Photography – San Antonio
Nina A. Padilla is an accomplished multidisciplinary artist. She is a dance choreographer, performer and published portrait photographer specializing in dance portraiture and dance on film.
Nina is currently a modern and improvisation dance instructor in San Antonio, Texas. Her classes are a fusion of the Erick Hawkins technique and Bartenieff Fundamentals which helps her students understand how to move organically and within the limitations of their own anatomy. Currently, Nina is also teaches jazz, contemporary, and lyrical .
With a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Performance and Choreography, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition & Food, from Texas State University, Nina has almost two decades of dance training in a wide variety of dance styles including Modern, Contact Improvisation, Ballet and Jazz.
Over the years, Nina has received numerous accolades, including the Nelda-Drury Dance Scholarship for Dance at San Antonio College, as well as the Karen Earl Dance Scholarship for outstanding choreography at Texas State University. While studying Dance, Nina produced, performed in and choreographed numerous dance performances and gained valuable teaching experience by working as an assistant to several of her professors.
Nina has worked with several choreographers to include Kim Olson (Boulder Colorado), Gina Gibney Dance Company (New York), Lux Boreal Dance Company (Tijuana, Mexico), and the Erick Hawkins Dance Company (New York). She continues to further her dance education by attending various workshops in Texas focused in modern, improvisation, and contemporary movement.
As a photographic artist, Nina’s work focuses on capturing the unique and personal artistry of each individual that steps in front of her lens. Nina began her photography career in college while exploring with dance on film concepts in one of her classes. In her early career as a photographer, Nina focused on photographing families and children but her love and obsession of movement and photography eventually led her to specialize in artistic dance portraiture and dance on film. With years of training in movement and photography, Nina is an expert in her field and prides herself in the ability to work closely with other artists to capture their artistry in its most honest and vulnerable form. Her work has been locally and internationally published in various art and photography magazines including Indie Soleil Magazine, Femme Rebelle Magazine and Surreal Beauty Magazine. Nina is also the only professional dance photographer that works as a professional dancer in San Antonio, Texas.
In addition to her dance background, Nina is also a third degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. As an artist, Nina hopes to inspire and mentor artists by helping them understand that their artistry has great value and worth and that they can accomplish anything, including creating and working from the heart as a working artist.
When she is not teaching, performing or photographing, Nina enjoys spending quality time with her husband and two children and fur babies.