Updates 2009

Originally the purpose of this blog was to share tools learned from the Dance Exchange. This was a means for me, not only to offer them to other facilitators or creators who may be interested in such methods, but also a means of archival and and personal process.

It's been two years since my period of research with the Dance Exchange, and I feel an update of where I'm at in terms of integrating their work into my own is long overdue. This is not a list of the only work I'm involved in, but rather just those projects that specifically integrate ideas and tools from the Dance Exchange.

The Critical Response Artist Series
Was a great success! For 10 months I ran this series at the memelab, presenting approximately 10 artists from varied disciplines (fashion design, sculpture, photography, dance, theatre, music and digital media) to approximately over 100 different participants.
The evening was offered as a cross over between a community workshop, and informal presentation series. Artists were offered an opportunity to try out new work in front of an audience who work shopped how to give feedback in a supportive way by using Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process.
I'm currently looking into possibilties for starting up this series again, in a larger space. If you're an artist interested in receiving feedback and sharing your work in this kind of environment I would be eager to hear from you.

The Tools - Community Workshops on Dance Creation

- Co-Artist In Residence (with Sara Coffin), Sunshine Coast Dance Society,
September 2008
Sara and I not only offered a week long dance creation intensive for adults, we also created two new works, and put on a full evening performance in a week. Whew!

- Smithers, International Teen Exchange Project, March 2009
I will be working in Smithers in March, facilitating teen and adult intensives with Miriam Colvin. This is part of a larger project linking teens working with the Dance Exchange in DC, as well as facilitators and teens in Israel, South Africa, and India.

- International Dance Day, Teen [be]longing[s] Intensive, April 2009
Exploring ideas of being, belonging, and having belongings, this workshop will also be linked to the Dance Exchange's International Teen Exchachange Project.

The Tools and Personal Creative Process

- Performance/Creation
"fragments and other leftovers" is a solo that began in the Dance Exchange studios that was then performed at 12MM, Dancing on the Edge, and as part of the Sunshine Coast Dance Residency. As my first real solo work, using the tools was both challenging and extremely refreshing.

- Movement Research
Dance Lab, February 2009
I worked with multidisciplinary artist Andrew Milne on ideas exploring and integrating creative process and tools across disciplines. This research may develop into a new work for 2010.


If you are interested in either the Critical Response Artist Series, or in movement/creation workshops in Vancouver please contact me here: lauraliann@yahoo.ca