spanier's performance in her last diary. Spanier is a professor emerita at the University of Colorado, Boulder where she taught dance from 1969 to 2003.

Daniel Alexander Belton is a New Zealand dancer, choreographer and film-maker based in Dunedin. He is the co-founder and artistic director of Good Company Arts (GCA). He is an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate. His works have been shown in America, Europe, South America, Asia and the Pacific.

Tupe Lualua is a New Zealand-Samoan choreographer, director, founder of the dance company Le Moana. She is also the current artistic director and producer for the Measina Festival, and award winning choreographer Tupua Tigafua. In 2019 Lualua was the Creative New Zealand Samoa Artist in Residence.

Louise Mary Potiki Bryant is a New Zealand choreographer, dancer and video artist of Māori descent. She has choreographed a number of award-winning performances, and is a founding member of Atamira Dance Company. She designs, produces and edits videos of performances for music videos, dance films and video art installations, and her works are frequently accompanied by music composed by her husband, musician Paddy Free. She often collaborates with other artists, including clay sculptor Paerau Corneal, singer-songwriter Ariana Tikao, scholar Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal and Canadian multidisciplinary artist Santee Smith. She was made an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Touch Compass</span>

Touch Compass is a professional inclusive dance company in Aotearoa New Zealand established in 1997 that has disabled and non-disabled dancers. They have been at the forefront of inclusive dance in New Zealand and have 'paved the way for many dancers and companies across the country.' They create contemporary dance, dance-theatre performance and film. They also have an education programme and have run workshops, community classes and education for schools.

References

  1. ↑ "Gabri Christa".
  2. ↑ "Fellows Directory".
  3. 1 2 "GABRI CHRISTA".
  4. ↑ "Browse All Members".
  5. ↑ "Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission".
  6. ↑ "Gabri Christa, MFA".
  7. ↑ "DANZA CONTEMPORANEA "Grito Verde"".
  8. ↑ "Gabri Christa".
  9. ↑ "Interview: Gabri Christa".
  10. ↑ "Award Winning International Artist Gabri Christa Joins Snug Harbor As Artistic Director".
  11. ↑ "Moving Body - Moving Image Festival".
  12. ↑ "What's on Saturday".
  13. ↑ "Gabri Christa shows her film 'One Day At A Time' at Harlem International Film Festival".
  14. ↑ "Voices, Video and Dance, Conversing on Emigration".
  15. ↑ "Landscape on Hold".
  16. ↑ "Review: Staten Island Ballet gets fresh at International Choreographers' Festival".
  17. ↑ "InfiniteBody".
  18. ↑ "7 Dance Performances to See in N.Y.C. This Weekend".
  19. ↑ "Woman Island".
  20. ↑ "Magdalena—TheaterLab, New York".
  21. ↑ "Meet Gabri Christa's "Magdalena" at Theaterlab".
  22. ↑ "Gabri Christa, "ANOTHER BUILDING dancing: Making Quarantine and Savoneta"".
  23. ↑ "Dance magic dance: A case study of AR/360 video and the Performing Arts".
  24. ↑ "A LIFE IN DANCE".
  25. ↑ "CULTURAL PROGRAMS".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.