Regina Nejman

Dancer/ Teacher/ Choreographer /Artistic Director of Regina Nejman & Company

“A modern dance choreographer with a piquant imagination and visual sense to match.” Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times

“Postmodern tactics can benefit from an infusion of the color, pulse, and spirit Regina Nejman absorbed in her native Brazil.” Tobi Tobias, Village Voice

“Nejman demonstrates her ability to coordinate activity on intimate and large scales and shows a creative range–from exquisite to athletic, from quiet to raucous, from meditative to absurd.” Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Infinite Body

In my work, I create a physical reality on stage by interweaving vignettes that can shift unpredictably through a non-liner narrative, creating a distinct world where the visual and kinesthetic experiences are stimulated. I blend cultural influences from my Brazilian upbringing in Rio de Janeiro, and my life in NYC. I am interested in portraying life onstage by combining movement with comments on everyday concerns, from a woman’s perspective where comedy is interlaced with sensuous movement, and expressive gestures with quick movement changes. My creative process includes the transformation and manipulation of movement phrases as well as ideas that are projected into a physical form through experimentation. I am interested in creating original movement that has a sense of ease in its execution, but that is also athletic and precise. I often place my movement within a conceptual situation and that relationship creates a story in itself. I also use free association and juxtaposition of text and visuals. In the end, a distinct world is created onstage where its own physicality is what determines the narrative.

Teaching: My dance style has been described as “a dynamic angularity punctuated with relaxation that is original” (Performing Arts Insider) and “Pina Bausch style but minus angst and self-deprecation”(Curtain Up). My contemporary dance class fuses different dance vocabularies such as ballet, modern dance, Capoeira and Yoga creating a hybrid style that is kinetic, bold and athletic. The class starts with a thorough warm-up that isolates different parts of the body to increase mobility and range of movement in the torso, joints and spine, while focusing on detailed movement of legs and feet. Students get to experience different dynamics and the use of space, while traveling across the floor. This is followed by a quirky and athletic movement phrase from the repertoire. Students learn to move with boldness, focus, as well as attention to detail and musicality. My ballet class follows the line of teachers such as Cindy Green and Zvi Gotheiner with whom I have studied as a professional dancer in New York City, where I live. It is influenced by my studies on the Alexander Technique and Yoga with the approach that each body has its own physicality. I encourage students to work within a reasonable anatomical and organic, injury-free mentality. However, I encourage them to go beyond by taking chances. I am meticulous- which the technique requires, but flexible enough to understand a student’s own challenges with the form.