Alexandra Damiani

Alexandra Damiani is a choreographer and artistic director based in New York. Originally from France, she combines the sophistication and attention to detail of her early classical training with the edginess of contemporary dance. During this past year, her work has been seen presented at the Joyce Theater (NY), the Schimmel Theater (NY) and the Modlin Center for the Arts (VA), and has been featured on a national TV commercial for Colgate, directed by Erez Sabag. Damiani was most recently the artistic director of Cedar Lake contemporary, which has been described by the New York Times as "possibly the country's most innovative contemporary ballet troupe with an A-list repertoire, and an accent on creation that few companies worldwide can match." During her decade-long tenure as ballet master and artistic director, Damiani worked closely with world renowned choreographers such as Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Stijn Celis, Alexander Ekman, Andonis Fionadakis, Jacopo Godani, Jill Johnson, Ohad Naharin, Crystal Pite, Hofesh Schecter, Richard Siegal, Jo Stromgren, Regina Van Berkel and Didy Veldman. In 2015, she created a dance installation on the themes of ritual and intimacy; it was performed by dancers of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet to a sold out audience in the company’s warehouse space (NY). Damiani has brought her expertise to the cinema, portraying the role of a Ballet Mistress along Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010). She was also a consultant to Benoit Swan Pouffer on his choreography for the film, Adjustment Bureau, directed by George Nolfi and starring Emily Blunt (2010).

As a young dancer, Damiani won First Place at the International Dance Competition in Bordeaux and then Marseille, prompting her to move to New York to study at The Alvin Ailey School in 1995. During her fifteen-year-career, she performed as a soloist with Donald Byrd/The Group, Complexions, Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, Rubberbandancegroup, and others. She performed extensively in North America, Europe and Asia. Combining her rich dance background with an enthusiasm for directing dancers and a flexibility with varying philosophies of movement, Damiani is frequently invited to conduct master classes in the U.S. and around the world with such dance institutions as the Juilliard School, Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, and Ballet Junior of Geneva, Switzerland. She is also an adjunct professor at Pace Commercial Dance program (NY). Damiani is now the Artistic Director of New York City Winter Intensive, held at The Juilliard School and produced by New York City Dance Alliance Foundation. It is a highly selective program that offers dancers from the convention world an insight into the works of international choreographers who are shaping the contemporary dance world. Damiani is also a teacher of ancient, sacred forms of qigong, taiji (classical Yang long form) and tai yin Jade Maiden, under the guidance of Sat Chuen Hon, master of the Dragon Gate Lineage.