New Works In Practice

NWIP started as an extension of the Share Dance program in response to the community and the needs of our teachers. In the 2022-23 season, New Works took the next leap to offer In Practice, a professional development series for dance teachers and leaders which was envisioned and co-curated by artists + teachers Carolina Bergonzoni, Marco Esccer, and Lisa Gelley. The dance classroom can be an isolating space where teachers are often lesson planning, teaching, and problem solving with very little feedback. This series brings teachers together to question, investigate, and expand their own teaching practices through the lens of diversity, inclusion and trauma-informed learning.

In 2023-24 the In Practice series returns, continuing to broaden and deepen topics of conversation and diversify voices in the room. While each workshop, panel discussion, or community conversation may shift in format to best support the chosen topics, each is led by a selection of experts and artists from across the dance community and beyond, and offers up meaningful learning for all dancing humans. 

 

NW In Practice 2023-24

NW In Practice 2023-24 is presented in partnership with The Dance Centre.

In Practice is a workshop series for continued education, peer to peer exchange, and knowledge sharing for dance teachers and leaders. This season, the series will include six workshops. The 2023 workshops will be curated by Kay Huang and Marco Esccer, and the 2024 workshops will be curated by Carolina Bergonzoni and Lisa Gelley.  

Upcoming Workshops

Advanced Registration required to reserve your spot.  

  • Sunday, April 21, 3:45 - 5:45pm | Bodyminds in Space: Principles of Trauma-Informed & Anti-oppressive Practice - Part Two with Lili Robinson & Veronique West 
Register

NW In Practice with Lili Robinson & Veronique West

Bodyminds in Space: Principles of Trauma-Informed & Anti-oppressive Practice - Part 2

April 21 | 3:45pm - 5:45pm

Online - Zoom

Join the facilitators as they offer discussion, sharing, and writing in a workshop that gives us space to reflect on our current facilitation approaches, our relationship to bodymind “norms”, and accessibility practices for mental health. In this follow-up to "Body-Minds in Space: Part 1", we will focus on case studies (example situations) and a deeper dive into trauma-informed accessibility. You do not need to have attended "Part 1" to attend "Part 2." By narrowing the scope and discussing specific real-life situations, "Part 2" aims to provide more practical tools and strategies, along with broader concepts.

About Lili Robinson
Lili Robinson (she/they) is a playwright, actor, poet and facilitator born and raised on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories. Lili is passionate about centring voices at the intersections of queerness, the African diaspora, socio-economic diversity and femme identity in their work. Lili’s debut play, Mx, was the winner of the 2019 Fringe New Play Prize and the 2019 Cultchivating the Fringe Award, earning it a spot in the Cultch’s 2021/2022 season. In addition to their acting and playwriting practice, in recent years they’ve also worked as: Community Engagement Producer for Playwrights Theatre Centre and the frank theatre; Resident Curator at rEvolver Festival; and as a dramaturg for the Parallel Project, supporting emerging BIPOC playwrights to develop new work. They are the winner of the Playwrights Guild of Canada’s 2023 John Palmer Award, which recognizes a new generation playwright dedicated to making art that agitates the status quo. // Photo by David Markwei
About Veronique West
Veronique/V (they/she) is a non-binary artist, arts worker, and disability advocate of Polish descent, based on stolen Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories. Their practice draws from their lived experience of neurodivergence, madness, and chronic illness. As an artist, V projects explore how disability can reshape understandings of self, kin, and community. They have collaborated across various mediums, including performance, sound art, web-based art, and virtual reality. As an advocate, V contributes to disability-led consultation, education, community organizing, and peer support initiatives. // Photo by Kimberly Ho

Past Workshops 

  • Sunday, October 15, 3:45 - 6:45pm | Reaching Out, Reaching In with Lara Barclay
  • Sunday, October 29, 3:45 - 6:45pm | Interdisciplinary Approaches with Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg & Matt Clarke
  • Sunday, November 19, 3:45 - 6:45pm | Tangible Movements with Ralph Escamillan
  • Sunday, December 3, 3:45 - 6:45pm | Shifting Paradigms with Donna Redlick & Tin Gamboa
  • Sunday, April 7, 3:45 - 6:45pm | The Child as a Teacher - Part Two with Julie Lebel & Starr Muranko 

