DANCER · COLLABORATIVE PERFORMER
Celeste Gaiera
Celeste Gaiera is a professional ballerina and collaborative performer with Richmond Ballet. Her poised, expressive movement gives the changing visual world a human presence.
Read Celeste’s biography +
Celeste Gaiera’s love for dance began in New Zealand, where she grew up. From a young age, she attended pre-professional ballet training programs in Oregon, San Francisco, and Pennsylvania, focusing on classical technique. Celeste joined Texas Ballet Theater as a company member from 2017 to 2021 under the direction of Ben Stevenson, O.B.E., performing a range of classical and contemporary ballets.
She then moved to Richmond, Virginia, to dance with Richmond Ballet, where she has been contracted for the past six years. As a company dancer, Celeste has danced soloist roles in classical, neo-classical, and modern ballets by choreographers including Balanchine, Jennifer Archibald, Val Caniparoli, Paul Taylor, and Trey McIntyre. This is her tenth year dancing professionally.
Celeste enjoys dancing abroad during the summer off-season. She has danced at Nederlands Dans Theater in The Hague, performing works by Paul Lightfoot, Sol León, Menghan Lou, and Crystal Pite. She has spent many summers at the Orsolina28 Arts Foundation in Moncalvo, Italy, performing works by Humanhood and Jiří Kylián. At the Follonica Fonderie Festival in Follonica, Italy, she performed a new creation by Mattia Russo and Antonio de Rosa as part of KOR’SIA. Celeste was selected for the National Choreographers Initiative in 2022 and 2024.
Beyond the ballet studio, Celeste is drawn to collaborations that bring art forms into conversation. She has danced in music videos and short films, and collaborated with an exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Her collaborations with Feyyaz Chemen combine live Ebru painting, projection, and dance.
