M.F.A - educator -researcher - choreographer - performer
Gabriel Mata Movement
pronounced: gah-bryehl mah-tah
Gabriel Mata M.F.A
(pronounced: gah-bryehl mah-tah)
is a Mexican American movement artist, choreographer, and educator based in Washington DC.
Through Mata’s seven-year research of cultivating "motion memoirs" he accesses histories of the moving body living in colored skin, queerness, and intersectionality. He taps into distant memory and uses voice to work create performances and conversation while also removing hierarchical concert dance standards and expectations. Motion memoirs are humanistic, are guided by an egalitarian approach, and are a resourceful blueprint for artists.
Mata’s dance works have been performed in California, New York, Minnesota, North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Washington DC, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Additionally, his work has been presented at Stanford University, San José State University, Georgian Court University, Howard Community College, and American University. His dances have been commissioned by David Herrera Performance Company, the Queer Mvmnt Festival, Dance Loft on 14, sjDANCEco, Charlotte Dance Festival, the Minnesota Fringe Festival, the Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers, Silicon Valley Pride, the Hispanic National Bar Association, the Charlotte Dance Festival, and Manuel Cuellar/Corazón Folklórico DC.
Mata was awarded the Washington Award by S&R Evermay and nominated for the Sol Azteca Award for his dance artistry in the DC metropolitan area. Additionally, he has been awarded the Amplify Grant, DC Commission for the Arts and Humanities Fellowship Grant, DCCAH Performance, Events, and Festival Grant, the Social Justice Artist Commission at Dance Loft on 14th, the Atlas CPA Arts Lab Recipient, and the Kennedy Center REACH Campus Office Hours Residency.