lisa nevada (b. New México, Chicana, Nuevomexicana)

lisa’s choreographies, performance, and teaching are an homage to the generosity & wisdom of our earth mother. Dedicating her life to dance, lisa has created land-based choreographies and teaching methodologies on the Mesas, in the Bosque, within the Mountains, and amidst the Volcanoes in her homelands of New México where she spent most of her life. lisa landed in Brooklyn in 2019 where she thrives as a dance and teaching artist. In Lenapehoking (NYC) and beyond, she facilitates movement experiences and performs dances that engage people in the observation of ecosystems and our human interactions to ignite kinship with mama earth, centered on gratitude. She has devised and instructed for the land, the concert stage and numerous “non-traditional” venues in New México, New York, Montréal, Vermont, South Dakota, Colorado, Montaña, and Kansas. She choreographs for experimental theatre & musicals and is continuously mining her personal creations and offerings.

Community and community-building is essential to lisa. Teaching dance classes with folks of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds nourishes these community relationships, reminding her of the positive impact human beings may have on one another and the land. lisa is fortunate to teach with The Taylor School of The Paul Taylor Dance Foundation under Carolyn Adams and is a participant of MAQAHATINE, a Montréal-based gathering space for First Nations and Indigenous artists instigated by Ivanie Aubin-Malo. She is a member of Radical Evolution’s Street Theatre Crew and has recently worked with artists such as Tanya Lukin Linklater, Ivanie Aubin-Malo, Cami’ Leonard, Tyler Rai, Rishauna Zumberg, Benjamin Viertel, and Jana Natya Manch (Janam). 

lisa is the Projects and Partnerships Coordinator and an Ensemble member with Dancing Legacy. Founded by sisters Carolyn Adams and Julie Adams Strandberg, Dancing Legacy is a performing and teaching organization committed to enabling individuals to appreciate and participate in the rich dance heritage of the United States. 

She received her MFA in Dance from the University of New Mexico with concentrations in land-based choreography and performance, embodied dance history, and teaching. In 2015 SHIFT | DANCE was founded and launched by Jacqueline García, Kelsey Paschich, and lisa nevada. The trio also instigated SHIFT DANCE | FESTIVAL, one of the only annual dance festivals in Albuquerque, NM to present contemporary, research-based, and experimental dance forms from artists across the nation.

As an independent artist, lisa has performed the choreography of Kristy Janvier, Jacqueline M. García, Kelsey Paschich, Erika Pujič, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Donna Jewell, Rishauna Zumberg, Danny Grossman, David Parsons, Robert Battle, Donald McKayle, Jose Limón, Martha Graham, Anna Sokolow, Bill Evans, Vladimir Conde Reche, Jessica Miller-Tomlinson, among others. From 2006-2017 lisa was a core member of Ecotone Physical Theatre, a performance ensemble with a mission to mine the veins of improvisation: sonic, kinesthetic, textual, visual.