VC

Vania Claiborne

Vania Claiborne is from Charlotte, NC by way of Boston, MA. She started her movement journey through hip hop and liturgical dance at age 7. Her first modern technique class was at the age of 12 at Northwest School of there Arts in Charlotte, NC. It was there that she was introduced to ballet, jazz, modern dance while also taking Parsons Dance, Garth Fagan, Martha Graham, and Alvin Ailey Masterclasses. At the age of 14, she started choreographing small dances for friends, which grew into a hunger. She went on to create work for school events and community organizations including Teen Health Connection which ran for every High School in the county to see.

She went on to earn her BFA in Dance Choreography and a minor in Business Entrepreneurship from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. As a student, she studied contemporary, African, jazz, safety release, and ballet under the tutelage of B.J Sullivan, Janet Lilly, Robin Gee, Justin Tornow, and more. There she has performed multiple works including in Standing Tall by Yoav Kador, Conversations by Nathan Trice, Rubrics of Lace by Christal Brown, and Bolero by Larry Keigwin. While in school she founded Redemption Arts, an arts collaborative student organization, and went on to represent the university at the American College Dance Association twice. She has performed on various stages including the Kennedy Center and Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello for the 50th Anniversary of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

As a Choreographer following school, she has set works on JOYEMOVEMENT dance company and on students in the Forsyth County school system. She presented work at the Wake Forest Dance Festival entitled “A Letter to a Friend.”As an administrator, she has served the national and international dance community through the 2018 American Dance Festival. While there, she presented the solo Opportunity Cost at an informal showing. Vania has continued her movement training through Kyle Abraham’s A.I.M Summer intensive, Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE summer intensive, ADF class with Christian Von Howard, and Duke Performances masterclass with Camille Brown and Dancers. Vania is currently teaching and continuing to make work. She will debut at duet in 2019 at Greensboro Fringe Festival while kicking off her 2019 Dance Project Artist in Residence.