Clarissa Rivera Dyas (she/they) is a Bay Area, Ohlone land, based dancer, choreographer, curator, and arts producer. Her artistic practice flows from the truthfulness of improvisation, is rooted in her communities, and centered around movement as a spiritual practice and a conduit of change. 

Clarissa grew up in a mixed-race black and immigrant Filipino family in Berkeley, graduated from SFSU in 2017 with a B.A in Dance and a B.S. in Health Education, and has remained in the Bay Area.They have had the honor to be a company member of Robert Moses’ Kin, Zaccho Dance Theatre, and Flyaway Productions and have performed in works by Lenora Lee Dance, Megan Lowe Dances, OYSTERKNIFE, Sarah Crowell, Keith Hennessy and many others.

Clarissa is a co-conspirator with black, queer Bay Area artists: jose e. abad, Styles Alexander, Gabriele Christian, and Stephanie Hewett inRUPTURE(2021). She is most recently in collaboration with Sara Shelton Mann (2020), Embodiment Project (2023) and GRAVITY (2022). They have performed throughout the U.S. such as in New York, Jacob’s Pillow, Seattle, and internationally in Berlin and Vienna. She has presented work in CounterPulse’s SEED Residency and REYES Dance, Dance Thrill Fest in 2021 and in the Black Choreographers Festival in 2020 an upcoming in 2025. In partnership with Jakob Pek through the Dresher Ensemble Artist Residency, they premieredSomething Remainsin October 2022 which was nominated for two Izzies (Isadora Duncan Dance Awards).She presented in Queering Dance Festival’s FROLIC! in April 2023 and in collaboration with ainsley tharp, they presentedforever failingin KH FRESH Festival February 2024 with a second iteration Spring 2025. She was recently awarded Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in January 2024 for her choreographic work and received ImPulsTanz danceWEB Scholarship 2024. Clarissa works as the Associate Artistic Director of Circo Zero, is a member of the Queering Dance Festival Steering Committee and is on the KH FRESH Festival Production Team.

IG: @clarissardyas