NICOLA MARTINEZ'S PERSONAL WEB SITE

I earned a Master of Arts degree in Dramatic Art with a dance and music emphasis from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and completed two years of doctoral coursework in ethnomusicology (emphasis on Asia/Pacific Island Dance Traditions, particularly Tahitian Dance). In addition, I studied Mexican Folkloric Dance Traditions at the University of Chihuahua, Mexico (Universidad Autonoma de Chihuahua)

I have studied western dance history and genres and specialize in non-western performance, with a primary focus on Tahitian and Mexican cultural traditions. I have over a decade of experience as a choreographer, directing and producing dance companies and cultural events. I am currently a doctoral candidate in Media and Communications at the European Graduate School (Switzerland), and am fluent in English, French, and Spanish, with a working knowledge of German and Tahitian. My doctoral research combines philosophical inquiry with social, anthropological, critical, and cultural theory.

My studies in dance history and criticism were conducted in the dance department of the University of California, Santa Barbara, with the dance scholars Dr. John Chapman and Dr. Frank Ries. My time in the department included a University of California sponsored workshop with founder of the dance improvisation movement, Anna Halprin, as well as a workshop with the choreographer Charles Moulton (whose long and fruitful career spans numerous works, but is perhaps most famous right now for the huge dance scene in The Matrix Reloaded).

I grew up on the Island of Tahiti (my mother is half Tahitian, half British), where I learned Tahitian dance and musical traditions from a young age. I studied Tahitian, Hawaiian, and Pacific Islands Dance at the graduate level at the University of California, under Dr. Amy Ku'uleialoha Stillman, a Hawaiian ethnomusicologist who specializes in Tahitian and Hawaiian musical and dance traditions. I studied Asian-American, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese dance/drama and musical traditions under the Chinese ethnomusicologist Dr. Joseph Lam.

I studied ethnography, West African Drum/Dance Traditions, Baaka (Central African Pygmy) music/dance traditions, and African popular musical traditions under Dr. Michelle Kisliuk. Dr. Kisliuk conducted her doctoral research in Central Africa, living with the Baaka peoples and learning their traditions. She is the author of Seize the Dance: Baaka Musical Life and the Ethnography of Performance (Oxford University Press, 2001).

I studied Mexican Folkloric Dance Traditions at the Universidad Autonoma de Chihuahua, in Chihuahua City, Mexico, under Professor Antonio Rubio Sagernaga, nationally recognized in Mexico as one of the great living masters of Mexican folkloric dance traditions. I attended this program for four sequential years, studying the following aspects of Mexican folkloric dance traditions: ethnography of each region and style; musical analysis; choreographic method; costuming and make-up; dramatic movement; repertory and technique.

My husband is a former professional ballet dancer with international experience and a ballet master affiliated with the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs, NY.

In addition to the academic courses listed above, I have taken university level courses in improvisation, choreography, music for dance, and various technique and master classes, in Tahitian, Hawaiian, Mexican, Chinese folk, Japanese folk, African drum dance, Ballet, Modern, Yoga, Pilates, Social and Latin, and Pilipino Dance traditions.