Hi, I'm Matt GAL
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Matt Gal (he/him) is an NJ/NY-based dancer, actor, and multimedia artist graduating with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Theatre from Rutgers University in May 2025. He approaches his work with an interdisciplinary lens, using movement as a throughline across choreography, acting, filmmaking, photography, editing, costume design, and music editing. As a trans man, Matt draws from lived experience to explore the body as a site of research, memory, identity, and transformation. He has had the privilege of performing in works by Baye and Asa, José Limón, Pam Tanowitz, Netta Yerushalmy, and Omar Román De Jesús, and is a recipient of the Margery J. Turner Award. His dance films have been featured in the Mignolo International Screendance Festival and the American College Dance Association (ACDA), and he values collaboration as a pathway to authentic connection.
At the core of my practice is a commitment to creating deeply personal and transformative spaces for exploration. I invite connection, curiosity, and introspection, exploring movement as a means of research, storytelling, and self discovery. My work draws heavily on my experience as a transgender dancer - someone who once felt the need to minimize myself in both movement and presence. My transition has quite literally opened pathways to new bodily expressions, allowing myself to explore aspects of movement that are no longer restricted and emerge freely. Every moment in the studio becomes sacred, a chance to play, grow, and uncover new sensations with movement as a guide.
My movement style is rooted in rhythmic and textural dynamics, using improvisational methods as a choreographic tool to allow for unexpected shifts and discoveries. I aim to create spaces for observation, inviting viewers to find a sense of recognition - not necessarily of themselves, but of the authenticity and specificity of the work. Collaboration, especially with queer and trans artists, brings depth and diverse perspectives that enrich my process and artistry. I am deeply inspired by other artforms, and my experiences with acting, singing, filmmaking, and photography have reshaped the ways I view both the audience and performer. Incorporating multiple forms of media as modalities for storytelling allows me to challenge the traditional boundaries of what “performance” can be, creating multi-sensory experiences that are immersive and expansive. Through my practice, the personal becomes universal, and movement becomes a language for embodying vulnerability, resilience, and the complexities of human experience.