KHALA BRANNIGAN
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work as an artist consists of stories related to human resilience. Growing up in New Mexico, I was stunned by the desert landscapes, big blue skies, and the gracious mountains. It’s as if the earth could speak a language louder than words, yet the culture that surrounded me was harrowing. Those contrasting worlds have inspired me to create movement that connects the earth’s death and rebirth cycles to the human experience. I create dystopian, ethereal worlds through dance performance, films, installations, writing, collaboration with other mediums, and teaching. I am fascinated by the things we can feel but cannot see or explain, so the human body is the most complex and exciting medium for me to work with. After years of training in classical forms of dance, primarily ballet, my work is highly technical and athletic, yet I also investigate psychosomatic theories and improvisational techniques. My process consists of retrieving the parts of self that may have been lost due to oppression, cultivating a space to rebel against any myths of ‘normal.’ As a female identifying artist, I curiously tease out the deep connections our bodies have to the earth, and how our feminine instincts can sense our current environmental crises. Both tender and punk rock, my goal as an artist is to access and express the innate wisdom that lies within the body.
BIO
Khala Brannigan is a choreographer, filmmaker and educator based in New York City. Brannigan has created over 15 original dance based works for the stage, film, and multimedia productions. Since relocating to New York City from the Bay Area in 2019, she participated in a choreographic fellowship with Sidra Bell Dance New York, and presented work at Peridance, Three’s Brewing, Arts on Site, and in September 2021, an evening length work at The Woods. Most recently, she was commissioned to create an original for Robert Moses’ Kin 29th home season. In fall 2023, she presented work at Dual Rivet’s ‘Made By Women’ Festival. Her short dance film titled ‘Amor Fati’ in collaboration with film director Katherine Huggard was officially released in July 2024. She also received a Somatic Trauma Therapy Certificate from Embody Lab in February 2024, and teaches yoga at YO-BK and Yoga Space in Brooklyn, NY. Brannigan is currently working towards an evening length multimedia production titled ‘Blood & Innocence’ and will be performing a solo excerpt of the work as apart of Hartford’s Summer Performance Festival in August 2024.
Brannigan grew up in Santa Fe, NM, and attended Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet Training Program 2011-2013 in San Francisco, CA on scholarship after which she was selected as a resident choreographer with SAFEHouse Arts for the next six years. Throughout her time in San Francisco, Brannigan received awards from Zellerbach Family Foundation, Dancer’s Group CA$H Grant, and presented works at ODC Theater, Joe Goode Annex, and Z Space. Her work has been presented in multiple festivals including SF Dance Film Festival and Summer Performance Festival. She was also a company member with Robert Moses’ Kin from 2017-2019.
“…Khala Brannigan, tall with spectacular arms, made me rethink strength and power. In whatever partnership - men or women - Brannigan aimed to be in charge.”
- Rita Felciano (2019) in Robert Moses’ Kin’s The Exceptionally Elderly Overweight Black Man Phoenix
CHOREOGRAPHIC REEL
