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KRISTINA HAY is a Norwegian dance artist, educator, and community organizer based in Brooklyn, NY, and Oslo, Norway. Kristina creates, performs, and facilitates art in education and performance by drawing on her MA in International Relations from Queen Mary's University in London and her dance background. She wrote her MA thesis on the International community's ability to reach Sustainable Development Goal 5.3 by 2030 focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa.

 

In short, Kristina believes in the power of art to heal and transform communities. Further, she believes in collaboration between art and diplomacy, to foster connections and change. Part of this mission is by centering her dance education in marginalized communities in Brooklyn, NY. In recent years Kristina has co-creating non-profit "Common Place Studio Inc", she has also taught at Ascend Public Charter School and PS276 in Brownsville and Canarsie, Brooklyn. in 2022/2023 Kristina engaged with 420 children weekly. Kristina also hosts free community events for other artists at Common Place Studio Inc and more recently at Chez Bushwick to promote this mission and share art within her community. The latest sharing was April 1 2023 at Chez Bushwick and hosted four diverse artists.

 

Kristina has performed with ballet and modern dance companies across Norway, UK, and USA. This versatility comes from her background at the Ballet School at the Norwegian Opera and Ballet, she then went on to study modern dance at London Studio Centre, where she was awarded a double distinction and was chosen to do a UK national tour with INTOTO Dance Company with a triple bill by Jose Agudo, Henri Oguike and John Ross. Committed to honing her craft, she has attended masterclasses with such dance luminaries as Akram Khan, Joseph Toonga, Mark Morris Dance Group and Candoco Dance Company, to name a few. She has performed in a variety of projects ranging from a national tour with INTOTO Dance Company to Robert Kenney’s multi-media installation “ORIGINS”. She has performed for a variety of dance and visual artists, including Jessica Nina Barlow, Hilary Brown, Feeling Blue Collective, Meredith Bruno Company, to name a few.

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Currently, Kristina is set to do a series of performances for Sikora Dance in Spring of 2023. For the past years, Kristina has been collaborated and performed with the New York based dance company Same as Sister (S.A.S) as a collaborator and a performer. Their recent piece "This Is Not A Remount" was performed in Toronto, Canada in 2022 and was nominated for a Dora Moore Award for Outstanding Production (Dance Division) 2022. Another work, “Kallax”, was performed at several prominent venues, including Gibney Dance Theatre. Also, “The Exciting Event...” premiered at the iconic St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery - home to Danspace Project - as part of this year’s “Dancing Platform Praying Grounds: Blackness, Churches, and Downtown Dance” platform, curated by Reggie Wilson. The platform events were highly anticipated by the New York audiences as evidenced by publication in The New York Times (“22 Musicals, Plays, Concerts, Dances and Festivals You Can’t Miss This Spring”, “10 Dance Performances to See in NYC This Weekend”, “Take Me to Church and Let Me Dance”) and The New Yorker (“Goings On About Town – Dance”).

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As a choreographer, Kristina draws on her experience dancing in ballet and modern dance companies across Norway, UK and USA, Kristina’s independent choreography explores the relationships between the traditional and the contemporary. In general her works include experimentation, community engagement, a diverse representation of collaborators and narrative story-telling. Significantly, her piece “Fix” premiered as part of Design for Dance event at Central Saint Martins in London, UK. In recent years, Kristina performs her piece “You are Someone Else (Too)” in collaboration with Hilary Brown-Istrefi, Jessica Nina Barlow and Elisa Nader, at the Socrates Sculpture Park, Castle Rockaway and Judson Church. Currently she is performing "Park Prance", a duet with Jamie Robinson. 

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