Nina Flagg is a dancer, choreographer, and pedagogue native to Los Angeles. Studying dance and gymnastics since three years old led Nina toward a deeply impactful and widely renown career embellished with inimitable milestones, accolades, and accomplishments that continue to accrue to this day.
She has worked with legendary entities including Tina Turner, Bette Midler, Prince, Beyoncé, and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, she has performed as a member of Rennie Harris Pure Movement and toured both domestically and internationally, and she has served as faculty at a myriad of institutions including Cal Arts and, currently, the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance.
The root of her dance career began with her creative parents, Valdez Flagg and Karen McDonald, the latter being the director of the Debbie Allen Dance Academy and a dance pioneer in her own right.
“My favorite thing about growing up in L.A., I would have to say, was going to class with my mother and watching her teach,” Nina shared with the Sentinel. “[To see] a Black woman practitioner who had gone to New York to dance, she was bringing back a knowledge base to L.A. in a very intentional way.”
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“My father was also a dancer. I grew up watching [them both]. It taught me about integrity….integrity about who we are as human beings and who we are as dancers.”
It’s evident that fluidity is another value that Nina embodies and personifies. Not only does it describe her aqueous way of movement and ability to wade between genres, but also her fluidic journey between the roles of performer, educator, and movement creator.
“When we think about a dance career, there are these different facets but we don’t always talk about how diverse that can be,” said Nina, reflecting on her own life. “We talk about ’either you’re a dancer, and then you’re a choreographer’…but those things are all swirling, and it’s really great when you’re in practice in all three, as a dancer, as an educator, as a choreographer. I’ve been really fortunate.”
Those who grew up within or in close quarters to the world of dance understand the label-dependency and genre-confinement many dancers experience. “[Rennie Harris Pure Movement] was the first time I was studying the cultural history of hip-hop. When I was coming up, you could not mix the two, ballet and hip hop. When I got to Rennie, it showed me that hip hop could really be a substantial career path. That was a game changer.”
Her time under the tutelage of Rennie Harris, as well as the summation of her experience working with legends within the music industry- including privately coaching Bette Midler- greatly contributed to her choreographic style and work ethic.
“[My choreography is] about transformation”, Nina epiphanized. “It’s the pinnacle of our experiences as humans…all these different transformations.”
In the Spring of 2024, Nina debuted “L/Anding”, an original piece created on her USC Kaufman students for the end-of-year dance concert. Knowing her creation would be accompanied by the works of Kyle Abraham, Bret Easterling, Bruce McCormick, Roderick George, Christopher Wheeldon, and Jeff Thacker, Nina was eager to make something that deserved to live alongside these established dance makers: “It [was not] a choice of ‘am I going to deliver?’ I just had to deliver,” she said.
With the level of ability of the Kaufman students, delivering was certainly within the realm of possibility. “You don’t usually see that [level of ability] at their stage in their career,” she explained. “They already came with a lot of information in their body. They have house technique, dancehall technique, hip hop technique. That’s a testament to the faculty, to Dean Julia Ritter.”
In only ten years, USC Kaufman has cemented a rightful place as one of the best higher education dance programs in the States. It is a deep breath of fresh air for changemakers who want to see new styles of dance become highly regarded and widely taught. In a world where other cities, like New York, have historically offered a greater plethora of styles and masterful dance educators, Nina knows it’s important to bring her knowledge back to L.A.
“I think it’s wonderful to go out and see the world, but it’s as important to bring that information back home when it’s appropriate. You have to give back to the community that made you, and L.A. has made me who I am.”
This integrity is a way of life for Nina, whose belief system is held in a simple chiasmus:
“How you dance is how you live, and how you live is how you dance.”
Stay aligned with Nina Flagg on Instagram: @ninaflagg_dance
