Halifax, NS
Gillian Seaward-Boone pursued professional dance training at l’Ecole de Danse Contemporaine de Montreal (EDCM). Upon graduating, she worked with Sinha Danse, Pigeons International and Sasha Ivanochko before joining O Vertigo Danse as a full company member under the direction of Ginette Laurin. During her time with the company, she performed extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and North America, and worked independently as both a dancer and rehearsal director in Canada and abroad. In 2013, Gillian returned home to Halifax and made her debut with Mocean Dance with the premier of Sable Island by Serge Bennethan, and has since performed with Mocean in works by Marie Josee Chartier, Sara Coffin, Sharon Moore and Parts+Labour_Danse. She has served as rehearsal director for Destins Croisees, Danielle Desnoyers, Heidi Strauss and Lydia Zimmer. Gillian frequently collaborates with choreographers/dancers Genevieve Boulet, Jacinte Armstrong, Alexis Cormier, Sarah Murphy, PHIN Dance, and Lydia Zimmer and is a founding member of the Home Ex artist collective. She is currently in creation for a new solo work by Sharon Moore, and is both a dancer and project manager for Everywhere the Edges, a soaring new work by Rebecca Lazier and Janet Echelman.
Workshop: The Creative Interpreter
This workshop examines the relationship between choreographer and interpreter in a creation and performance through the lens of the interpreter or contracted artist. What does it mean to be an interpreter in a work? How does the creative process call upon your choreographic skills and instincts within the role of interpreter? In research and creation, choreographers often expect their movement artists to generate material in some form, whether through improvisation or direct tasks and prompts. How does an interpreter recognize their own choreographic instincts and aesthetic desires separate from those of the choreographer whose work they are doing? When do we emulate versus generate? And how do we maintain our own artistic voice and aesthetic while emulating and executing other choreographers’ work?