In Practice
Conversations for Dancing Humans 

Integrative Professional Development

The Spring series of Share Dance: In Practice fosters broader conversations around teaching as creative practice. Join evolving conversations by sharing the language, energy, intentions, 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 is an invitation to dive into big questions, and ground ourselves in our actions of teaching and sharing dance. Dance teachers, and all dancing humans, are welcome to join in. This series will be co-curated by In Practice Facilitators Lisa Mariko Gelley and Carolina Bergonzoni.

About Lisa Mariko Gelley
Lisa Mariko Gelley is an artist and mother, living and working on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She received her training in classical, contemporary, and urban dance forms in Canada and Europe. Lisa is Artistic Co-Director of Company 605, a contemporary dance company in so-called Vancouver, creating original works for stage and film through collaborative processes with artists in dance and many other disciplines. Lisa has worked and collaborated with artists including Justine A. Chambers, Cindy Mochizuki, Amber Funk Barton, Miwa Matreyek, Maiko Yamamoto, Ziyian Kwan, Vanessa Goodman, Jeanette Kotowich, Onibana Taiko, Dana Gingras, Martha Carter, Karen Jamieson, and was a member of Aeriosa (Julia Taffe) for six years, broadening her practice to include vertical contemporary dance in rock climbing systems on urban building walls and mountains. In addition to her work as a performer/choreographer, Lisa values opportunities to connect with young dancers and emerging professionals through contemporary dance education. Lisa is the recipient of the 2015 Vancouver International Dance Festival Choreographic Award. www.company605.ca
About Carolina Bergonzoni
Carolina Bergonzoni is a dance artist, scholar, and educator. Originally from Italy, she moved to Vancouver, on unceded Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil- Waututh), and xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) territories, in 2014. Her practices span between dancing, writing, and teaching from the body. She is the Artistic Associate of All Bodies Dance Project. She holds a BA and MA in Philosophy, an MA in Comparative Media Arts, and a Ph.D. in Education from Simon Fraser University where her research focused on inclusive dance pedagogies. In 2011, she graduated as Dance Educator and Community Engagement Facilitator and, since then, she has been working on building communities of movers and thinkers with people from 0 to 99+ years old. Her choreographic work has been presented at festivals in Canada and Europe, including Vancouver Fringe Festival, Dance in Vancouver, Dancing on The Edge, BC Buds, Vines Arts Festival, and The Dance Centre. She is passionate about the impact of teaching from the body, and cannot wait to see more educators and movers learn about their body and from their bodies! // Photo by Luciana Freire D’Anunciação

Caring Spaces Through Inclusive Language

This conversation will be co-facilitated by
Katia Asomaning and Marcelo Ponce

Language matters! Let’s chat about the ways our language can either harm or validate youth. In this workshop we will talk about trauma-informed language, stigmatizing language, and bystander intervention. Join us in creating more caring learning environments! .

Sunday, March 26, 2023. 3:30pm – 5:30pm PDT | Online

About Katia Asomaning
Katia Asomaning (she/they/he) is a settler on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. They are passionate about: advocating for marginalized people; creating opportunities for community; building equity into as many sectors as they can get their hands on; and plants. In addition to their work in community relations and outreach with Vines Art Festival, Katia is also Director of Operations for Pink Flamingo, a Black-led advocacy group that uplifts the QTBIPOC community, and sits on the Board of Directors for Helm Studios, a not-for-profit, music production studio that offers sliding scale and zero cost services.
About Marcelo Ponce
Marcelo Ponce (they) is a young neurodivergent, trans and queer person from Iztacalco mexico city living in Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam territories since 2012. Marcelo’s independent work includes consultation, programming development, resource creation, and training on gender and disability. They have worked as the Accessibility Director at Vines Art Festival since 2019. They centre lived experience and anti-oppression, and strive to build relationships based on mutual respect and compassion through their work.

The Child As A Teacher

Co-facilitated by Julie Lebel and Starr Muranko.

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. 

