Photo Credit: Lucy Parakhina
Kristina is a dancer, choreographer and teacher based on Biripi Country on the Mid North Coast NSW Australia, who has worked and toured throughout Australia, Canada, UK, USA, Asia, Israel and Europe.
Kristina attempts to make work that is is palpable and visceral, investigating impermanence, fragility and mortality in nature, humanity and our environment. She collaborates closely with artists that have interest in developing a shared language through sound, light and visual design, to create an otherworldly and timeless experience for both the performer/s and audience.
Kristina has made a number of choreographic works, including three major works with long-time collaborators James Brown (composer) and Clare Britton (designer).
Her first major solo work A Faint Existence was first presented by Performance Space’s 2016 Liveworks Festival of Experimental Art at Carriageworks Sydney. A Faint Existence delves into our microcosmic existence on a macrocosmic scale and how our existence en mass has had enormous impact as a geophysical force. This work returned to Sydney in May 2018 as part of the Sydney Opera House's inaugural series UnWrapped and had its Melbourne premiere at Dance Massive 2019.
Kristina was commissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre in 2018 to make MOUNTAIN. A work for three dancers, MOUNTAIN is set in a liminal space and is an embodiment of impermanence, transformation and existential threat.
Third major work Brightness, is a visual and aural kaleidoscope of emergence and transformation in the natural world, drawing attention to the micro-environments that support our existence. This work yet to make an offical premiere.
Other works include: Summer commissioned by Hong Kong's leading dance company City Contemporary Dance Company premiering in Hong Kong followed by an Australian tour to QPAC Brisbane and Darwin Entertainment Centre in 2018; In Real Life commissioned by Project Animo 2022 (Arts Centre Melbourne); Conform a commission by Sydney Dance Company (SDC) for New Breed season 2015 (Ludwigshafen Germany and Carriageworks Sydney); Grave a dance and video installation with film maker Neil Mansfield for the Lockup Gallery Newcastle through a residency at Catapult Choreographic Hub; Leaning into the Liminal a collaboration with visual artist Lottie Consalvo commissioned by Catapult Choreographic Hub; Shimmering Towards Silence commissioned by Catapult Choreographic Hub 2019; Pacific for SDC Pre-Professional Year 2016 (Carriageworks Sydney); and short works for Dance North Australia’s Communal Table (Brisbane Festival 2019); Expressions Dance Company/Opera Queensland for Mozart Airborne (QPAC 2017); Newcastle Art Gallery + Catapult Dance Crawling Through Mud for Japanese ceramics exhibit SODEISHA (2019); Chinese New Year Luna Festival (2016); Infinite for QL2 (2016).
As a dancer and collaborator, Kristina has worked with companies, independent choreographers: Kate Champion's Force Majeure, Garry Stewart's Australian Dance Theatre, Gideon Obarzanek's Chunky Move, Australian Ballet, Lucy Guerin Inc, Stephanie Lake, Deborah Hay, Lisa Wilson, Sydney Theatre Company, Legs On The Wall, Narelle Benjamin, Anton, Tanja Liedtke, Craig Bary, Victoria Chiu, Martin del Amo and Victoria Hunt.
Kristina has been awarded a Helpmann Award for her performance in Narelle Benjamin’s In Glass (2011) and two Australian Dance Awards for Tanja Liedtke’s Twelfth Floor (2006) and construct (2009). She was the recipient of the Ausdance Peggy van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship 2017 which saw her travel to Japan for choreographic research, and in 2020 she received the Regional Arts Fellowship where she developed skills leading community projects in Regional NSW.