Founded in 2015 by Jacqueline García, lisa nevada, and Kelsey Paschich, the mission of SHIFT | DANCE is to invigorate and sustain the art of professional modern and contemporary dance in Albuquerque through a committed network of creative professionals and advocates. The purpose is to promote a vibrant and diverse professional dance platform through the collaborative efforts of an engaged community. SHIFT | DANCE is a movement, a platform, and a choreographic incubator for the resident choreographers of the company to experiment and foster risk-taking in exploratory performance research.
Jacqueline M. García
Photo Credit: K. Ferg Photography
Jacqueline M. García is a proud native of Albuquerque, New Mexico. As a dance artist, she pursues a multi-faceted practice in choreography, performance, education, and arts administration. García is a Co-Founder and Co-Director of
SHIFT | DANCE, promoting active and exploratory performance research through a vibrant and diverse performance and presenting platform. In 2015, she launched J. García Dance Company as a vehicle to further investigate, create, and present her professional choreographic work. García holds an MBA and MA in Arts Administration (Univ. of Cincinnati). She completed her terminal degree in 2013 with an MFA in Dance, Choreography passing with distinction (Univ. of New Mexico).
García has completed artistic residencies at Alma College in 2016 and a two-month international artistic residency in Spain in 2015: Universidad Católica de Murcia, (Murcia), Conservatorio Profesional de Danza Maribel Gallardo (Cadiz), and Centro Párraga (Murcia). She has coached Repertory Études from the American Dance Legacy Initiative collection including: Rainbow Étude (Donald McKayle), Battleworks Étude (Robert Battle), and Ecce Homo (Danny Grossman). She is also proud to have served as Rehearsal Director for visiting artists in residence Takehiro Ueyama and Erika Pujič at the University of New Mexico. García is passionately and purposefully dedicated to the advancement of contemporary dance as vital to the Albuquerque arts community. She works full-time as the Chief Education and Programs Officer for the National Institute of Flamenco and serves as adjunct faculty in the Department of Theatre & Dance at the University of New Mexico.
lisa nevada
Photo Credit: K. Ferg Photography
lisa nevada is a choreographer, performer, producer, and naturalist. Her choreographic compositions focus on site-specific dances in nature and unconventional performance spaces, as well as the concert stage. Through the crafting of dances, Nevada aims to awaken audiences with a vocabulary of work that invokes thoughtful deliberation and delivers a visceral impact.
Nevada is a curious and avid dance artist, influenced by modern dance techniques, improvisation, theatre and environmental/social engagement. Her choreography has been commissioned by New Mexico Ballet Company (ABQ), John Donald Robb Musical Trust (ABQ), 516 ARTS (ABQ), Tricklock Company (ABQ), 24 Hours of Art (ABQ), Radical Evolution (NYC), The Gibran Play (NYC), Santa Fe University of Art and Design (NM), and Buran Theatre (NYC). In 2014, Nevada was named the Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge Performance Artist for her site-specific dance concert, Radicles: Rediscovering humankind’s primary roots.
In addition to making dances, nevada performs in a select number of her choreographies and has performed the choreography of Danny Grossman, Donna Jewell, Jacqueline M. García, David Parsons, Robert Battle, Erika Pujiĉ, Donald McKayle, Jose Limón, Martha Graham, Rulan Tangen, Bill Evans, Vladimir Conde Reche, among others.
lisa received her MFA in Dance from the University of New Mexico with concentrations in site-specific choreography and performance, embodied history, and teaching. She has worked closely with the American Dance Legacy Initiative (ADLI), with extensive coaching by Dr. Mary Anne Newhall. She is a founding member, co-director and resident choreographer for SHIFT | DANCE, an Albuquerque-based presenting platform that serves as a vehicle to elevate and generate awareness for the range of contemporary dance forms within the Albuquerque community. Nevada is choreographer, dancer and artistic director for her individual project lisanevadadance.
Kelsey Paschich
Photo Credit: Sarah Annie Navarrete
Kelsey Paschich is a native of Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, filmmaker, and is a founding member and co-director of
SHIFT | DANCE. She views dance as a language that can be shared across many mediums and generations. Her work often utilizes multi-media elements as well as surrealism as the theoretical/conceptual framework which questions identity, presence and absence that aims to expose subconscious thought through dance and imagery. She uses movement as a language that makes transparent the space between dream and reality with spontaneity, juxtaposition and the element of surprise which challenges the preconceived understanding of real versus surreal.
Paschich holds an MFA in Dance from the University of New Mexico and was the recipient of the national Dizzy Feet Foundation Gene Kelly Legacy Scholarship in 2016. She graduated Cum Laude with a BFA in Dance from Point Park University in 2004. In 2017, she created several dance films in collaboration with Assistant Professor of Dance, Amanda Hamp, for the northern sky, a westward facing window, a performance/installation at the CFA Downtown Studio. In 2016, Paschich created a documentary film on the making of the large scale, site specific dance performance of Golden Migration at the Valle de Oro Wildlife Refuge, choreographed by lisa nevada, and a part of the 516 Arts Decade celebration.
Paschich has been teaching dance and performing professionally for over sixteen years. She was classically trained at Alwin's School of the Dance through the Cecchetti method and also trained at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow, Russia. She is currently adjunct faculty for the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of New Mexico and teaches at Magnify Dance Center. She recently received her Countertechnique® Teacher Certification in Melbourne, Australia with founder Anouk van Dijk and is one of six teachers certified in the U.S.A. Paschich teaches ballet, contemporary, modern, jazz, pointe, variations, choreography/improvisation, as well as Countertechnique®.
Paschich has performed extensively with: The Moscow State Classical Ballet (Moscow, Russia), DCDC2 (Dayton, Ohio), Thodos Dance Chicago (Chicago, IL), River North Chicago Dance Company (Chicago, IL), the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Interdansa Dance Festival 2010 (Costa Brava, Spain), Keshet Dance Company (Albuquerque, NM), ARCOS Dance (founding member Santa Fe, NM, Austin, TX and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2014), and the Hannibal Project in Solden, Austria 2015. She has worked with choreographers such as: Robert Battle, Carla Maxwell, Ann Reinking, Lucas Crandall, Lar Lubavitch, Tamir Ginz, Margo Sappington, Kevin O’ Day, Alan Heinline, Joanie Smith, Frank Chavez, Melissa Thodos, Zac Whittenburg, Curtis Uhlemann, Robert Moses, Gail Gilbert, Donna Jewell, Erika Pujic, Lawine Torrèn, Tomaz Simatovic, and many more. Paschich continues to perform, choreograph, and teach throughout New Mexico and abroad.
