MISSION
SuarezDanceTheater is a Los Angeles-based not-for-profit ensemble that stimulates social change through dance-making and creative practices. By asking what is dance, where we dance, and why we dance, the company ignites conversations and illuminates collective unspoken stories to build community.
CORE VALUES
Social Change:
Offering both brave and vulnerable viewpoints in our performance work, we encourage critical, creative, and reflective thinking.
Co-Creation:
Co-creation is at the center of our creative process.
We honor each community’s unique history.
Inclusive Dance:
Creating opportunities for all bodies to connect, collaborate, and create with the belief that dance is expansive and takes many forms.
Deep Listening:
Prioritizing deep listening with community partners and collaborators in order to activate spaces and nurture trust.
HISTORY
Founded in 2003 by Christine Suarez, the company has produced seventeen evening-length dance-theater works, numerous site-specific and community events along with partnering with schools and community centers all over the U.S. We passionately foster new communities through the act of moving and collaborating where individuals can connect with their bodies, each other and find their own expressivity. The work happens in theaters, houses, classrooms, parks, churches, galleries, sidewalks, and beaches. SuarezDanceTheater collaborators include multi-generational performers, designers and musicians along with parents, children, veterans, health care workers and high school students. Our work has been presented in over 50 different theaters in 15 different cities.
Selected Credits Include:
P.S.122, Danspace Project, HERE, and Dixon Place in New York City; REDCAT at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and Highways Performance Space in Los Angeles, The Kanuti Theater in Tallinn, Estonia and the Schwartz Center at Emory University.
FOUNDER
Christine Suarez is a choreographer, performer, educator and activist. Born in Caracas, Venezuela and raised in Baton Rouge Louisiana, she founded Suarez Dance Theater in 2003. Her career as a dance-maker and dance educator is deeply rooted in creating community and healing. Her work has been seen in theaters, galleries, churches, synagogues, houses, sidewalks, parks, and beaches in over 20 cities -including P.S. 122 (New York), REDCAT (Los Angeles) and The Schwartz Theater (Atlanta). As a dance educator, she has partnered with public schools and community centers all over the United States. She holds an MFA in choreography from UCLA's World Arts and Cultures Department and a BA in Theater and English Literature from Emory University. Christine was awarded a Santa Monica Artist Fellowship in 2017 and named a “Cultural Trailblazer from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs in addition to receiving Artist in Residence grants from LA DCA. She is a co-creator of a Dance for Veterans - a program that builds creative expression, social cohesion and bodily authority at Greater Los Angeles VA Hospitals.
COLLABORATORS
Bernard Brown
Juana Farfan
Kai Hazelwood
Rebeca Hernandez
Ilaan Mazzini
Carol McDowell
Nguyen Nguyen
Alexx Shilling
Arushi Singh
Willy Souly
Skye Steele
Lori Teague
Shelby Williams-Gonzalez
BOARD
Tessa Blake (chair)
Carolina San Juan (vice chair)
Kai Hazelwood
David Petrarca
Mark Rizzo
Mike Stutz
Shelby Williams-Gonzalez
FUNDERS
The City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs
Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture
California Arts Council
City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
Center for Cultural Innovation
Flourish Foundation
Network Ensemble Theaters
– as well as many, loyal individual donors.
PRESS
“Ms. Suarez has had considerable theater experience… [it] shows in the savvy staging of the piece and in the way Ms. Suarez uses the stage space…”
Wet Spots
“ingeniously crafted…poignant…hilarious”
Mother.
“Likeable (Scored a standing ovation!)…playful…honest…heartfelt (Heart wrenchingly so – I CRIED, y’all.)…accessible…hip…”
— SantaCruz.com
“The multi-talented mater serio-comically enacted some of the labors and–sometimes unmentioned–responsibilities of post-Steinem 21st century motherhood.”
“Suarez says she struggles for perfection in balancing parenthood and artistry, which both play out in “MOTHER.” in a turbulent and comical self-portrait.”
— Good Times
Mother.Father.
“The choreography handles this subject with such honesty and openness...Christine Suarez has managed to focus on an important subject without being judgemental. She successfully keeps the movement out of the narrative while reflecting on the stories being told. Her choreography is abstract without being obtuse.”
— Seedance.com