Abstract
In the current North American socio-cultural climate, performers face employment scarcity, creating a culture where they tend to hang on to any employment they find. This situation often results in dancers choosing to remain silent when asked to perform in conditions with which they feel uncomfortable. Since trauma has recently become a buzzword in creative research and its notion is rapidly permeating the creative zeitgeist, how can directors gauge and sustain their performers’ emotional well-being while aiming to harvest genuinely sourced material, especially when looking at trauma specifically at the core of their creative research question, going beyond trauma-informed practice, and into the trauma-focussed territory? This collaborative research-creation project, led by Principal Investigator Marie France Forcier, explored this difficult question. It aimed to discover and articulate strategies for lead creators and performers to deal with those issues. Throughout various creative, interview- and focus group-based research processes, Forcier devised “windows, black holes, helium”, a new contemporary choreographic work on four professional dancers who self-identify as trauma survivors, in consultation with clinical psychiatrist and scholar Dr. Allison Crawford. Data collection — achieved through note-taking and video recording, cross-referenced to dancers’ on-camera testimonials of their experience during rehearsals — continued during the entire process and post-performance. This paper, co-presented by Forcier and Louis Laberge-Côté — who acted as collaborator/performer in the project — disseminates various aspects of the research and creative process.
Presenters
Louis Laberge-CôtéAssociate Professor, Performance Dance, The Creative School, Toronto Metropolitan University, Ontario, Canada Marie France Forcier
Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts– School of Creative and Performing Arts– Dance, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
The Arts in Social, Political, and Community Life
KEYWORDS
Trauma-Focussed Choreographic Practice, Collaborative Choreographic Practice, Somatic Sourcing in Dance
