Alida Kendell & Alison Kause

Alida Kendell is a contemporary dance choreographer, performer, instructor and mother in amiskwacîwâskahikan, Edmonton. She has trained in both ballet and contemporary dance, completing her BA at the School of Contemporary Dancers in Winnipeg, MB. Her artistry is fed by her work as a collective artist with the Good Women Dance Collective (GWDC), her independent projects, and caregiving. Career highlights so far include performing in the Sterling award-winning productions BEARS (Pyretic Productions) and The Cardiac Shadow (Northern Light Theatre and GWDC), which she co-choreographed. Alida has choreographed numerous dance works for GDWC including Love Fail, a full length collaboration with Pro Coro Canada, Withheld, which was supported by Mile Zero Dance through their Artist in Residence Program and was presented at Fluid Festival in Calgary, and there we are. There, a duet choreographed and performed by Alida and Alison Kause. Alida’s choreographic works outside of GWDC have included Blood of Our Soil (Pyretic Productions) and The Particulars, a movement-based play produced by Punctuate! Theatre which premiered at the Theatre Centre in Toronto. Recently Alida has returned to a solo practice that investigates durational improvisation as an escape from and return to self. Her recent participation in the Hack Lab (Theatre Direct) has inspired her to work in ways that incorporate the experience of motherhood rather than working in spite of it.

Alison Kause is a founding member of the Good Women Dance Collective and a teacher in Dance Education with Edmonton Public Schools. She is a graduate of the Grant MacEwan Dance Program and the School of Contemporary Dance at SFU, as well as the Education program at the University of Alberta. She has trained and performed across Canada and been inspired by work with local and international colleagues. She has worked with Justine Chambers, Melanie Kloetzel, Peggy Baker, Shasha Ivanochko, Melanie Demers, Mile Zero Dance, Heidi Bunting, Brian Webb, Jen Mesch Dance Conspiracy, AM Choreography, Krista Posyniak, Richard Lee, Isabelle Rousseau, Katherine Semchuk, Jessica McMann, Marynia Fecekz and GWD Collective artists. Alison has performed in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver and Edmonton. Alison is inspired by the challenge of finding an intersection between being an artist, mother and teacher - these roles constantly demand attention, inform one another and provide diverse perspectives.

Photo credits: Marc J Chalifoux Photography