Claire Christine Sargenti Pi'kssíí Aakíí (she/they/fae) is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist and author from Escondido, CA. She saw her first ballet at the age of two on a small and fuzzy three-channeled television set with a bunny-ear antennae in rural Valley Center. The word "ballerina" wasn't yet in her vocabulary, but she knew without a doubt that she would grow up to become one.
She began her ballet training at the age of three and studied in some of San Diego's best institutions including San Elijo Dance and Music Academy, New West Ballet Theater, Ballet Arte, and California Ballet. She performed soloist and principal roles in local productions including the Miette Fairy in Sleeping Beauty, Four Swans in Swan Lake, and Clara (and almost every other male and female role) in The Nutcracker, as well as contemporary pieces choreographed specifically for her. During the summers, she trained with prestigious ballet companies through their Summer Intensive Programs including American Ballet Theater, Joffrey Ballet, and Complexions Ballet. She performed with the Royal Ballet of London during their American tour of Cinderella at the Orange County Performing Arts Center under contract with a State of California Entertainment Work Permit for Minors.
After high school, Claire moved to New York City to dance as a trainee at the Joffrey Ballet where she also performed with the Beijing Opera Ballet during their American tour. One week after her move, the 2008 stock market crashed, severely limiting jobs and audition opportunities. Refusing to be deterred by the economy, Claire decided to create her own opportunities and founded the contemporary ballet company New Bridges Ballet. With New Bridges Ballet, Claire served as Artistic Director, choreographer, and dancer, and collaborated with non-dance artists in spaces not traditionally reserved for ballet. New Bridges Ballet performed with poets, street musicians, visual artists, rappers, film makers, photographers, burlesque dancers, and performance artists, while gaining their most recognition from a project with the heavy metal band Fear of None. Through this collaboration, Claire became known as the Metal Ballerina, New York City's classically trained rebel. She appeared in magazines, music videos, and iconic performance venues such as Arlene's Grocery, Webster Hall, and the Hotel Chelsea, as well as an occasional secret underground Brooklyn art house collective.
Claire's dancing career came to a premature end when a longstanding injury progressively became worse, culminating in brief moments of paralyzation. Knowing that she could not risk losing control of her body while on stage, she quietly retired. She had been told by her doctors that this day was coming, and was even urged by a doctor at the age of 16 to discontinue her dancing for fear of permanently ending up in a wheelchair. Claire is happy to report that she is still walking, usually in very cute high heeled boots.
After graduating with honors from New York University, Claire moved to New Orleans to write a 12 character solo show entitled Interludes: A New (Orleans) Play. Interludes debuted at The Barrow Group at the request of Co-Artistic Director Lee Brock, and became the first straight play ever performed at the legendary 54 Below. Interludes went on to perform at the San Diego International Fringe Festival, New Orleans In/Fringe Festival, and the New York International Fringe Festival where it was bestowed the coveted Spirit of the Fringe Award. Claire played all 12 characters, and was joined on stage by composer and jazz drummer Dr. Darrell Smith and the Interludes Jazz Orchestra.
In 2016, due to the changing political tides, Claire began working with the intersectional feminist movement. She published Vagina Book and carried the mixed media piece Pussy for President at the Women's March in Washington, D.C. Her piece Origin is considered to be the largest spinning vulva sculpture in the world, and it became the first installation piece to replace the statue of Jefferson Davis after it was removed in New Orleans in 2017. Her work during this period culminated in 2019 in a two person exhibition in New York City's Alphabet Soup Gallery with international artist Eunice Wong entitled PussyPussy.
During the pandemic, Claire lost her job in New Orleans and began working on a five year project that would become the Noble Moon Tarot Deck & Grimoire. During that time, she relocated to Northern California to seek work on a farm. When the farm burned down in the North Complex Fire (at the time, California's largest and most destructive wildfire), Claire lived out of a tent, but continued her work on Noble Moon and other pieces, including Let Love Be Viral, which was featured in the documentary City of a Million Dreams, in the art book NOLA in the Time of Corona, and on view at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. The Noble Moon Tarot Deck & Grimoire was completed in 2024 and has gone on to sell in 16 countries across five continents and was nominated for Best New Tarot Deck by the World Divination Association.
Claire currently lives in Arizona with her husband where she is documenting the Sonoran Desert with infrared photography while in residence at the De La Vega Gallery. She hopes that seeing the desert in infrared, a spectrum of light visible to some of our desert-dwelling neighbors but invisible to humans, will foster a sense of ethical stewardship and interspecies empathy, camaraderie, and friendship.
Despite all of her moving, Claire retains strong ties to her home town, and continues to actively participate in the San Diego arts scene. In addition to performing at the San Diego International Fringe Festival, Claire has painted a mural for Esco Alley art and is excited to have one of her poems published in the upcoming San Diego Poetry Annual, a publication of the San Diego Entertainment and Arts Guild.
She writes about her experiences in poetry and prose.