Sunday, April 23, 2023 3:15pm – 6:15pm | In Person – Q7 Studios, 77 East 7th Avenue, Vancouver BC

About Julie Lebel
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. She is a member of Lower Left Collective (USA, Germany, Norway and Canada) teaching and performing Ensemble Thinking. She is the proud mother of 12yrs old twins who are the first consultants in all her endavours. Can teaching be about holding space for a chosen topic to explore together? Through Foolish Operations, we hold long learning and creating creative cycles to allow for new ideas to emerge from many points of view. Learning cycles often materialize in the form of a performance, which allows us to both dive into a topic and share our curiosity about it with the world. In this way, Foolish Operations’ teaching practices align with “emerging curriculum” practices and are concerned with the well being of all who participate.
About Starr Muranko
Starr Muranko is a dancer, choreographer and Mother and has been an Artistic Associate with Raven Spirit since 2009. 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.

Bodyminds in Space:
Principles of Trauma-Informed & Anti-Oppressive Practice

This conversation was co-facilitated by
Lili Robinson  and Veronique West.

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”, accessibility practices for mental health, trauma, and neurodivergence, and ways to emotionally support ourselves and others.  

Sunday, April 30, 2023 3:15pm – 6:15pm | In Person – Q7 Studios, 77 East 7th Avenue, Vancouver BC

About Lili Robinson
Lili Robinson (she/they) is a theatre artist, poet and facilitator based on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Lili is passionate about centring voices at the intersections of queerness, Black diaspora, socio-economic diversity and femme identity in their work. Since graduating Studio 58 in 2018, Lili has worked and trained with theatre companies including Theatre Replacement, Playwrights Theatre Centre, Rumble Theatre, the frank theatre, UpintheAir Theatre, and the Arts Club. Lili’s debut play, Mx, was the winner of the 2019 Fringe New Play Prize and the 2019 Cultchivating the Fringe Award. Currently, Lili is a resident curator at rEvolver Festival, and she is also developing two new plays, Infest and Maroon. As an organizer and facilitator, in recent years Lili has been a part of Rumble Theatre’s Future Facilitators cohort, co-founded and co-facilitated the Rest and Resilience event series for Black queer community members, and co-founded the Vancouver Black Theatre Archival Initiative. Drawing from the work of Black feminist scholars, activists, and somatics/healing justice practitioners, Lili will be offering basic principles of anti-oppressive practice as informed by Sonya Renee Taylor’s “Ladder of Bodily Hierarchy” framework, as well as strategies and considerations for integrating mindfulness of one’s own somatic responses when holding a leadership role in a room. Lili’s portions of the workshop will include a basic breathwork practice, and reflection on how dynamics of privilege and oppression that arise in a space can be navigated from a place of somatic awareness.
About Veronique West
Veronique West (she/they) 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, their 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, Veronique contributes to disability-led consultation, education, community organizing, and peer support initiatives.

Share Dance: In Practice with All Bodies Dance Project [+]
[poster]

This conversation will be co-facilitated by Jennie Chantal Duguay and Sebastián Oreamuno.

Wednesday, March 8, 11:30am – 1pm PST | Online, Zoom

Presented in partnership with All Bodies Dance Project.

Image Description: a group of ten dancers lit by pink and blue lighting on a dark stage. Some are seated in manual wheelchairs, others are standing, kneeling, crouching, each finding support in the other dancers. Most have arms outstretched, with an upward gaze into a spotlight.

About Jennie Chantal Duguay
Jennie Chantal Duguay is of French and Irish ancestry and grew up on Algonquin Anishinaabe territory in Ottawa. They have been living in Vancouver on unceded Tsleil-Waututh, Skxwú7mesh, and Musqueam land for the last 20 years. Jennie’s lived experience has led to expertise in areas of Disability Justice, Community Based Care practices, and Community Care Collectives. Jennie has co-created anti-oppressive community guidelines, developed curriculum, organized fundraising events, and provided consulting services on topics of accessibility and inclusion for disabled people. Jennie is also a published poet and creative non-fiction writer.
About Sebastián Oreamuno
Born in Santiago, Chile, Sebastián Oreamuno is a queer Toronto-based artist and academic currently pursuing his PhD in Dance Studies at York. His doctoral research explores the relationship between diasporic embodied memory and cueca, the Chilean national dance. Other interests include the participatory body and performing ability; popular culture; men and pointe; and multi-media artistic practices. His work is deeply inspired by Jennifer Dick, Aria Evans, and Sashar Zarif, with whom he’s grateful to have worked.

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How much does each workshop cost to attend?

Share Dance: In Practice 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!