Christina Medina and Thomas Melde started their artistic collaboration in 2003 upon moving to Europe (Graz, Austria) from Canada. From the onset, the works were a tapestry of different cultural influences: Philippine/Asia, German/European and Canadian/North America. The underlying foundation of their work is rooted in their curiosity of the physical body and the capacity to articulate concepts and ideas through the language of movement. Through their collaboration, a distinctly unique voice evolved resulting in the creation of resonating and pertinent choreographies. @tendance/C.Medina was founded in December 2006 and quickly made an impact for contemporary dance in Graz.

Since its inception @tendance has created both solo and ensemble works that were received with critical acclaim. Over the years, a wide range of established and up-and-coming artists from multiple disciplines have collaborated with @tendance supporting the development and the diversity of the works. The inaugural show, Elements at the Dom im Berg in Graz was supported by a cast of fifteen international dancers and several established composers and visual artists. @tendance/C.Medina is constantly looking for different formats of presentation and in 2008 introduced the ensemble piece Aswang-choreolab. Each performance incorporated the suggestions of the audience from the previous night resulting in a different show each day. It promotes our belief that a choreographic work continues to develop and evolve. Incidentally, critics compared the choreography to the works of directors Gus van Zandt and Larry Clark. In 2009, we went one step further in this format creating “Show and Tell” (Excerpt from Backstage Pass), where the audience directly had an influence on the choreographic structure, lights and music. Also an outreach program was established that brought contemporary dance closer to younger children through workshops. In addition, Medina was instrumental in establishing tanzplatzgraz, an information platform specific to Graz dance activities. Such endeavors are important to build an enthusiastic audience for contemporary dance.
The last two choreographies 2 Scan Deep, too and It is not always WYSIWYG were ensemble works that implemented the psycho-physical voice design of Mary Ronayne. @tendance/C.Medina continues to involve theatrical methods and influences from other arts forms into its choreographies, without loosing the integrity of the contemporary dance language itself.