With fresh young faces popping up constantly, the local Bay Area dance community is a unique blend of seasoned and new perspectives. In Dance caught the new view from New York transplant, Christy Bolingbroke.
This arts-loving creative problem solver and administrator describes herself as an optimistic realist and dance Sherpa; friends describe her as perpetual motion and everybody’s cruise director.
What brought you to the Bay Area?
My current job at ODC Theater.
Where were you born?
Texas
How do you spend your time?
I love to host brunch and dinner parties. It’s another type of production and presentation – planning the menu, shopping for the ingredients, prepping four or five dishes and finishing them all simultaneously for ‘curtain-up.’ Since I don’t perform anymore, this is about as close it gets.
What’s your most unnerving SF moment?
It is uniquely San Franciscan to see naked joggers in the middle of the day. The first one did throw me for a loop. But it’s most unnerving when other pedestrians yell at me for jaywalking.
What’s your secret spot in town?
If I find a ‘secret’ spot, I’m keeping it to myself.
What’s your favorite food?
I like all food, but am especially excited to be in a city with good Mexican food again.
What events will we find you at this season?
West Wave Dance Festival; Deborah Slater and Julie Hebert’s Night Falls; Kristina Wong’s Cat Lady; Catherine Galasso’s Bring on the Lumière; inkboat’s Line Between; Dido and Aeneas with the Mark Morris Dance Group, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Stephanie Blythe; and the Trey McIntyre Project.
First dance memory?
The first piece I remember choreographing was called TURTLE Power. That’s right, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was 13 years old at the time and I still can’t believe my teacher let me set that piece on our dance company of 40 people.
Guilty pleasure?
There are times where I will go through commercial fiction like Janet Evanovich, Nora Roberts, Stuart Woods, and Robert Crais like they’re oxygen. And my mom still sends me People magazine every few weeks. I feel less guilty about that though since I don’t actually buy them.
Shortlist of who/what inspires you?
These artists are I had the great fortune to experience in some sort of performance, written, or spoken form – David Sedaris; Sarah Vowell; Kate Weare; Mark Morris; The Civilians; Joe Goode; Ohad Naharin; Mats Ek; Angelin Preljocaj; David Roussève; David Gere; David Dorfman; and Dan Froot.
Money’s no object, what’s the next place you might travel?
Australia…A few years ago, I made a personal commitment to visit one new country a year. Over the years, these have turned into fortuitous trips for business or joining friends abroad, but Down Under requires a bigger time and financial commitment than a quick 48-hour adventure in Barcelona.
What’s heaven to you?
Special occasions or anytime when family and friends from all different chapters of my life can be in the same city since we’re spread out from coast-to-coast.
Prior to joining ODC, Christy Bolingbroke was the Director of Marketing for the Mark Morris Dance Group with a focus on institutional visibility for the Dance Center in Brooklyn and for the Dance Group worldwide, driving school enrollment, increasing ticket sales in tour markets, and activating Access/MMDG outreach and engagement events. She is a former Board President of the Dance Resource Center of Greater Los Angeles and a founding member of Emerging Leaders for New York Arts. Christy carries a BA in Dance from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is a graduate of the DeVos Institute for Arts Management Fellowship program at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.
This article appeared in the September 2011 issue of In Dance.