In Practice with Lara Barclay

October 15 | 3:45pm - 6:45pm 

Lara Barclay

About the Workshop
In "Reaching Out, Reaching In", Lara will share with us her theoretical work in clinical counselling and expressive arts movement therapy. She will lead workshop participants through exercises that she brings to different communities to build trust, safety, and connections to their own selves. Dialogue and discussion will follow to round out the session.
Bio
Lara is a clinical counsellor and expressive arts therapist with international experience as a dancer, educator, choreographer and outreach director. Her professional dance career spanned 25 years, performing with companies in Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Canada, USA and Brazil. She co-founded Lamondance, a pre-professional company, and taught locally for Ballet BC, Arts Umbrella, Modus Operandi, RNB Dance, Goh Ballet, and Richmond Dance Academy. In 2019, Lara took on the role of rehearsal director for Ballet BC, in which she coached and set works by renowned contemporary choreographers. She later became the Associate Director of Outreach and Education where she provided movement workshops to alternative schools and public school dance programs throughout Metro Vancouver and across BC. Lara has worked with children and youth for over two decades, helping to carve stronger pathways through a therapeutic, arts-based process. Her curiosity for improvisation led her to study expressive arts therapy in Vancouver, and complete her masters degree at the European Graduate School in Switzerland. In 2023, Lara began working full-time as a child and youth therapist for the Squamish Nation where she continues her life-long dialogue with movement while encouraging well-being through collaborative play and creative expression.

In Practice with Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg & Matt Clarke

October 29 | 3:45pm - 6:45pm 

Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg

About the Workshop
Playful and practical ways we can integrate and include various ways of creation. We will “move” through a series and exercises and discussions to help us find ways to collaborate with each other and our own unique selves. Working from the value of interdisciplinary practice and celebration.
Bio
Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, is an award winning creator, performer, choreographer, director, writer, and artistic director of Tara Cheyenne Performance, working across disciplines in film, dance, theatre, and experimental performance. She is renowned as a trailblazer in interdisciplinary performance and as a mighty performer "who defies categorization on any level". Along with her own creations Tara has collaborated with many theatre companies and artists including; Zee Zee Theatre, Bard on the Beach, ItsaZoo Theatre, The Arts Club, Boca De Lupo, Ruby Slippers, The Firehall Arts Centre, Vertigo Theatre (Calgary). With a string of celebrated solo shows to her credit (including bANGER, Goggles, Porno Death Cult, I can’t remember the word for I can’t remember, Body Parts, Pants), multidisciplinary collaborations, commissions and boundary bending ensemble creations Tara's work is celebrated both nationally and internationally. Tara is known for her unique and dynamic hybrid of dance, comedy and theatre. She is sought after for creating innovative movement for theatre and has performed her full length solos and ensemble works around the world (highlights: DanceBase/Edinburgh, South Bank Centre/London, On the Boards/Seattle USA, High Performance Rodeo/Calgary etc.). Her most recent solo Body Parts premiered at The Cultch in May and is currently on tour. Tara lives on the unceded Coast Salish territories with her partner composer Marc Stewart and their child Jasper. www.taracheyenne.com

In Practice with Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg & Matt Clarke

October 29| 3:45pm - 6:45pm

Matt Clarke

About the Workshop
Explore character, action, and environment through playful use of space. With improv games and exercises we learn to play together freely and activate the intuitive. We can discover relationships and stories waiting for us as we explore objects in space and environments with all of our senses. Inspired by the work and philosophy of Viola Spolin.
Bio
Matt grew up in Vancouver and studied Theatre in New York at the New Actors Workshop. He is an actor, writer, director, dramaturge and producer of Theatre here on Coast Salish territory, aka Vancouver. Highlights include producing the Stories Written by Kids series - a collaborative project between local elementary schools and professional actors presented at The Cultch Theatre (2020-2023 LML), facilitating and co-creating Division Infinity Saves the World! (2023 Neworld) a puppet show exploring kids’ experience of the pandemic; working with The Roundhouse Youth Theatre Action Group as a mentor acting coach and dramaturg (2016-2023 Some Assembly); producing the Vancouver premiere of Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play (2018 LML); and presenting two stage adaptations of Kurt Vonnegut’s The Euphio Question (2012/2017 LML) featuring youth and emerging casts. He has degrees from UBC in English Literature and Scandinavian Studies. www.littlemountainlionproductions.com // Photo by Laura Bancroft.

In Practice with Ralph Escamillan

November 19 | 3:45pm - 6:45pm 

Ralph Escamillan

About the Workshop
Artists Ralph Escamillan brings his breadth of experience between both his two non-profits as well as being a freelance artist, teacher, curator and producer to New Works in his “Tangible Movements” workshop. In this 3 hour workshop Ralph will breakdown his process as a community organizer, how he's worked within the funding system to share his value systems - as well as his physical practices in relation to moving with tangible mediums like fabrics and objects.
Bio
Ralph Escamillan is a queer, Canadian-Filipinx performance artist, teacher and community leader based on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh Nations - on so called Vancouver, BC. With his company FakeKnot he creates work that strives to understand the complexities of identity using sound, costume, technology and the body. Recently he’s premiered his newest work whip at the MAI (Montreal) November 2021, and is currently creating a new work with the Philippine textile Piña that premiered May 2023. Ralph ‘Posh’ Gvasalia has been in the Ballroom Scene since 2014, opening his own kiki House of Gvasalia and joined the Mainstream House of Basquiat in 2021. The founder and Artistic/Executive Director of the non-profit organization VanVogueJam, Ralph shares his passion for Vogue/Ballroom culture at his weekly pay-what-you-can classes and vogue balls, acting as a beacon for the queer dance form in Western Canada. // Photo by John Tronco.

