Kristen Stake

Kristen Stake was born in the Nipmuc land of Worcester, MA and now resides in Wabanaki territory referred to as Portland, ME where she is a dance artist and mental health counselor. She was the Director of The Living Room Dance Collective from 2016-2020, an artist-run dance space.

She has performed at The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, The School for Contemporary Dance and Thought (SCDT in Northampton, MA), at Judson Church in NYC, the H-O-T series in Philadelphia, SPACE, the Frantasia Festival of Out Music & Arts, XFest Massachusetts, Portland Stage Company, the Portland Ballet Studio Theater, and the Franco American Center in Maine. She has danced with Hannah Wasielewski (ME), Vanessa Anspaugh (MA), Michael Figueroa (FL), and Melinda Buckwalter (MA),  The Sisters Grumbling (ME), Terre Unite Parker (MA), Cookie Harrist (CA), Delaney McDonough (NY), Loren Groenendaal (PA), Katarina Eriksson (Sweden & CA), Asimina Chremos (PA), and Kerry Constantino (ME).

After practicing ballet as a youth and modern dance as a college student, she went on to study improvisation intensively in the Mohican territory of Western Massachusetts from 2009-2013 including Contact Improvisation, Tuning Scores, Body Mind Centering, Performance Improvisation, Authentic Movement, Contemplative Dance Practice, The Underscore, and Qi Gong, with a variety of postmodern dance pioneers including Daniel Lepkoff, Barbara Dilley, Lisa Nelson, and Body Cartography. She regularly attends Bates Dance Festival, Lion’s Jaw, and Bearnstow.

Rooted in DIY values, her work explores ritual, memory, and emotional-relational dynamics. Her current collaboration with Hannah Wasielewski is called Imaginary Island (ii) which explores the trials and tribulations of human connection using metaphysical and improvised healing practices. Through this project, they embark on a lifelong dance process centered around healing, grieving, and improvisation.

She teaches Choreography, Postmodern Dance Practices, Contact Improvisation, and a Sound & Movement workshop introducing nonhierarchical ways to approach dance performance with live musicians.

She holds a BA in Sociology from University of Southern Maine (USM) (2001), an MFA in Poetry Writing from Vermont College (2007), and an MS in Mental Health Counseling from USM (2019).