Elena Vazintaris Dance Projects

Mission Statement:
Elena Vazintaris Dance Projects is dedicated to the dissemination of contemporary dance for stage and film. Deeply rooted in collaboration and interdisciplinary at its core, our aim is to explore the notion of human perception. With a blend of contemporary, classical and street aesthetics, ideas of life perceived through personal and universal experiences give a sense of structure to the creative process and culminate in emotionally charged choreography, visceral storytelling and provocative visuals.

Bio:

Elena Vazintaris is a Dancer, Choreographer and Director hailing from Toronto, Canada. She is classically trained in Cecchetti Ballet, Graham and Limon Techniques. After spending two years in the Fine Arts Dance Program at Toronto’s York University, Elena made her way to New York City. She has danced back up for artists such as Ludacris and Shakira and has been photographed by famed photographers Markus Klinko and Indrani for Nike’s Body By Dance Print Campaign. She has danced in Nike Retail Video Spots, Converse Shoe and Fuse Television commercials as well as the MTV Video Music Awards.

Elena’s original choreography has been seen in numerous music videos, short films and dance festivals. The TV on the Radio video project she choreographed and performed in, Me-I, won best music video at SXSW Film and Music Festival of 2008, best music video at BAM’S Animation Festival in the same year and has screened at many international film festivals. Other music video’s  and commercials include David’s Bridal, Mates of State “Get Better”, School of Seven Bells “Trance Figure”, Yip Deceiver’s “Get Strict”, which was featured on MTV Hive and VH1 and nominated for best music video at SXSW Film and Music Festival in 2012.

Spanning a decade, Elena’s choreographic work, that ranges from Hip-hop to Contemporary dance has been performed at festivals like Dance Ontario, Toronto’s Honey Jam, NYC’s Summer Stage, SONO Arts Festival, The Current Sessions: Volume III, Issue II, Triskelion’s Collabfest 2013, Gibney’s Show/Share 2014 and Movement Research Open Performance 2014.

Elena continues to delve deeper into dance for the camera directing short films Esperanza, Breanna: a study, and The anatomy of grief  (a work in progress exploring of the somatic responses to trauma (current and trans-generational) and the search of healing on an embodied level.