Kaleena makes sound-focused dance and performance work, rooted in tap dance technique and deep listening modalities.

She was named one of DANCE Magazine’s 25 to Watch, received a McKnight Fellowship for Dance and a Sage Award for People’s Choice, was a finalist for the Jerome Hill Fellowship, and has received funding from the Jerome Foundation and Minnesota State Arts Board. Her work has been presented at the Walker Art Center, American Swedish Institute, Icehouse, First Avenue, Jazz Central, Bryant Lake Bowl and the State Theater in Minneapolis, and at Arts on Site, Center for Performance Research and Symphony Space in New York. She has held residencies at Air le Parc (France), American Tap Dance Foundation (New York), Everwood Farmstead Foundation (Wisconsin) and Southern Theater (Minneapolis).

Kaleena has a BFA in Dance from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, a Deep Listening certification from the Center for Deep Listening at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and is currently pursuing an MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Previously, she co-founded and co-directed Twin Cities Tap with Brenna Brelie, which produced the acclaimed Twin Cities Tap Festival from 2015-2021, and an additional project in partnership with the McKnight International Choreographer Fellowship in 2023. She also directed KMD2, a making-driven pre-professional ensemble for high school and college-aged dancers, from 2018-2023.

Kaleena has had the honor of performing in works by Roxane Butterfly, Joe Chvala, Heather Cornell, Michelle Dorrance, Jon Ferguson/Theatre Forever, Derick Grant, Lisa La Touche, Michael J. Love, April Sellers, Sandy Silva, Jumaane Taylor and Laurie Van Wieren. She was a founding member and performer with Rhythmic Circus (including performances at the Edinburgh Fringe, Kennedy Center, New Victory Theater and on America’s Got Talent), and was also a touring performer with Buckets and Tap Shoes.

She is thankful for and deeply indebted to her first tap dance teachers: Karla Grotting and Char Weiss.

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ARTIST STATEMENT:
My work asks questions and prioritizes possibility - rigorously seeking “other”, particularly in relation to social and cultural expectations that halt and paralyze. I respect legacy, but aim to interrupt harmful embodied value systems and modes of presentation. 

My composed and improvised sonic phrasework listens deeply to self and site and utilizes concepts found in writing (cut-up method, run-on sentences, asemic writing, cursive), creating sonic spaces of undulating fragmentation and repetition, with surprise and texture. 

My work concerns the spaces we find ourselves listening/moving/sounding in, seeking conversations with organizations, funders, presenters and fellow sounding-movers about modes of care for bodies and spaces to dissect values that keep percussive dance forms static and out of critical conversations and presentations. Thus, I am also working to craft physical structures and objects to support the expansion of sounding dance work.
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