I'll Keep Dancing Through it All
Artist Kristina Isabelle on Health, Healthcare and Public Health by Kimberly J. Soenen | March 2, 2025
Kristina Isabelle is a dance artist, choreographer, creative mentor, historic dance reconstructor and educator. She is the artistic director of Kristina Isabelle Dance company. Her Land Mass series engages with and animates natural environments with dancing bodies. She spent three years researching and reconstructing the work of modern dance master Sybil Shearer and developed a feature work called And The Spirit Moved Me. She has an MFA in Dance and Choreography from The Ohio State University and a BFA from The Juilliard School and has danced with Bebe Miller, Stephen Petronio, Jordan Fuchs, Walkabout Theater, Bob Eisen, Earth Circus and visual artist Claudia Hart among many others. She had mentored artists at Links Hall in Chicago through the Art of Rehearsal program and co-founded Michigan City Moves. She premiered Sand: A Migrating Performance in 4 Parts along the The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in 2019. Isabelle currently resides at Tryon Farm in Michigan City, Indiana. She is frequently commissioned by commercial clients, teaches and performs internationally. March 20-24, she will co-create in South Carolina at Emergence 2025 : Portals In Time.
(*Full disclosure: Kristina Isabelle is a longtime friend of The Editor and a collaborative, creative producer. We have worked on art projects, films, stilt and street performances together for more than a decade.)
(Kristina Isabelle. Photo by William Frederking for American Rhythm Center.)
Soenen: How do you define health?
Isabelle: I define health as being conscious and connected to the well-being of the self through the body, mind and soul / spirit. A holistic view of living and thriving in the world without illness would, I suppose, be good health. This allows for positive decisions and outcomes as it relates to the physical, emotional and mental states of being.
Soenen: What does the language of the body mean to you as a mover in modern day vis a vis all of the Public Health issues we are confronting in 2025?
Isabelle: Over the last ten years or so I have been thinking about movement in the body as a source of our inner truth. By being in tune, practicing moving and being present in that way with myself, I respond to music or environments or energies that allow me to process how I feel where I am stuck, and just being present in a moment and not judge.
Soenen: How does movement support the body and reinforce community?
Isabelle: I utilize the elements to find ways to connect emotions and responses. I try to bring people of all skills and backgrounds together to encourage them to move or express through the body in the world. They can do that however they wish. You don’t have to be trained at Hubbard, or Juilliard or have your master’s degree in dance. Dance is primal, tribal and expressive. Just feeling music and energy without words or analytical constructs is the aspect of dance that frees people but also captivates audiences. Everyone can dance. Everyone. We are not part of the environment, we are the environment.
Soenen: What is one word or theme in the context of health that you’d like to express through art this year?
Isabelle: Joy. A connection and the gift of moving together. Sharing space and time in movement, positive energy and rhythm.
Soenen: How is dance healthy for you, your community and healthy for audiences?
Isabelle: Dance as a practice is a way to release what is building up in the body, connect to breath and energy in the body, wake up the nervous system, engage endorphins and bring in joy and elated feelings. Then, when you do it often, you can find what feels good and groove and let go and find freedom and expression in the body. It is the one practice and art form that utilizes all senses at once and then some.
Sight: Dance is about watching what you are seeing in the bodies of others, in your own body and the space around you as inspiration for moving.
Touch: Feeling your body viscerally is key to dance. Touching the skin, the surface of the floor, a partner or feeling the heartbeat is all dance.
Sound: Music allows various musical genres to illicit exploration in rhythms, flows and actions.
Taste and Smell: The olfactory and taste are qualitative prompts that yield curious physical explorations and thought-provoking explorations through the body that engage memory and the body’s mind.
Soenen: How are you and other dancers you know navigating today’s volatile political climate?
Isabelle: Dance has always challenged audiences and pushed boundaries of interpretation and pushed conversations about the body. A dance maker today needs to be an entrepreneur as well as artist to make great work, to educate and to engage audiences in doing as well as watching. People watch it on their phones and screens but are they not going to the theater or out dancing in a club. This year that could change, or, I hope that will changes. I am going to start going out dancing again for sure!
Soenen: What do you see as the future of dance and more importantly, the need for dance, now:
Isabelle: My prediction is dance and all the arts are in the backlash now…funding will decrease over the next four years. It will be present in pop culture like videos, concerts, commercials, social media, etc. as people continue to be obsessed by imitation and being like everyone else. Long established companies will have to close as federal and state legislature pass through funding is cut even further.
(Photo by William Frederking for American Rhythm Center.)
Soenen: Are artists feeling defeated or hopeful now?
Isabelle: Artists will find a way. Dancers have to dance. And, people are obsessed with tricks and the fantastical body, and / or the body as superhero contortionists. That can conquer anything. I am always aspiring to try new feats and keep pushing the limits of my body and mind further…maybe there are no limits.
Soenen: Any closing thoughts on the current United States administration and how it will impact artists?
Isabelle: Everyone is swinging back so hard to the way things were and I think we will find it shouldn’t go back to the way things were, or, we won’t learn. Equality is on the way out. Privilege and excess will be on the rise. I’m scared, and yet I, too, will have to play in this new world order again. I will keep dancing through it all.
Soenen: If commissioned to choreograph a performance about health, healthcare or Public Health this year, what would the story or focus be?
Isabelle: A few concepts are front of mind for me now: The Evolution of the Female Body in Motion - A multimedia piece with stilts and images of the female form over time; Make Me Dance - An online daily dance stream where people learn about a song and see how it makes them move. Find your groove; and Exposure - How much do we expose ourselves? When, where, how, what? What are the layers of who we are as people? How does media affect our health?
I also want to get as many people up on stilts in the months and years ahead for massive demonstrations and performance art protests. (Follow @kaymoves on Instagram for news and updates.)
(Photo by William Frederking for American Rhythm Center.)
Soenen: What would you like to see change about the approach to, and model of, healthcare. in the United States of America?
Isabelle: I am not happy that I have to go to a nurse practitioner to then get told I need to go to a specialist. Being bounced around is frustrating. Often, medical professionals are just typing on a computer rather than talking to me or even touching my body to check my health. I would like to see Healthcare for All enacted. It should be a human right and should not be a capitalist business model. I also hate that I can’t walk into any hospital or clinic and get the healthcare services or medication I need because religious ideology is preventing my access and impacting my health and my body. I have a lot of fear for young women especially because of the impending national medical care acccess ban.
Soenen: What are you most hopeful about in 2025?
Isabelle: Another year is another opportunity to engage with my passions and people. I want to re-find community and chances to play and develop with creative folks. I hope that I will find my place, not that the world will be solved. I think a lot of people are going to have to come together to fight the current administration’s agenda.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Come and Dance Tall > Introductory Stilt Dance Workshop with Dancer and Choregrapher Kristina Isabelle
Experience the joy of and power of dancing on stilts at the Emergence Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, March 20-24
This two hour intermediate to advanced Stilt workshop focuses on developing the skills to push your stilt dance to the next level. Expanding the body and its alignment to explore new ways to integrate full body movement enhancing character development and dance possibilities. Particpants will play with grounding through the feet and legs with a focus on integrating the upper and lower body that can lead to new partnering techniques and moving in and out of the floor. This stilt experience will elevate your body and the story-telling potential for theatre performance, street performance or just plain fun with friends in your community.
Questions? Contact Kristina Isabelle at kisabelle1@gmail.com