M.F.A - educator -researcher - choreographer - performer
Gabriel Mata
pronounced: gah-bryehl mah-tah
" ...his work explores how the labor of being a dancer is also the labor of being human, and how the lived experience of that labor can be danced."
"And then, they begin to understand what parts of the piece are about his nightmares and his shadows, about his life as a child who is completely American, just not on paper."
"...el artista México-Americano GABRIEL MATA es mejor reconocido en los cículos artisticos, donde ha ganado fama por su coreógrafía dialogada y como virtuoso bailarin."
-Iride Aparacio, CulturalWorldBilingual
"Diving to the floor, fanning a leg into a cartwheel, dipping into a deep and generous lunge, he divvies up the space to trace his life’s trajectory."
-Lisa Traiger, DC Dance Journalism Project
"Mata is a powerful presence of regal grandeur, grace, determination, and strength."
-Ramona Harper, DC Metro Theater Arts
"The resistance of the tape matches his Latinx body, which refuses to adhere to a rigid line or any national border."
"Gabriel Mata's award-winning choreography takes him around the country: Washington, D.C., Delaware, New York, Minnesota, California."
-Michael Phelan, BayDance.com
"For Mexican American dance choreographer Gabriel Mata dance is a form of protest."
-Aries Jordan, DancersGroup
"'Out of the Shadows': Must-see piece about a dancer who forgets his moves"
-Aries Jordan, StarTribune
"Gabriel Mata is an extraordinary dancer whose Out of the Shadows combines spoken personal stories about his marginalization as a Mexican and as an artist."
-John Townsend, Lavender Magazine
"Gabriel Mata’s piece Hidden Layers evoked emotions in the audience as the dancers communicated through body movement the hidden layers in a person’s relationship with their own body."
-El Don