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Christine Dakin

Christine Dakin joined the Martha Graham Dance Company 1976. She was a principal dancer, became artistic director in 2002, and is currently artistic director laureate. She is known for her performances of Graham’s roles and for the roles Graham created for her in Rite of Spring and Phaedra’s Dream. She was partnered by Rudolph Nureyev and had speaking and dancing roles created for her by Twyla Tharp, Robert Wilson and Martha Clarke.  Dakin has been honored with a Dance Magazine Award, a “Bessie”, and a Fellowship at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She received a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award and grants from Rockefeller US-Mexico Fund for Culture, the USIA, and CEC ArtsLink. Her film La Voz del Cuerpo / The Body Speaks was an official selection in 2014 of NewFilmakers New York, NYC Independent Film Festival, and Golden Door International Film Festival.

Dakin is Associate Founder and dancer for Buglisi Dance Theatre and teaches at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre.  She currently teaches Graham-based modern at The Ailey School and has twice served as a creative advisor for the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation New Directions Choreography Lab.  Further teaching experience includes a decade at The Juilliard School, lecturer at Harvard University, DanzFest (Italy), and guest teacher/performer throughout Mexico since1981.