About

Artist Statement

Christina Lindhout’s work has developed as a response to the traditional expectations of her classical ballet training, the artform’s culture, and its aesthetic. Her personal movement style focuses, in part, on a subversion of classical ballet in combination with contemporary ballet and modern dance, showcasing organic steps that originate from the core of the body and resonate outward. Influences on her personal movement quality and choreography include Martha Graham, Twyla Tharp, Kyle Abraham, Juliano Nunes, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Antonio Brown, and Tommie-Waheed Evans.

Throughout her professional dance and performance career, Lindhout has taken on a multitude of roles that brazenly go against the grain of what traditional ballet culture would allow, utilizing those experiences to inform her own development as an artist.

Choreographically, Lindhout’s focus is on creating ballet-based contemporary movement to spark conversations surrounding real-life issues such as climate change, wealth disparity, inequality, gender norms, and female empowerment. Collaboration is fundamental to her practice, emphasizing the importance of dismantling the insular natures of different art forms.

Most recently, Lindhout has explored how to subvert the traditional “story ballet” vehicle of dance in addition to the movement itself. Historically, the fairytale plotlines of story ballets just “happen to” thin, heterosexual, cis-gendered, white women who are waiting for a thin, heterosexual, cis-gendered, white man to intervene. Lindhout is interested in how to alter the art form to create 21^st-century story ballets that are meaningful, relevant, realistic, and representative of all genders, races, and body types while communicating the importance of intersectional ideas to a general audience. Lindhout’s work focuses on using the outward beauty of dance to uncover ugly, oftentimes painful truths about the culture that surrounds ballet, and how it frequently mirrors ills in our society. Her goal is to inspire healing and unity within and outside of dance culture, while showcasing ballet and contemporary dance as a powerful and relevant vehicle for change. 

Biography

Christina Lindhout is a professional dancer and choreographer based in Cleveland, Ohio, and has over 20 years of training in classical ballet, modern, jazz, and tap. She has danced professionally since she was 18 years old, and has performed many principal roles both locally and internationally. Christina performed as a Company Member with Verb Ballets from 2014 to 2020, joining the company on several tours including to Taipei, Taiwan and Havana, Cuba. In addition to performing and choreographing, Christina serves as the School Director at Verb Ballets Center for Dance, as well as teaches the amazing dance and theatre students at Baldwin Wallace University as an Adjunct Dance Faculty member.

Most recently, Christina premiered her first full-length choreographic work, FEAST, for which she and the creative team were awarded a Satellite Fund grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation through SPACES gallery, as well as an Akron Soul Train Fellowship award.