KRISTALYN GILL, a North Carolina native, graduated from East Carolina University’s Honors College with dual degrees in Dance Performance (BFA) and Interpersonal/Organizational Communication (BS). She is a Renaissance woman, actively embracing the identities of dancer, choreographer, actor, slam poet, author, communication specialist, director, and educator. Above all else, she considers creativity as a conduit for an empathetic community, ignited curiosity, and earnest conversation.
Kristalyn is currently a performing artist with Yue Yin Dance Company, Soul Project Dance Company (Candace Brown), and SHINSA the Collective (Bo Park). Her dance credits include Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Fire Island Dance Festival, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Ferrari Theater (Italy), Teatro Comunale (Italy), the Harkness Mainstage Series at 92Y, the American Dance Guild’s Performance Festival, Judson Church, Feud (FX), and Suspicion (Apple TV+) to name a few.
As a writer, Kristalyn has authored three poetry books and was the 2021 Fall Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellow. Her newest poetry collection Purification in Queens will be published by Fernwood Press in Fall 2024. Her work lives in the intersection of reclaiming femininity and faith, described as “shape and movement viscerally across each page in the throes of grief, trauma, and triumph of girlhood (Maya Williams, Portland Poet Laureate).” Kristalyn’s poetry credits include the Bowery Poetry Club (feature), Inspired Word’s NYC Voices (feature), Arts on Site, Dancegeist, Port Veritas, Unfortunately I Love You, Isol:Art, Dead Dads Club, “While We Wait: A Tale of Fallen Fruit” by Soul Project Dance Company, and “B_TTERLAND” by SHINSA the Collective.
Kristalyn is the Founder of Dive and Dine which provides creatives with a space for open discuss about identity and ingenuity. Although monthly gatherings are on hiatus, Dive and Dine offers an annual $500 grant cycle for artists known as the Plunge Development Grant. These funds are given to a maker who uses their work as a conduit for community conversation and exchange.