Krista (she/her) is an interdisciplinary performance artist, trauma informed somatic guide, art doula, critical thinker, and creative-events/new genre public art facilitator. Through her audio/sound work, poetry/spoken word, dance/movement, and improvisational Fluxus-inspired events, Krista explores ethical engagement, leadership, and social dynamics; trauma resilience and the recovery of joy. Her work includes somatic and movement inquiry; contemplative performance-based engagement in relation to place, public and community; and social actions grounded in healing and wellness. Krista is co-founder of Rain Soul Studio a bespoke wellness studio located in Billings, Montana, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Apsáalooke and Tsetsêhesêstâhase/So'taahe people. Krista is a certified embodiment coach, creative mindset mentor, comprehensive yoga nidra guide, and an Honors Scholar with a BFA in History from Montana State University–Billings. She also holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from Goddard College and is slowly writing a memoir and wellness manual based on creative interventions for resiliency.
Much of Krista's creative inquiry stems from a curiosity nested in movement ontology - a philosophical pondering upon movement patterning.
Listen to the Storyteller
I find the economy of my movement, no matter how large or small, infers subtext, and communicates a choreography of language and memories. This physical dialogue is both tacit and mercurial; and I am compelled to distill the narratives, notes, and soliloquies into fluid and halted memoirs layered amid audio/sound work, poetry/spoken word, dance/movement and improvisational ekphrastic-inspired events. This is a rich foundation for creative inquiry and physical storytelling; one that unfurls movement signatures and secret authors to explore ethical engagement, leadership, and social dynamics, trauma resilience and the recovery of joy.
The late Ron Kurtz suggests that we “listen to the storyteller, not the story.” This quote offered in a recent training for embodiment coaching, circles my thoughts frequently. I have creatively studied gestural patterns for over a decade both as an artistic practice and somatic wellness research. In recent years, I have become enchanted with my own gestural vocabulary and the ways my bodymind imprints various experiences (both present and past), observing the ways I non-verbally translate them into a performative response/release in my daily life. As this inquiry developed further, I unearthed root systems connected to how I observed family members as a child, and the way I have grown attuned to “listen” to gestures and breath sometimes more than I do the words someone speaks. As a performance artist, I gravitate toward building immersive unspoken stories with others through improvised labs and investigating the way different gestures, breath, and sounds create emotional tones … narrative. These performative research labs often evolve to include other mediums, and I find this ekphrastic process, of continually translating and transcribing, a potent way to observe the nuance and complexity of communication.
As an interdisciplinary artist working with somatically informed performative inquiries, cultural/environmental humanities, and movement ontology Krista's research weds an extensive technical training with poetic gestural patterning, which she integrates into her role as an creator and facilitator. Producing performative work yearly since 2010, Krista collaborates with artists and organizations of varying mediums to present creative events and theatrically staged performances and installations. Her collaborative methods integrate devised theater and ekphrastic creative processes. As co-director of HaltForce Art Collective (2016-2020), Krista facilitated and produced performance driven artist residencies and education opportunities in Eastern Montana.
Krista's creative versatility blends her background as a dance artist with performance art, sound art, and theater into physical narratives. Her work as a workshop facilitator and art doula for other artists draws from an interdisciplinary approach that focuses on trauma informed somatic intervention and mindfulness practices using movement, sound, imagery, journaling, and meditative techniques as an invitation for personal wellness development and imaginative inquiry.
You can learn more about Krista's work here and at HaltForce Art Collective.
Krista's creative versatility blends her background as a dance artist with performance art, sound art, and theater into physical narratives. Her work as a workshop facilitator and art doula for other artists draws from an interdisciplinary approach that focuses on trauma informed somatic intervention and mindfulness practices using movement, sound, imagery, journaling, and meditative techniques as an invitation for personal wellness development and imaginative inquiry.
You can learn more about Krista's work here and at HaltForce Art Collective.