In Practice with Donna Redlick & Tin Gamboa

December 3 | 3:45pm - 6:45pm 

Donna Redlick

About the Workshop
What might we experience if we allowed ourselves to shift the paradigm within dance practice? In this workshop we will explore ‘opening up’ to new ways of perceiving in order to expand our perspectives on what dance practice can be. Through moving, talking and sharing we explore ‘letting go’ of habitual ways of practicing and facilitating dance. Exploring ‘re-patterning’ the way we approach dance practice to allow for emergence, difference, and new ways of ‘being’ is the focus of this workshop.
Bio
Donna Redlick is a Registered Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist, a Certified Movement Analyst (in Laban/ Bartenieff Movement Studies) and a Dance Artist/ Choreographer with over 30 years of professional experience. She holds a MA in Dance Practice (with distinction) from Trinity Laban, London, UK. Her thesis focused on a somatic approach to dance honing in on the sensing experience in both practice and performance. Donna advocates for a body-mind approach to movement and dance, teaching and choreographing from a somatic perspective, in order to discover movement beyond the habitual body. Her work and research hones in on the subjective experience so one can dance or move from the ‘lived’ experience. Alongside her dance practice, Donna works within her private practice supporting individuals (of all ages) with movement repatterning. She is the founder and director of Moving Arts & Somatic Studies (MASS) and Donna Redlick Dance (celebrating 30 years). Donna is grateful to be able to reside and create work in Vancouver, British Columbia, the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəyə̓ m (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. For more information about Donna visit www.donnaredlick.com // Photo by Rui Nunes

In Practice with Donna Redlick & Tin Gamboa

December 3 | 3:45pm - 6:45pm 

Tin Gamboa

About the Workshop
Tin hopes to share a collective practice more than anything, a practice delivered through a simultaneous sound score and movement score. This practice will involve tapping into listening, sensing, moving, and sounding as individuals and as a collective. To gently warm everyone up, Tin will first lead the group through some movement and sound exercises followed by a group exploration of the score. After this, everyone will be invited to engage in discussion. Tin is looking forward to sharing her teaching practice, at its budding phase, in the hopes that there can be a shared and reciprocal experience. In inviting participants to experience how she is learning to 'teach,' Tin hopes you will join her in finding insights into what a teaching practice can be.
Bio
Tin Gamboa is a Filipina dance artist who primarily resides on MST territories (Vancouver). She is focused on cultivating a cross-cultural arts practice between both places she calls home, Canada and the Philippines. She recently completed her MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at SFU, taught as part-time faculty at De La Salle Benilde College, and created and performed a new piece at the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Koryolab 2023. She is excited to be working with various circles within the arts and culture umbrella such as: Dumb Instrument Dance, Margarida Maiciera, FakeKnot (Ralph Escamillan), and Raven Spirit Dance. Devoted to being a lifelong student and artist, Tin is hopeful about the echoes that ripple from collective and thoughtful art-making and hopes to bring this thought and care into a budding teaching practice as well. // Photo by Jun Crane

In Practice with Julie Lebel & Starr Muranko

April 7 | 3:45pm - 6:45pm 

Julie Lebel

About the Workshop
The Child as a Teacher - Part 2. Dance in the early years of life is a powerful developmental experience. In this workshop we will share stories, ideas, practices and applications/games to support and expand possibilities in child-led curriculum. Join us in conversation and movement that supports us in creating safe and nurturing dance environments that allow each child to bring their whole selves, with their own desires, knowledge, and joy.
Bio
Julie Lebel gratefully lives and dances on the ancestral and unceeded Indigenous territories of the xʷməθkʷəjˀəm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil Waututh) First Nations. She is a francophone choreographer invested in interactions between public space, interdisciplinarity and community exploring the poetics of intergenerational connection and the practice of Ensemble Thinking, with a body of work spanning 25 years. She is the director and founder of Foolish Operations creating new dance experiences for and with people of all generations, especially very young children. FO creates connections between people, families, land, artistic disciplines, and fields of knowledge and inspires an expansive definition of dance where everyone can contribute, often in unusual locations. She is a member of Lower Left Collective (USA, Germany, Norway and Canada) teaching and performing Ensemble Thinking. She is the proud mother of 13 yrs old twins who are the first consultants in all her endeavors. foolishoperations.org // Photo by Riz Herboza

