PERIDANCE FACULTY
Guest / Past
Alexandra Damiani
Ballet
BIOGRAPHY
Damiani is a French born choreographer, artistic director and movement specialist based in New York City. Her movement vocabulary combines the sophistication of her early classical ballet training in Paris with the edginess and experimentation of contemporary dance that she developed during her professional career as soloist with Complexions, Donald Byrd/The Group and Ballet Jazz of Montreal, among others. Her choreographic work has been presented in New York, NY Richmond, VA and Pittsburgh, PA to critical acclaims. Her most recent creation Portrait de Femmes was received by Steve Stucato from Pittsburgh City Paper as “one of this dance season’s very best dance works." She also brought her expertise to numerous commercials and film projects including Colgate (2016), Warby Parker (2016), Darren Aronofsky's award -winning Black Swan (2010), as well as George Nolfi's Adjustment Bureau (2010).
Damiani was the artistic director of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, which was described in The New York Times as “possibly the country’s most innovative contemporary ballet troupe. ” During her decade-long tenure with the company (2005-2015), Damiani worked alongside and curated works by the most sought after contemporary dance choreographers in the world such as Ohad naharin, Crystal Pite, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Alexander Ekman, Didy Veldman, Richard Siegal and Jo Stromgren.
Damiani is the artistic director of New York City Winter Intensive, held at The Juilliard School and produced by New York City Dance Alliance Foundation. It is a highly selective program that offers the young dancers an insight into the works of international choreographers who are today shaping the contemporary dance scene. Damiani is frequently invited to conduct master classes in the U.S. and around the world with such dance institutions as The Juilliard School, Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, Marymount Manhattan College and Ballet Junior of Geneva, Switzerland. She is also adjunct professor at Pace University, New York.
Among other artistic projects, Damiani will be working with Chicago- based Hubbard Street Dance Company in the Fall 2017 on a full evening show with Crystal Pite and will be the creative director/choreographer of Rite of Passage, a short dance film in collaboration with Casey Brooks.
For the past ten years, Damiani has been studying and teaching the ancient sacred movements of qigong and Taiji (Classical Yang long form) under the guidance of Sat Chuen Hon.
CLASS DESCRIPTION
Coming soon!