My experiences in creating work for Mainstage have refined my craft, my ability to see, and my ability to communicate. This particular forum has also allowed me to take creative risks I might not have taken in other situations. And it has reaffirmed my love of the form. The process can take surprising directions. As the choreographer I work to bring the dance alive through the student dancers, the students reach and grow in their emerging artistry. Often this is the time when we all learn extremely significant lessons. It is a teaching and learning process as much as it is a creative process.
The three works featured here are extraordinary in that they each had a life beyond the Mainstage program. Still was presented by New Dance Horizons in Regina in Emergence Rooted, a concert of works for emerging dancers by established choreographers, sharing the program with works by Rachel Browne, Ruth Cansfield and Peter Boneham among others. Body’s in Trouble was part of Our Common Body, a program of works I shared with colleague and fellow dance artist Melissa Monteros. Trapped was featured in a concert of my own works in Calgary, at the Winnipeg Dance Festival, by New Dance Horizons and at Le Groupe Dance Lab’s creative process in Ottawa.
