Gabriela Burdsall is a Cuban-born dance artist and choreographer whose interdisciplinary practice bridges performance, choreography, and audiovisual media. Born in Havana in 1989, she joined Cuba’s National School of Modern and Folkloric Dance in 2001, where she trained in Cuban traditional and folkloric dances, classical ballet, and Cuban modern dance. After graduating, she became a principal dancer with Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, performing with the company from 2007 to 2015. She holds a BA in contemporary dance from the Higher Institute of Arts of Cuba.

During her time with the company, Gabriela toured internationally and performed in works by worldwide choreographers including Mats Ek, Jan Linkens, Itsik Galili, Àngels Margarit, Juan Kruz Díaz de Garaio, Julio César Iglesias, and Carlos Acosta. In 2015, she left the company to pursue her independent research, challenging dominant models of dance and choreography and forging a more expansive and personal understanding of the body and movement.

Gabriela currently works between the United States and Europe, developing a practice that is both deeply personal and politically engaged. Her recent works include MENEO (2025), a solo piece presented at NOW Festival, Red Cat CalArts Theater, Los Angeles; On Work. Lecture by the Idiot (2024), written by William Ruiz Morales and presented at Submerge Festival in Berlin; Derrotero (2023) at Zilberman Gallery in Miami; and collaborations with artist Naama Tsabar on Friction (2024, Nazarian / Cursio Gallery, Los Angeles) and Estuaries (2024, Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie, Berlin).

In 2017, Gabriela immigrated to the U.S. and co-founded Living Away with William Ruiz Morales, a platform dedicated to amplifying immigrant voices in the performing arts. The initiative led to two key festivals: a live edition in 2019 and a virtual one in 2020.

Gabriela’s artistic path was shaped early on through the influence of her grandmother, pioneering modern dance artist Lorna Burdsall. As a child, she performed alongside her in museums, theaters, and intimate living-room performances with the group Así Somos. These formative experiences -immersed in dance, theatrical play, and handmade costumes- deeply inform her current creative practice.

Gabriela continues to explore and expand on Lorna’s legacy through performance and curatorial projects. In July 2022, she presented her grandmother’s work in the exhibition: Exercises to Be Happy: Ephemeral Practices in 1980s Cuba, curated by Glexis Novoa and NAME Publications. She is currently working on a documentary exploring this legacy in greater depth.