Tina Bararian is an award-winning modern dancer, choreographer, and actor known for her innovative approach to movement and storytelling. With degrees in Film Studies from York University and Dance Performance from George Brown College and York University, Tina deepened her dance journey by studying at the prestigious Martha Graham School in New York City. In 2022, she was selected for the Choreography Mentorship Program with Amanda Selwyn, where she developed her first evening-length piece, “Not Here”. This debut work premiered at the Spoke The Hub residency, earning Tina the People's Choice Artist Award. After graduating from the Martha Graham School, Tina founded her own dance company and choreographed and performed a wide variety of works in New York City.
Tina has been recognized as “Best Modern & Contact Improv Dancer of the Year” by Kathleen Rea, founder of REAson d’être dance in Toronto, Canada. Her poignant solo piece, “Flight 752”, has been featured at multiple venues and programs in New York, including SteLi Dance Company, WaxWorks, AOCC, and MODArts. In June 2024, she premiered her second evening-length show, “57”, at The Tank Theater, where it received critical acclaim and led to her invitation to curate and choreograph for the International Human Rights Art Festival. Tina is also the visionary founder of “Dancers of Iran”, a global platform supporting Iranian dancers in response to Iran's ban on dance since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. She is committed to creating spaces for artistic expression and cultural dialogue.
Tina is interested in movement research and exploring new definitions in movement language. Her works are a palette of different components, which are used interchangeably in her choreographies. Tina is inspired by Persian mythology in her works, where she draws inspiration from ancestral/tribal movements and shapes them into contemporary sets of movement to create a new language of body movement. Part of her movement research focuses on the limited use of space in choreography and exploring movements within confined spaces that are both challenging and limiting to the body and mind, highlighting the troubled connection between the two in confined spaces. Tina uses the natural rhythm of the body to generate new rhythms within her choreography by incorporating breath and silence. Breath and silence are always integral components of her choreography because they are both natural projections and reactions of the body and mind in times of distress and despair. In moments of despair, the mind creates a space of silence and white noise to process the surrounding chaos, while the body instinctively forms a breathing pattern that either calms the nervous system or increases discomfort. Tina continues to push boundaries in finding new movement patterns and discovering new meanings in her work.