Nina O. Haft Faculty Profile

Nina Haft has been making dances in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1984. She began her formal training in dance at American Ballet Theater School and the 92nd Street Y in New York City. Her choreography has been presented as part of summerfest/dance, Dancers’ Group Bread and Butter Series, The Bay Area Dance Series, Festival at the Lake, and numerous other events. In 2000, she formed Nina Haft & Company with the premiere of The Making of Americans, an evening-length interdisciplinary dance piece inspired by the life and writings of Gertrude Stein. Nina Haft & Company has also presented programs as part of the Sundays at Sinai Jewish Culture Series; the American Families in Transition Colloquium at California State University, East Bay; the City of Oakland Outdoor Performance Series; the Max10 Performance Lab in Venice (CA), and at other events. As a former member of AXIS Dance Company, Professor Haft's choreography has been presented in Boston, New York, Minneapolis and Novosibirsk (Siberia) as well as on public television as part of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) People in Motion Series. She has been honored as a recipient of the City of Oakland Creative Artist Choreographer's Fellowship, and has served as Artist in Residence for the California Arts Council, the City of Oakland Artists in the Libraries program, and at the Djerassi Resident Artist Program, where she was awarded the John D. and Susan P. Diekman Fellowship. In 2004, Professor Haft was selected to participate in the inaugural round of CHIME (Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange), a program of Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. Professor Haft was awarded the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship in Dance by the United States Department of Education for 2001-03.