whereabouts

whereabouts was a project I created and worked on in 2019. The goal was to create a work that would adapt, change and mould to any new room/space/environment, creating a unique experience with each iteration. The underlying ideas were to be present and aware of our surroundings, to ask questions and do research on the spaces we were in, and to create a choreographic structure that was flexible enough to fit in a variety of spaces. There was some set material and some structured improvisational scores within it and I was inspired by Ensemble Thinking, an ensemble improvisation method that I’ve been learning about from Lower Left Collective member Julie Lebel. While working on this project, I took part in Company 605’s Making Conversation initiative where I got to discuss ideas and get feedback on the work from a group of local artists each week for two months.

Below are the two iterations we have performed:

the small room with fake grass on the ledge outside the window

Performed at Dance Café, produced by the response on April 7, 2019.

Judith Marcuse Studio, The Dance Centre, Vancouver, BC

Music: Lunatic Fight Jungle by Agar Agar

Dancers: Carly Davis, Jenna Kraychy, Alissa Merlin, Rachel Helten, Charlotte Newman and Sophie Brassard

We’d like to gratefully acknowledge that the spaces used for rehearsal and performance of this piece are situated on the unceded and ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations.

An interview I did about this performance for Radio Canada (French): LISTEN