About
Nefelaba Dance Theater
Making A Vision A Reality
Nefelaba Dance Theater came about from the need to create a space for the experiences of Autistic people to be seen on stage. This was first seen with the work "Tilted Glass" (2020), a performance made possible by the Mare Nostrum Elements Emerging Choreographer Series.
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Since being founded in 2022, Nefelaba Dance Theater has created an evening length dance performance, a documentary series, sponsored writers, metal artists, and is in the process of expanding its reach to create a series of dance camps, life skills classes, and eventually educational courses for communication applications on tablet devices.
Meet
the
Founder: Isaac Iskra
Isaac Iskra graduated from the University of Texas at Austin Theater and Dance Department where he received training in Gaga, Graham Style Modern Dance, Contemporary dance, Contemporary and Classical Ballet, Ballet Partnering, West African Contemporary Dance, and House Dance. He was nominated for an Austin Critics Choice Award for his Choreographic work in the show Matawan (2018 UT Austin Department of Theater and Dance) and graduated in 2019 receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Performance and Education.
He moved to New York City in the summer of 2019 and was accepted into the Mare Nostrum Elements Emerging Choreographer Series (ECS) a few months later, debuting his first NYC work Tilted Glass just before lock down in 2020.
He was invited back to create another work through ECS in the spring of 2021 where he created his second work, Nefeliba (Cloudwalker). He was selected for the CUNY Dance Initiative to create his first evening length piece titled Fauve where his attention focused on using narrative storytelling to shed light on the mental health issues surrounding the Autistic experience. During this process, he founded the nonprofit dance company Nefelaba Dance Theater where he currently serves as the Artistic Director.