September Featured Reader
Kristina Koutsoudas
Kristina Koutsoudas is a gifted choreographer, performer, and teacher of contemporary and traditional folkloric dances of the Middle East/North Africa who seeks to redefine the contexts of traditional dance and myth. She has been awarded multiple grants to continue her work in dance and was awarded her second grand for literature from the Houston Arts Alliance for “Inara and the World Tree: An Anthology of Tales,” a collection of short stories based on ancient Mesopotamian myths. Presenting annually at the Arts & Society conferences and CID-UNESCO assemblies in Europe, Kristina was voted by Houston Press as one of the "100 Creatives of Houston" for choreography with a list of “firsts” to her name. She is: first to teach Middle Eastern dance as a credited course at a university in Texas (Rice University, receiving the Frank W. Bearden Award for Teaching Excellence), first to teach Middle Eastern Dance at a center for psychology (the Jung Center of Houston), first in the US to develop arts-in-education programs on the Middle East (Young Audiences of Houston), and one of the first to develop/perform a narrative Middle Eastern dance form. Kristina has performed and taught in countless spaces, both nationally and internationally, in traditional and nontraditional dance.
Currently, Kristina teaches online dance classes and workshops, writes dance history, teaches an online class in goddess based cultures of the East/women’s sacred/secular history in the East, participates in international conferences on ancient/contemporary dance, and is extensively engaged in research for future narrative & cultural dance programs. She is a lifelong student of indigenous ritual and women’s dances and hatha yoga. She loves cooking, baking, and giving parties. She enjoys playing with her cats Ruh and Nour. To learn more about Kristina, please visit www.divinedances.com.
Currently, Kristina teaches online dance classes and workshops, writes dance history, teaches an online class in goddess based cultures of the East/women’s sacred/secular history in the East, participates in international conferences on ancient/contemporary dance, and is extensively engaged in research for future narrative & cultural dance programs. She is a lifelong student of indigenous ritual and women’s dances and hatha yoga. She loves cooking, baking, and giving parties. She enjoys playing with her cats Ruh and Nour. To learn more about Kristina, please visit www.divinedances.com.