Charisma, musicality in motion
Crystaldawn Bell
Age: 31 Lives in: Berkeley What she does: The modern dancer is in her seventh season with San Francisco’s Robert Moses’ Kin and freelances for indie choreographers. Career highlights: Bell’s intensity made Moses’ immersive 2015 work “Silt” a powerful one-on-one experience; in Randee Paufve’s “XO” this September, she mesmerized as the queen of a pagan uprising.
On the brink: Bell is too self-effacing to seek the stardom she deserves. But she can’t help stealing the spotlight — tall, technically commanding and alluringly musical, she dances with riveting emotional presence and tractor-beam charisma.
“We use these words about Crystaldawn — ‘dazzling,’ ‘I’m awestruck,’ ” says choreographer Paufve. “You cannot turn away from her when she’s onstage.”
Artistry and magnetism like Bell’s can’t be taught, only honed through training and deepened over time. They were already obvious in Bell’s freshman year at CalArts, says fellow Kin dancer and alumna Norma Fong. “After the first week of classes, (the seniors) told each other, ‘She’s gonna make it.’ ” The close friends shared a 2017 Isadora Duncan Dance Award for their performance in Todd Eckert’s “First Stab at Closure.”
A dancer since her childhood in Southern California, Bell trained in ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop, acrobatics and modern. Yet through some sort of mindbody alchemy, she has transmuted them into movement that’s all her own. “When you see her dancing, you understand the music,” says Moses. “She has an extraordinary gift.”
Vastly more invested in being an artist than in garnering recognition, Bell focuses on smaller-scale, experimental work by companies like Ahdanco and Project Agora, though she has guested with ODC. “It’s more about the experience, and what other people feel, and who you’re in the space with,” she says. Fortunately, bigger audiences can see her in Kin’s next home season, Feb. 2325, at the YBCA Theater.
Bell is also starting to choreograph, and her early work shows an edgy abstraction and, of course, that exquisite musicality. She is reticent about her multifaceted talent, so Fong puts it into words. “Crystaldawn has the eye, she’s creative, she’s a beautiful mover,” says her colleague. “She can go anywhere.”
Geek squad: “I’m such a dork,” Bell says of her ongoing rivalry with Fong in the video games “Overwatch” and “Super Mario Kart.” She is also obsessed with Batman. “I use him as my motivation,” Bell says. “Make every effort you can to exceed what you thought you could do, which is what I feel he does. I think that’s so cool.”