Dance with Gina Shorten

Gina began her education in Flagstaff, Arizona in gymnastics, Jazz, Ballet, Modern, Tap, Graham, Yoga, Feldenkrais, Yoga and Tai Chi with Jayne Lee and Elizabeth Troxler while obtaining a fully waived Bachelors from Northern Arizona University where she worked as a Water Safety Instructor and taught dance and rock climbing locally. Gina studied at the Ailey School in NY for a season and completed an Associates in Dance from Coconino Community College. Gina performed and choreographed for several different professional companies in Arizona. As she evolved, Gina’s somatic inquisitiveness served as a foundation for her investigation into more adventurous dancing and she continued to study Release, West African, Pilates, and ​Capoeira inspired by her intensive work with Holly Johnston in Los Angeles. In 2010, she arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area and studied with Scott Wells, Augusta Moore, Kathleen Hermesdorf, Sara Shelton Mann, Lizz Roman, Kira Kirsch, and Bandaloop, performing professionally for Catch Me Bird Dance Theatre​, FloatingRib Dance Project, ​World Dance Fusion ​and later ​touring with the Carpetbag Brigade and Nemcatacoa Teatro from Bogota, Colombia where she lived and worked as an artist in residence in 2014 performing and instructing in Neiva, La Vega and Tunja. In 2015 she was part of a collaboration with Alariete and InARTE in Guadalajara, Mexico, leading to more touring and teaching opportunities throughout the city as well as in Nayarit, Tepic, Tapalpa, Chapala and Mexico City. Gina was invited to teach for Circo Globo in Albuquerque, NM and since 2016 has stayed working as a teaching artist, art model and performer notably working with Meow Wolf, AirDance, ABQ Circus Arts, Wise Fool, Tricklock, Institute of American Indian Arts, Albuquerque Dance Exchange, Bellas Artes, Festival Ballet Albuquerque and the University of New Mexico.