In Practice with Julie Lebel & Starr Muranko

April 7 | 3:45pm - 6:45pm 

Starr Muranko

About the Workshop
The Child as a Teacher - Part 2. Dance in the early years of life is a powerful developmental experience. In this workshop we will share stories, ideas, practices and applications/games to support and expand possibilities in child-led curriculum. Join us in conversation and movement that supports us in creating safe and nurturing dance environments that allow each child to bring their whole selves, with their own desires, knowledge, and joy.
Bio
Starr Muranko is a dancer, choreographer and Mother and Co-Artistic Director of Raven Spirit Dance. As a choreographer she is most interested in the stories that we carry within our bodies and Ancestral connections to land that transcend time and space. Her choreographic work has been shared both locally and nationally including presentations at the Dance Centre, Talking Stick Festival, Coastal Dance Festival, Dancing on the Edge, Weesageechak Begins to Dance, Impact Festival and InFringing Dance Festival. Starr has been a proud company dancer with the Dancers of Damelahamid since 2005, touring across Canada and internationally with the company and trained under the guidance and mentorship of the late Elder Margaret Harris. She has facilitated several dance workshops through ArtsStarts in Schools, Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre, the NEC – Native Education College, Vines Art Festival and recently was invited as a guest choreographer to co-lead an exciting creation lab with Ballet BC and Margaret Grenier. She is passionate about leaving a meaningful legacy for future generations and has worked with children and youth on community art projects in her Mother’s home territory of James Bay (Treaty 9) in the communities of Attawapiskat and Moose Factory. Starr honours and celebrates her mixed Ancestry of Cree (Moose Cree First Nation), French and German in all of her work. // Photo by Melanie Orr
About

NW In Practice is a professional development series for dance teacher and leaders to gather and engage in critical conversation around the practice of teaching dance. This season, the series will focus on addressing and supporting needs in community driven spaces through a diversity of topics and angles.

We strive to offer all workshops in a hybrid format. If you are interested in joining us online, reach out to marco@newworks.ca and we'll make sure we can make it happen with the planned workshop format. Scotiabank Dance Centre is a wheelchair accessible and scent reduced venue.

Who are these workshops for? 

In Practice is a space for dancing humans to gather around topics of teaching, leadership, and facilitation. The work we’re diving into is applicable across so many fields of teaching and facilitation and many participants have joined in who don’t identify as dance teachers. Each workshop is led by different artists/professionals in their fields, who guide the conversations and questions. Each workshop will complement the others, but are completely different. We welcome you to join us for the full series of conversations/workshops or a selection.

Registration and Cost

Suggested Workshop Registration - $23

Workshop fees have been set following conversation and feedback with staff, facilitators, and partners. Workshop registrants will never be turned away for lack of funds. If the above registration fee is financially inaccessible to you, please make a donation of your choice instead. Both 'by donation' and 'free' tickets are available through the registration link. 

About the Team & Questions

The workshops will be shaped, envisioned and co-curated by artists + teachers Kay Huang and Marco Esccer (2023 workshops), and Carolina Bergonzoni and Lisa Gelley (2024 workshops). Feel free to reach out to Marco at marco@newworks.ca with any questions about the upcoming workshops.

In Practice 2023-24 is presented with The Dance Centre.

Past Offerings

In Practice Fall 2022
Integrative Professional Development
The fall/winter series presents four workshops plus access to extended resources that will broaden your dance teaching horizons through the lens of mental health, art therapy, trauma-informed practices and diversity tools! You will have the opportunity to learn practical and useful skills that you’ll be excited to implement in your dance spaces.
Join this professional development series to update your dance toolbox and develop new and better practices in the classroom.
This series will be led and curated by In Practice Curator Marco Esccer. Learn more.
In Practice Spring 2023
Conversations
The Spring series fosters broader conversations around teaching as creative practice. How does teaching inform your choreographic or creative practice and vice versa? Join evolving conversations by sharing the language, energy, and physicality of your teaching practice. This series is envisioned as a space to hold our collective questions, build a community of colleagues, and activate the conversations that will carry us forward from here.
This series was co-led by In Practice co-curators Lisa Mariko Gelley and Carolina Bergonzoni.
Learn more.

In Practice is presented with The Dance Centre and it is generously supported by public funders and individual donations. We gratefully acknowledge the support of Metro Vancouver’s Regional Cultural Project Grants program, the City of Vancouver and the Province of BC, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Canada and the National Arts Centre who has supported the Spring Conversation Series. Without them this program would not be possible!

 

Photos: Share Dance In Practice Workshops, 2023. Photos by Carla Alcántara.