ARTIST'S STATEMENT
Dina's writing is a reflection of felt experience, an exploration of the external world and inner landscapes. Her training in classical ballet and contemporary movement has shaped her to see dance as a way of thinking with the body and writing as a medium to organize words, to "think on the page". She seeks to tap into the flow of feelings and intuition which filter from the corporeal to the written word and back again. This interplay between the physical and literary informed Dina's first book, A Dancer's Diary: Around the World in Thirteen Dances, (2017) which combined travel, memoir and dance essays from her adventures and dance experiences around the globe.
Dina loves solitude, hiking, travel, identifying the birds in the Pacific Northwest forests, and watching the clouds shift over the Olympic Mountains near her home. She is always getting ready to dance or to write.
BIO
After earning her B.F.A. in dance from The Juilliard School, Dina performed Off-Broadway and in the downtown New York contemporary dance scene for five years. Upon graduating with an M.F.A. from Arizona State University, Dina pursued a teaching career, serving on the dance faculties of University of Oklahoma, Kansas State University, Stephens College and Oakland University and later taught at community centers, public school residencies, and in detention centers. In 1997, she received a GIRAFFE Award, for her arts programming work with at-risk youth in Seattle. Her career has encompassed dancing, teaching, choreographing, dance writing and serving as artistic director and co-founder of LEAVING GROUND/DANCE, which performed throughout the U. S. and Canada. Since 2001, she has served on the faculty of Pacific Northwest Ballet School. Dina published her first book, A Dancer's Diary: Around the World in Thirteen Dances in 2017. In fall 2019, she traveled to southeast Finland for an international artist's retreat, where she began work on a memoir about her family.