facilitator. STORYTELLER. POET.
At 19 years old I left Seattle and came to Hollywood to pursue acting. I entered the world of exotic dance as a way to support my art. And that's when I began to struggle with the archetypal split that women are foced to choose from Madonna or Whore. I spent yearssss suffocating myself with thoughts of I am wrong because I am sensual and I make my living as a dancer. It made me sick (literally). My body began to break down. My ovaries hurt. My stomach hurt. My throat would hurt all the time.
I became obcesssed with women's voices and stories. I couldn't find them in religious books or history books. Or rather what I did find was told through the male lens. How to talk, feel, pray, think, dress, act, how to be pure- it all came from men. There was no trace of the female soul. I needed words, truths, and ideas written by wise, wild women. And I found them....
Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Marion Woodman, Audre Lorde, Maya Angelou, Lucy H. Pearce (and the list goes on).
I could feel my life force coming back to me as I read about goddess and the female soul and how creativity and sensuality were linked together.
I was an exotic dancer before it was called embodiment. Before it was S factor. Before it was recognized as an international sport. And it was a festering secret that kept me caged in shame. I was constantly nauseated by the thought of my self as dancer.
Even though I loved the sensual, primal feel of moving my body all feline and fierce, the weight of the world's perception around women like me, left me drowning in disgust.
The truth was, long before dancing, I felt the wound of being the weird one.
I was a Russian Jewish girl that stuttered when I spoke... that wanted to discuss the meaning of life at 3 years old... that could never make friends at school because I was too serious- too sensitive- too much.
I started ballet at 4 years old and it became my safe space to express. But at 16, ballet and I divorced. My heart lived for ballet, but my body wasn't skinny enough or right enough for that world.
The sick culture pushes history.
I was dying for herstory.
My dark night of the soul began with a journey to the underworld...
I wrote, starred, and produced my one woman show Dirty Me Divine.
It was about my life as a dancer.
It was about the fight with my body.
It was about reclaiming women's voices, women's sexuality, women's right to take up space.
DMD played to sold out theaters in LA as well as Boston and San Francisco. Self-expression, sharing my point of view, and spilling my secrets liberated my voice and body. I realized I didn't have to live out the sick culture's story. I could tell my own.
I wanted this for other women.
I wanted circles and stages and retreats where women could have the life-changing experience of exploring, naming, and speaking their truths.
So I offered it...
Spaces where women could share their voice, write what hurt, dance their grief, and speak their stories.
I've been creating immersions, workshops, and retreats for over a decade now and I have deep gratitude for the body of work that came from the pain.
- I have a signature program and community called RED where women practice the art of expression, visibility, sharing their stories, and embodiment- which simply means connecting with the truth inside their body.
- I produce women's stories for the stage where nothing is off limits to talk about.
- I work as a coach and facilitator for PLUS ME and go into schools to teach writing and story as a tool for confidence and healing.
- I run workshops, immersions, and retreats for women to step out of shame and into their voice
- I work privately with clients to get their visions and voices out into the world.
You have the right to take up space- especially in this culture that tells you NOT to. Especially in this culture that gaslights and gags women that don't fit into puritanical ideas of WOMAN. Sacred soulful women, sensitive women, wild and wise women, creative women, women who challenge this sick culture...
You have the right to be fully and boldly expressed. Your voice matters. But you won't fully feel that until you use it. And not the watered down voice that society tames women with, but the voice that carries your fire, your Light, your dark, your humanity, your art, your power, and your gifts.
Let's ignite that.
DIRTY ME DIVINE ONE WOMAN SHOW
Bio...
CHRISTINA DUNBAR
Based in LA, Christina's training in dance, theater, public speaking, storytelling, facilitation, and rites of passage all inform her work.
For the past decade Christina has worked as a transformational catalyst + guide. She facilitates circles, retreats, and workshops where women come into greater connection and healing around their voice, sensuality, creativity, and expression.
Christina also works with clients on professional speaking, writing, honing in on their message, and the art of storytelling.
As an artist and director, she produces stage shows and creates platforms for women’s voices to be heard.
Christina's work weaves the sacred feminine and spirituality along with women's expression and personal development. She believes in building your own stages, giving yourself the mic, and gifting yourself and the world with your soul's Truth.
LOVES: DEEP ASS CONVOS, LAUGTER TILL WE CRY, EVERYTHING CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTES, TIME WITH THE FAM.
AT A GLANCE
FUN FACTS
Burlesque was where I finally found freedom in my body and soul.
BALLET AND MARTHA GRAHAM'S MODERN DANCE WERE MY LIFE AS A TEEN
I met my husband when I was 21 years old.
I come FROM BABA YAGA LANDS. RUSSIAN IS MY NATIVE LANGUAGE AND ALTHOUGH I LIVE IN LA, MY SOUL BELONGS IN THE WOODS.
All about
Letting my inner comedian out, asking the trees for answers to difficult questions, spoken word art, Latin jazz and 90's hip hop, hunting for joy, slashing the patriarchal lies that harm all of us.
NOT ABOUT
REVERENCE
Hustle culture, comparison, only showing one side of me, denying the complexity and pain of being human.
WE ARE NOT HERE TO BE FIXED
WOMEN THAT IMPACTED ME GREATLY with their writing + art INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMTED TO:
CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTES
AUDRE LORDE
URSULA K. LE GUIN
CAROLYN MYSS
MARION WOODMAN
SERA BEAK
sue monk kidd
hanna gadsby
MAYA ANGELOU
MARTHA GRAHAM
shout out to regena garrepy, who was not only A PARTNER IN MY FIRST BUSINESS- but became my soul sister FOR LIFE. we created epic retreats in cancuN, led circleS + WORKSHOPS FOR WOMEN WHO WERE READY TO SHED THEIR GOOD GIRL AND STEP INTO THEIR VISIONARY SELVES. regena taught me how to FACILITATE circle, create ritual, and was my master teacher around holdING sacred space.
