Meet Christina Alba | Producer & Dancer/Choreographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Christina Alba and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Christina, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
Work life balance is something I will ALWAYS be working on. Balance is so important to being able to operate at 100%. Truly, balance is KEY, but it can defiantly be tough to maintain as a working creative in the entertainment industry. I can say from experience it’s easy for your work to essentially define you. I know that isn’t ideal but when you love what you do the lines get blurred easily. Finding that balance between life, friends, family, work, your social life, your personal wants + needs are crucial! It can get tough because that list alone is a lot but when you are in full alignment you stay level headed and operate at your best and essentially that is the goal. On top of not wanting to get burned out. Working on having balance in life has become a high priority for me and my self care routine throughout the years and is something we shouldn’t neglect.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My name is Christina Alba – I was born and raised in the bay area and I am a first gen filipina. I moved to LA on a whim back in 2011 to go to a college arts school. In that time I trained and studied dance, got my degree and then i was on my own to figure out how to turn my passions into profit and to be a working professional dancer. Up until the pandemic dance was my whole life, my whole world, and my main source of income. I was so blessed to be able to tour with various artists, hit stages across the globe, worked often on set both in front of the camera and behind, and really planted my feet in the ground in LA and in the industry.

I was really affected when the pandemic hit. I know I’m not alone when I say this but it really hit entertainers in a different way. This was a really tough time for me but the only way was forward. I didn’t really know what that meant but I had to keep going and trust myself and trust in the process.
Dance will always be apart of me and will always be my first love but the pandemic really put things in perspective for me and had my interests and focus shifting elsewhere. In my career as a dancer I assisted a few choreographers to gain more experience and knowledge in my craft and I found that I had other skills as well behind the scenes in production. So in all of that idle time I began to shift. I took a look at my network and my community out here and I began to reach out to offer my services on-set in production as a Producer and production manager/coordinator. I didn’t really know what I was doing but I put myself out there and landed my first job right away as a production manager working on-set along some of my closest friends from college and shortly after I landed a Producer role at a production company. It’s been 3 years since then and i’ve been able to work on a ton of sets and have worked with a number of different production companies and on various projects. I’ve produced work such as music videos, short films, campaigns, worked with a ton of large brands, photoshoots, events and activations, and tours. I am still in my beginning phases as a producer, and it’s not easy but the momentum is high! It’s crazy what can happen when you simply take a chance on yourself and put yourself out there.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
LA has soooo many things to offer and I love an itinerary.

We would hit a new breakfast, lunch, and dinner spot everyday. I am a BIG foodie so the list is endless – to name a few: Cici’s cafe, Blu Jam cafe, Delilah’s, Ysabel, Mother Wolf, Crossroads for the vegan’s out there, Bossanova, and I can keeeep going.
We would take a nice hike at Runyon canyon, take a trip to Malibu beach, see the sunset and have a bonfire night at Dockweiler. Shopping at melrose, fairfax, the grove, the beverly area, hit up my favorite mall in topanga and visit an LA market on a Sunday.
Visit some LA museums and the Venice canals as well.
Nightlife we’ll go out to APT 200, Harriet’s rooftop, Barlis, Highlight room, Sofitel Hotel for their slasa + jazz night, and EPLP just to name a few.
There is always some type of day party or event going on in LA as well so we’ll stay busy 🙂

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Epifania + Ponciano De Castro, my lolo and lola – aka my grandparents. They deserve all the flowers! These 2 have played the biggest influence in my life. They are apart of my why, my driving force and they mean everything to me. They made so many sacrifices for our family and essentially lived out their American dream immigrating here from the Philippines and starting a whole life for our family. If it were not for them I wouldn’t be here or be half the person I am. They’re the greatest people I know.

Instagram: instagram.com/christinaaalba