MSP 180: Tristan Ching Hartmann

Tristan Ching Hartmann (she/her) was born and raised in Southern California.  She took her first dance class in the garage of her babysitter’s friend, and doesn’t remember a time (thankfully) when she didn’t dance.  She took ballet, jazz, and tap at local schools in Ventura until a fellow student Tristan idolized decided to start commuting to the Westside School of Ballet.  Tristan followed.  Tristan trained at Westside and spent summers at the San Francisco Ballet School until she graduated high school and entered Stanford University.  At Stanford, Tristan took her first modern dance, a rigorous Cunningham technique class taught by Diane Frank, as well as commuting up to San Francisco to study with Alonzo King, Arturo Fernandez, Carmen Rozestraten, and Summer Lee Rhatigan.  Tristan also began working with Robert Moses at this time.

Tristan graduated from Stanford with a B.A. in English and M.A. in Education, and moved up to San Francisco the next day.  She danced with Robert Moses’ Kin for 11 years, collaborating with incredible artists such as Sara Shelton Mann, Robert Henry Johnson, Joanna Haigood, Marcus Shelby, Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble, and Youth Speaks.  In March 2006, not searching for a better experience, just a different one while she could still dance, Tristan retired from Robert Moses’ Kin.  Two weeks after retiring from the company, Tristan learned she needed immediate cervical spine surgery; the following week, she and her husband, Mark, made the decision to travel after she had recovered.

While traveling, Mark was offered a job in London.  There, Tristan took the opportunity to reinvent herself—coming back to her love for jazz, getting an agent, and starting the West End audition circuit.  In 2009, Tristan danced at the BRIT Awards in a special tribute to the Pet Shop Boys featuring Brandon Flowers and newcomer Lady Gaga.  Tristan and Mark spent two years in London before moving back in 2010 to be closer to Mark’s father who had been diagnosed with a gliobastoma.

Back in San Francisco, Summer Rhatigan invited Tristan to join the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance.  It was an oasis of learning, creation, and thought—fueled by teaching artists like Christian Burns, Alex Ketley, Eli Nelson, Miranda LaValle, Bobbi Jene Smith, and Tom Weinberger, as well as the students themselves.  Here, Tristan was able to refine her teaching skills and– thanks to Summer’s encouragement and support– began leading creative writing sessions and making work for the first time.

A big hole was felt—and is still felt—when the Conservatory closed in 2018.  Not feeling ready to teach anywhere else, Tristan instead invited some friends and former students to play around in the studio.  These play sessions led to a couple small solos and duets, which were eventually performed to live text by Christine No and Nick Jaina in a show produced by Red Light Lit. They were performed again in a collaborative show with Nol Simonse, Kara Davis, Victor Talledos, and Manuelito Biag in March 2020, days before shelter-in-place began.

And then, of course, the pandemic.  A huge ellipses for us all… A different experience for everyone and yet, somehow similar in its wonderings and grief, whether acknowledged or not.

In 2021, at 47 ½ years old, and 14 years after she had first expressed interest in working with the company, Tristan joined Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, thanks to the generosity and open-minded vision of its director.  When not in the studio with MJDC, Tristan enjoys a weekly movement practice led Sara Rudner, travelling with her husband, hosting a writing happy hour, gently exploring Argentine tango, and dreaming/collaborating with her friends.

PC:  Peter Teigen