Carissa Songhorian, a BFA in Dance and Dance Composition graduate from California Institute of the Arts, began her training at Los Angeles Ballet Academy under the direction of Andrea Paris and Conny Mathot. Throughout her years as a dancer, she has performed professionally with Ate9 Dance Company, Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company (LACDC), Heidi Duckler Dance, String Theory Harp, Sarah Elgart | Arrogant Elbow, Strange & Elegant Dance, Voices Carry, Fabe Dance Company, Iris Company, and Dream Walker, as well as in works by choreographers and artists such as Danielle Agami, Christopher Bordenave, Gustavo Ramirez-Sansano, Troy Powell, Julie Bour, Ryan Mason, Laurence Blake, and Kira Blazek among many others. Carissa has also appeared in several short dance films, commercials and pilots for television, Solange Knowles’s “Metatronia,” and a movie that was produced by James Franco.

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As a choreographer, Carissa has created multiple successful works for stage and film, including: Your Kingdom (2019, Iris Company + C3LA's Breath + Body), First Light (2019, Heidi Duckler Dance's Ebb & Flow Festival), Mixed Body (2019, "Best of" New Shoes, Highways Performance Space), Odes 1-2 (2019, Mashup Dance's Balance for Better - International Women's Day Festival, 2018, LAMusArt Winter Festival), Ghosts (2018, Hollywood Fringe Festival - in collaboration), Helmet | Goliath (2018, Highways Performance Space - in collaboration), Premiere (2017, Visual Artists Group), Ours is Malice (2017, Sharon Lund Theater), Habits (2014, Sharon Lund Theater), Dreamscape (2016, Valencia), Beneath the Tissue (2016 film), Dark Places (2016 film), and Ours (2016 film). Carissa has also received honorable mentions for some of her works, including her pre-professional work, Never Mess with Sunday (2013), and some of her work has even been described as “intriguing” (LA Dance Chronicle), and “twisted.” Currently, Carissa continues to create as a solo artist, as well as in collaboration with companies and artists such as Dream Walker, Misaq Eshaghi, Joan Padeo, Manuel Meza, Davy Sumner, and more.