AWARDS

2020            Board of Visitors Award for Summer Research 2020 - UMD

2019-20     Commission for the Arts and Humanities - Fellowship Grant

2019             College of the Arts and Humanities Graduate Travel Grant 

2019-21       Fully-Funded Graduate Assistantship - UMD

2018-19       Dean’s Fellowship Graduate, UMD - MD 

2018             Audience Pick Award MN Fringe Festival - MN

2018             Sadie Rose Artist Residency at Spector Dance - CA

2018             Best Arrival for D.C. Dance - Washington City Paper

2017             Twin Cities Arts Reader Best of Fringe 2017 - MN

2016            ChoreoFund 6 Audience Award - CA            

2015            Estelle Sommers Scholarship - NC

2014            Mina Garman Award for Excellence in Choreography - CA    

2013            Carol Ann Haws Award for Excellence in Performance - CA

PRESS

"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."

-Petula Dvorak, Washington Post

"...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

"The resistance of the tape matches his Latinx body, which refuses to adhere to a rigid line or any national border."

"'Out of the Shadows': Must-see piece about a dancer who forgets his moves"

-Aries Jordan, StarTribune

"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

"Gabriel Mata's award-winning choreography takes him around the country: Washington, D.C., Delaware, New York, Minnesota, California."

-Michael Phelan, BayDance.com

"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

"Mata is a powerful presence of regal grandeur, grace, determination, and strength."

-Ramona Harper, DC Metro Theater Arts

"For Mexican American dance choreographer Gabriel Mata dance is a form of protest."

-Aries Jordan, DancersGroup

"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