FACULTY BIO

Houston, Texas

Dr. M. Gabriela Estrada is a bilingual, innovative, multicultural, and interdisciplinary artist, journalist, and educator invested in collaborative global creative projects explored and preserved through choreography, filmmaking, and published documentation. Estrada holds a B.A. and an M.F.A. in Dance from the University of California, Irvine, and a Ph.D. in Flamenco Interdisciplinary Studies from the Department of Sociocultural Anthropology and Philology at the University of Seville, Spain. Her doctoral dissertation, Flamenco’s Contributions to Ballet (1850-2015), has led to several publications, choreographic works, documentary film projects, and a narrative screenplay, False Premises.

Dr. Estrada joined the University of Houston in 2022 as an Assistant Professor of Dance, teaching dance in film, dance history, tap, flamenco, and ballet while choreographing and developing creative and scholarly research. Her current projects include In Memoriam, a multi-media tribute to Juilliard’s faculty emeritus Maestro Zaraspe; Reconstrucción, a contemporary theatre dance production inspired by researching Felipe “El Loco,” a lost work Doris Humphrey created for José Limón and his company in the 1950s, recently premiered in Sonora, Mexico; and the short doc No more Carmens! recently premiered at Mexico’s Cineteca Nacional within the Muestra Internacional de Cine film festival.

Estrada’s service collaborations include the University of Houston’s KGMCA’s Strategic Initiative’s Working Group’s Global Initiatives and the National Dance Education Organization’s Research Committee, where she serves as Advisory Board Research Advisor. Estrada also participates in scholarly and creative groups, such as the Dance Studies Association, Columbia University’s Studies in Dance Seminars, Spain’s Universidad de Oviedo, NYC-based film editor’s AI Café, Sundance Collab, and Mexico’s Association of Women in Film and TV.

In Houston, Dr. Estrada has participated in presenting and/or performing her work at UH’s Ensemble Dance Works, the Texas Latino/a/x Contemporary Dance Festival, Solero Flamenco concerts, Mix-MATCH, and the Alley Theatre with TECH23 and UH’s BRAIN Center. She has also enjoyed choreographing for the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Houston and UH’s operas, such as The Merry Widow, and guest teaching Escuela Bolera Spanish dance workshops for the Houston Ballet Foundation.