Digital Library: Artists in Conversation
“The interviews speak back against the tendency to marginalize dance as a way of knowing by highlighting abundance of meaning within dance.”
- Aina Yasué, writer and critical dance studies scholar, xʷənen̕əč territory (Salt Spring Island)
Dance West Network offers a series of seven recorded conversations.
With 14 local artists featured, we learn of their reflections and stories about the important place dance has in their lives, and the role dance can play in all of our lives.
This digital library makes diverse voices from dance artists accessible to dance students, teachers, scholars, and dance aficionados around the province, especially in remote areas where access to these artists and conversation topics might be more limited.
Podcasts are free and available ~ see below
We have other materials available upon request, including:
video of these conversations - including clips from live performances
accompanying discussion prompts and interactive activities.
Together, these materials facilitate further reflections for arts and community leaders working with youth ages 15-22. These videos could also be shown at local libraries, private studios and dance training programs, elementary and high schools.
To access video and booklet materials, please email Debora Gordon, debora@dancewest.net
Conversation partners- Simran Sachar and Joshua Ongcol. Photo: Vitantonio Spinelli
Dance artists and conversation topics
click on the artist name for their bios
Simran Sachar & Josh Ongcol: Dancing into our Power
Eric Cheung & Nick Miami Benz: Dance Meets Technology, A Day in the Life
Erika Mitsuhashi & Tristan Ghostkeeper: Choices Along the Journey
Marissa Wong & Sevrin Emnancen-Boyd: Finding My Own Path
Olivia C. Davies & Edmond Kilpatrick: Contemporary in the Right Now
Ana Sosa & Shion Skye Carter: Creating a Place in Community
Samantha Sutherland & Angela Poundmaker-Gromova: Dance as a Place of Nurture
Reflection: Meaningful-ness of dance through Conversation by Aina Yasué,
writer and critical dance studies scholar, xʷənen̕əč territory (Salt Spring Island)
~ a short reflection on why these conversations are needed ~
“Dance bursts with meaning and reflects culture back to us.”
“I offer the ways I personally felt inspired by these thoughtful conversations as someone who grew up dancing on a rural island of the Coast Salish territories, doing a bit of a dance with dance itself, figuring out how it fits into the everyday, at times with doubt, and most times with gratitude that I encountered something so timeless, human, simple and profound in this lifetime.”
