ciao bella arts
Ciao Bella Arts houses the creative collaborations of Crystal Bella, which currently include dance, writing, and film projects. The philosophy and studio processes embody experiential states, authentic choice making and occasional mind-fucks.
Crystal Bella - artistic director
Crystal Bella grew up dancing in Palm Bay, Florida at many local studios as well as Southern Ballet and Central Florida Ballet. She finished high school at the dance program at USF in Tampa. She relocated to Chicago to train at Lou Conte/Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. After a brief stint of travel to programs in Amsterdam, Brussels, and London, she landed in New York in the summer of 2005. Crystal’s work has been presented at Around the Coyote Festival in Chicago, Dixon Place, and various works in progress showings in NYC. From 2007-2008 she organized an improvisation group with jazz musicians, Ciao Bella Music & Dance, performing local showings. After a long break from making work, Crystal re-established Ciao Bella Arts in 2014 to house existing collaborations with musicians, as well as her writing hobby and upcoming film project.
Hannah Labonte - Collaborator on truth unspoken
A native Brooklynite, Hannah LaBonte began her formal training with the Dancewave School in Park Slope and their preprofessional company. She went on to study at Skidmore College before she transferred to Eugene Lang, where she is continuing her undergraduate work. Through these institutions Hannah has had the joy and privilege of performing works by David Dorfman, Paul Taylor, Urban Bush Women, Gallim Dance, and Brian Brooks, among many others. Hannah currently dances with The Little Streams, Dante Brown/Warehouse Dance, Catie Cuan Dance, and Crystal Bella.
Rebecca Lubart - collaborator on Last Time We met
Rebecca Lubart graduated with a B.A. in Dance and Theatre cum laude from George Washington University where she was awarded a Presidential Arts Scholarship in Dance and a Luther Rice Collaborative Fellowship for her project Artistic Collaboration in the 21st Century. In New York City she has had the pleasure of performing in the works of Alexandra Beller/Dances, Sarah Rosner/AOMC, Nancy Bannon, Julie Bordanero, Carmen Caceres, Mark Dendy Projects, David Dorfman Dance, Marcos Duran, Meredith Glisson, Jessica Herring, David Hurwith, Vanessa Justice Dance, HyunJung Kim, Ana Isabel Keilson, Scott Lyons and Company, Juliette Mapp, Project:Smith, Teri and Oliver Steele, Tough Cookie Dance, and Devika Wickremesinghe, and is a member of Performance Improvisation Experiment directed by Talli Jackson. Her own work has been presented by Danspace Project Out of Space at BRIC Studio, AUNTS, MR Open Perform, DNA Works In Progress, WaxWorks, and Women in Motion. She is also the founder of Dynamic Body Pilates www.dynamicbodypilates.com.
jenna riegel - collaborator on truth unspoken
Jenna Riegel, a native of Fairfield, Iowa, has been a New York-based dancer, performer and teacher since 2007. Jenna holds an M.F.A. in Dance Performance from the University of Iowa and a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Maharishi University of Management. Since moving to New York City, Jenna has had the honor of performing with Daara Dance (choreographer Michel Kouakou), Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company, Tania Isaac Dance and johannes weiland. Jenna also toured and performed nationally and internationally as a company member of David Dorfman Dance, Alexandra Beller/ Dances and Bill Young/ Colleen Thomas & Company. Most recently, she has joined Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Jenna has performed in New York City venues such as Brooklyn Academy of Music, Danspace at St. Marks Church, Dance Theater Workshop, Aaron Davis Hall, Joyce SoHo, Dance New Amsterdam, Movement Research, Henry Street Settlement/Abrons Arts Center, John Ryan Theater, Symphony Space, The Duo Theater and The Joyce. Jenna has taught Master Classes in Modern Technique in New York at Dance New Amsterdam, The Joffrey Ballet School, Gina Gibney Dance Center and 100 Grand Dance. In addition, she has taught classes at The Juilliard School, Arizona State University, Bard College, Brigham-Young University, Connecticut College, University of Maryland, Barnard College, University of Nebraska- Lincoln, Utah Valley University, SUNY Purchase and the University of Iowa and at festivals around the world such as the Bates Dance Festival, New York University’s Tisch Summer Dance Festival, the Open Look Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Annual Dance Conference and Performance Festival in Bytom, Poland and the Dance Isadora Festival in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. Jenna is also a certified Stott Pilates instructor and has been teaching pilates for over 10 years.
Tom Shad - musician/composer
Tom Shad studied composition with Meyer Kupferman at Sarah Lawrence College . Although he read through harmony books and studied a semester of arranging at Berklee , Mr Shad is mostly self taught . He has composed music for dancer/choreographer Molly Rabinowitz, plays by Yvonne Delet as well as music for short films and games. Mr Shad has recently composed music for dancer/choreographer Crystal Bella hopefully premiering this spring .