Gabri’s mission is to transform the understanding of humanity through the arts.
Born and raised in the Caribbean island nation of Curaçao, Gabri is a member of a crossroads culture, and her work expresses the politics and poetics of interchanging races, rhythms, and histories.
Multi-disciplinary and wide-ranging in form, Gabri’s art-making spans film, choreography, performance, curation, writing, and more.
Her subject matter helps determine her approach. When the eloquence and expressive power of dance started to feel limited, she turned to film. Now when she choreographs, she finds herself looking through a more dramaturgical lens. Writing, research and taking part as performer can all influence the medium or direction of a work.
Photo by Carrie Mae Weems.
“one of the most powerful aspects of Gabri’s work is her ability to reveal how global forces animate the seemingly personal stirrings of the body and soul.”
— Paul Scolieri, Professor, Barnard College
GABRI’S WORK EXPLORES race, PLACE, and identity.
One of the prevalent themes in Gabri’s work is the negotiation of personal memory against and alongside historical record and material artifact.
Her work is firmly rooted in a post-colonial discourse. She aims to make those who are unseen more visible and to inspire change in hearts and minds by pointing to our shared humanity.
Magdalena
Another Building
“She transforms the theater and transports you […] she directs without seeming to lift a finger.”
— Jennifer Dunning on Gabri’s evening-length dance Dominata (2004), The New York Times
SHE SUPPORTS work by other established and aspiring artists.
ARTISTIC DIRECTION
Gabri has established a role as artistic director of performance, as well as director of films. She directed Fire + Fire, a musical performance by 10 African American musicians and 10 Gypsy musicians, and performances by Burnt Sugar/DANZ, a blend of spontaneously composed music and choreography that has been presented in venues as diverse as The United Nations, Lincoln Center, and Central Park’s Summer Stage.
Curation
Gabri started curating in her neighborhood on Staten Island with a series of Living Room Salons. She also served as Artistic Director and Curator of Snug Harbor Cultural Center, where she developed and curated the performance series PASS (Performing Arts Salon Saturdays), and initiated Youth Matters, a performing arts series for young audiences. Gabri also founded and curates a Festival of the Moving Body on Screen: called Moving Body-Moving Image.
Teaching and Mentoring
Currently an Associate Professor of Professional Practice at Barnard College of Columbia University’s Dance Department, Gabri teaches courses in ScreenDance, Modern Dance, Composition, Yoga and a seminar in Dance in Film. She has published research on dance and film in several journals, including a piece about the making of her another building film series in The Scholar & Feminist Online, published by the Barnard Center for Research on Women. Her essay on Afro-Curaçaoan dance is included in the influential book, Caribbean Dance: from Abakuá to Zouk, edited by Susanna Sloat.
Collaborative choreography and an interdisciplinary approach defined Gabri’s early years as a performer.
Gabri’s career took off in Cuba in 1988 as a performer and choreographer for the renowned Danza Contemporanea de Cuba. She then became a founding member of DanzAbierta, the experimental performance collective noted for developing danza contaminada (polluted dance), an interdisciplinary approach to composition that integrates movement, visual art, and music.
As she danced in DanzAbierta’s social and political pieces about the culture and state of the country, Gabri continued sharing her own perspective of the world around her, choreographing works to great critical acclaim.
In 1993, Gabri moved to New York and joined the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, dancing roles in the group’s eclectic repertory, including the controversial Still/Here, of which she was an original cast member.
All the while, she kept choreographing. In 1999, she left Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane to focus her energy on making works for her own company, Danzaisa, which performed in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America, and for which she won a Guggenheim Fellowship for Choreography.
In 2002, she began to explore dance for camera, which quickly led to a string of award-winning film projects.
The short films Gabri has produced and directed have been selected as jury finalists in international film festivals, and screened in museums and galleries worldwide.
gabri is a firm believer of the role the Arts and Artists can play in advancing our Global Society.
Gabri is an active advocate for the arts. She served eight years on the board for Dance Theater Workshop (now New York Live Arts) and now holds a position on the Advisory Board of Dance/NYC. In 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed her to a three-year term on the Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission of the City of New York, where she provided feedback on the Cultural Plan for the City of New York and other initiatives. She was Director of Performing Arts for the Consulate General of the Netherlands in 2010-2014.
In all her work — film, dance, performance, education, writing, advocacy, and curation — Gabri explores ideas through personal and historic moments. How can we communicate better? How can we learn from each other? How can we listen?
Ultimately, she hopes to contribute to a discussion about the environment, race, aging, disability, economic inequality, immigration, and much more through her artistic pursuits.
JOURNAL
