Ariana Chavez is an American dancer, performer and scholar. Before dance, she attended UCLA to study English and Gender Studies. This led her to work as a community organizer and Events Project Manager for UN Women USA LA. During this time, Ariana decided to pursue dance professionally at Santa Monica College’s Dance Department. Little did she know she would spend her first year of training in her living room during 2020. There she took the initiative to explore her aesthetics and movement on her own body and other dancers through her film, Real Women. Shortly after, she attended Alonzo King LINES Ballet Summer Program and journeyed to New York to train with the Peridance Certificate Program. After graduation, Ariana gained a scholarship to attend the L.A. Contemporary Dance Company summer program where she met her co-choreographer, Sophia Fan Lin. She has been invited for a second time to perform as a guest artist for Marianna Varviani’s company, Selcouth in the summer.

Ariana believes her experience as a scholar, community organizer, and dancer has made her curious as to how dance can be used as a tool to gather people together, to share truths, and to serve.