We were lucky to catch up with Celeste Gutentag recently and have shared our conversation below.

Celeste , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have been dancing since I was a little kid. I trained on in Colorado on the western slope in Grand Junction. I trained mostly in ballet but had experience with other styles. I nearly pursued ballet as a career when I was 14. I considered moving to a conservatory to train but I decided against it since my body type had always been noted by my teachers as an obstacle to becoming a ballet dancer. From then I continued my training in Grand Junction but never planned to dance as a career. Without the pressure of my career looming ahead of me at 15, I was able to experiment with other styles and lean into my unique movement style that works with rather than against my body. I use improvisation as a guiding principle for my work as a dancer, and focus on finding movements and pathways that feel intuitive and good.

I received by BA in Art History and English from Willamette University in 2022. I served as the creative director for Willamette Dance Company, and all inclusive dance group that held performances every semester. For the past 3 years I have been working as the Lead Art Facilitator for North Pole Studio, a progressive art studio that provides studio space and professional representation for adults with Autism and/or I/DD. I got into working with folks with disabilities through a grant I wrote in college to provide art materials for adult artists with disabilities. That grant lead me to the work I do now.

I’m currently one of the directors and choreographers for Bridge City Dance Collaborative. We put on performances annually with a focus on contemporary choreography. We provide opportunities for dancers in Portland to choreograph and dance in a fun and inclusive environment. As an adult who is not pursuing dance full-time it can be difficult to find opportunities to perform at a high level so we aim to provide just that: a platform to continue to train and grow creatively in community.

My primary goal with my creative practice is to follow my instincts or kinesthesia. I let feeling and movement guide my perception. Trusting the intuition that lives in your body (in actual places that you can feel and pay attention to) not only leads creative decisions but personal decisions. I want to work with all bodies and minds under that same principle. What matters most is how things feel inside yourself rather than a perfect picture (which is contradictory because I work almost entirely in visual media).

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn what being an artist means. Art is a way of living your life rather than exclusively a way to make money. The best art I’ve seen and I’ve made has not come out of financial necessity but and internal drive to create. Maybe not even to convey a know message but an urge that some idea must be born.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Believing that I’m an artist and awakening the artists in others changes my brain chemistry. I think about all the beauty within everything, including the tragic, the grotesque, the macro/microcosms, the everyday, or the morbid. The world and people and the universe all exist in contradiction and it’s all so serious and so unserious at the same time. It’s overwhelming and inspiring and it keeps my engine going. I think believe that everyone else is also experiencing these insane set of beautiful contradictions and are still just moving along keeps be going and creating and believing that creating is worthwhile.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @celestethemess14 @bridgecity.dancecollab

Image Credits

Megan Fleck

Jordon Ros

Rachel Vaca