Guelph artist, Katie Ewald is our 2025 artist-in-residence. Leading up to the festival, Katie will be in residence at IICSI’s (International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation) ImprovLab with collaborators, Andrea Nann, Kevin O’Connor and Julia Garlisi. Her work in progress the space between will be shared at the Lab on Saturday, May 31 at 4 PM. Don’t miss your chance to see what the group gets up to during their residency! Katie shares some insights into this improvisational work which deeply cares for both its collaborators and the audience.
What motivated the creation of the work you are presenting at the Guelph Dance Festival?
We are mind, body, social and spirit. That is what I perceive being human to be. I have a hunch that we are all needing more connection to spirit right now, through mindful experiences in community. I certainly do. This creation is motivated by desire to make visible “the unseen, but felt”. What does that mean? It means all my collaborators and I are invested in creating something that acknowledges and works with spirit, or the divine as inspiration, in real time, as we dance what we know into the world. Our collaborator, Kevin O’Connor, calls this “worlding”. My hope is that you see something between us, that the negative space around us becomes charged and important to you.
I am motivated by connection to others, to the public as well as my collaborators and to make a friendly and open space for you, as the public (or the temporary community), to touch into this mystical work we are engaged with, because in some ways it is also mundane. That is to say just one way of being human. To find magic in the mundane, that is truly amazing!
How have collaborators informed your process and/or the experience of this live work?
We make scores and practice them. Scores for dancers are agreements or a like recipe that we make together: instead of ingredients, there are agreed upon ideals, values, aims, and foci.
Every time we make a score and try it, we are aiming to make decisions together, while I, as the director, hold the responsibility of the container and presentation of the work. I want my collaborators to feel heard, and welcome to implicate themselves into this work. I am honoured they have decided to share that with me. These dancers and world class humans and artists who inspire me with their profound intelligences and experience.
We are seeking a virtuosity in presence.
What do you hope the audience will take away from the work?
I hope that the public feels respected, cared for and included. I hope the public feels inspired and feels (with the body/soma) the unseen forces that we are tapping into. I hope the audience can feel more relaxed and connected after they engage in the space between.