A southeastern Kentucky native, Kristina Fluty is a Chicago-based movement artist/educator/consultant who has been dancing and teaching all around the city since 2002. She has served as Intimacy Director/Choreographer/Consultant at Porchlight Music Theatre (Spring Awakening), Marriott Theatre (Sound of Music), Raven Theatre (Private Lives), Victory Gardens (Mies Julie and Indecent), Remy Bumppo (Frankenstein and Top Girls), TimeLine Theatre (Cardboard Piano), Center Theatre Group (Los Angeles remount of Linda Vista) and Steppenwolf (The Children). At The Theatre School, she has provided choreography, movement coaching, and/or intimacy choreography for numerous productions. She has also directed devised works for Introduction to Performance, Studio Productions, and Go, Dog. Go! for Chicago Playworks for Families and Young Audiences at The Merle Reskin Theater.
Kristina's primary creative/performance home has been Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak since 2003, and she is also happy to present her own work at Links Hall, Hamlin Park, Epiphany Church, Stage 773, and many festivals and collaborations with other choreographers. She has also collaborated with Robert Welcher in Contact Improvisation performances around Chicago. She has danced with Lucky Plush Productions, Carleen Healy, and Asimina Chremos in Chicago, as well as Andrew Jannetti and Jenny Mendez in New York City, and Sonje Mayo and Kaylee Cahoon in Nashville.
Kristina holds certificates in Laban Movement Analysis and Movement Pattern Analysis, having trained with proteges of Irmgard Bartenieff and Rudolf Laban, Carol-Lynne Moore, and Warren Lamb. She has her MA in Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling from Columbia College Chicago, and a BA in Dance with a minor in English from Point Park University. Other influential training includes the Trisha Brown Dance Studio and the "downtown" dance scene of New York City in the early 20 00's, studying with artists such as Kathleen Fisher, Wil Swanson, Miguel Gutierrez, David Dorfman, and Alexandra Beller. She has practiced Contact Improvisation for twenty years, studying with KJ Holmes, Nancy Stark Smith, Kirstie Simson, Nita Little, Mark Koenig, and Daniel Halkin. Personal practice of The Feldenkrais Method and her work with Molly Shanahan are also largely influential in her creative work and pedagogy.
Kristina has taught movement, Laban Movement Analysis, and/or dance at the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin, Columbia College Chicago, the Lou Conte Dance Studio/Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Dovetail Studios, and the University of Chicago. She has served as instructor and/or movement coach for companies in Chicago such as the Lyric Opera, Mordine and Company, Thodos Dance Chicago, BoneDanse, and Synapse Arts. She started Kinespark Consulting in 2015 as a home for her offerings as a movement facilitator, coach, and analyst. She continues to perform and teach as much as possible in Chicagoland.