Gabriela Estrada is a multicultural dance artist, educator, choreographer, journalist, and filmmaker committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion through the performing arts. She holds a B.A. and M.F.A. in Dance from the University of California, Irvine, and a Ph.D. in Flamenco Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Seville’s Department of Sociocultural Anthropology and Philology. Her research, publications, and creative work examine reciprocal influences between ballet and flamenco, particularly in interdisciplinary collaborations such as the Ballets Russes production The Tricorne. 

Estrada is an Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Houston, where she teaches, choreographs, and develops interdisciplinary creative research. In 2025, she produced In Memoriam at The Juilliard School, a tribute to her late mentor Héctor Zaraspe, and premiered her full-evening work Reconstrucción—a reconstruction-inspired piece rooted in her research on Doris Humphrey’s

Spanish-themed repertoire. For this research, she was invited to present at Mexico’s CENART by its national research center, CENID Danza José Limón. Her short film No More Carmens! was selected for the Muestra Internacional de Cine 2025 and screened at Mexico’s Cineteca Nacional. In Houston, she has choreographed for operas and short films, presented work at the Texas Latino/a/x Contemporary Dance Festival, and performed with Solero Flamenco.

Her international career includes founding Dance Collage and teaching at the University of Sonora in Mexico; directing musical theatre as Dance Director and Choreographer at Callejón de las Artes in Spain; and collaborating in New York City with Flamenco Vivo and Ballet Hispánico. Estrada serves as Research Advisor for the National Dance Education Organization’s Advisory Council and is an active member of the Dance Studies Association, New York Women in Film & Television, and Mexico’s MCYTV, while advancing research, repertoire, and films grounded in cultural dialogue and embodied history.