Practicing Partnering Pathways with Guest Artists Sarah Hutton & Aiden Cass, Co-Directors of Generous Mess
Wednesday, April 23, 10am-12pm
In this class we will share some of our partnering tools, ideas, and curiosities we use in our company’s creative practice and partnering repertoire. We will start the class with a series of exercises and games to warm up our sensation, listening, weight sharing, and backspace. We will then share some partnering pathways and explore the range of possibilities in each movement by switching both roles and partners. Lastly, we will link together a few of the things we practiced in class. If time allows, we will try the role with multiple partners and use the phrase of movement as a container for you to explore your own curiosities inside the partnering technique.
This workshop is for pre-professional and professional dancers who have an existing understanding of pathways in and out of the floor and inversions.
Please note: Participants need to be comfortable giving and taking weight and be willing to switch roles and partners.
This workshop is open to advanced and professional dancers.
Register HERE
About the artists:
Born in North Vancouver BC, Aiden Cass began his training with North Shore Academy of Dance, and after graduation joined Modus Operandi (MO) in 2015. Since his time training with MO, Aiden has worked with David Raymond, Tiffany Tregarthen, Shay Kuebler, Idan Cohen, Paras Terezakis, Mandy Moore, and Emmalena Fredriksson; as well as many other artists in the Vancouver community. Aiden has had the opportunity to perform and tour internationally and throughout Canada with Radical System Art and Out Innerspace Dance Theatre.
Sarah Hutton is a dancer, actor, choreographer, teacher, and rehearsal director. She was raised in Hanna, Alberta. She moved to Vancouver in 2013 and has since trained with the Source Dance Company, EDAM, Modus Operandi, and Peggy Baker’s Emerging Artists Program. Sarah’s other training includes RUBBERBANDance Method and scene study classes with Nadine Wright. She has had the pleasure to collaborate with Paras Terezakis, Rachel Helten, Isak Enquist, Shay Kuebler, Constance Cooke, and Anya & Sophia Saugstad. Touring with Radical System Art has brought Sarah to perform in France, Austria, the United States and across Canada.
Creative Workshop with Guest Artist, Lina Cruz
Monday, April 28, 12pm-2pm
Lina Cruz’s works are theatrical as well as detailed in body language. She seeks to create otherworldly characters, who interact in surprising ways, playfully conveying the awkwardness of human existence. She works with sound and costumes simultaneously from the start of a creative process and admits to being particularly attached to props, as precious partners in her works.
In this workshop, drawing from components of Cruz’s works, the aim will be to compose a living landscape of creatures, exploring movement, vocals, texts, poems, props and musical participation.
This workshop is geared towards to advanced and professional dancers.
Register HERE
About the artist:
Montreal choreographer Lina Cruz is a two-time Dora Mavor Moore Award recipient for Outstanding Original Choreography (2012 and 2017) and was nominated for the same award in 2015. She received a second place award in the 1998 international choreographic competition of the St-Sauveur Arts Festival (Quebec). She founded her company, Fila 13 Productions, in 2003 and has presented her work in festivals and events at local, national and international levels. In Montreal, most of her works have premiered in coproduction with Agora de la danse.
Originally from Colombia, Cruz has a background in ballet as much as modern/contemporary styles and takes interest in martial arts and various forms of stage expression. She has created works for independent artists as well as dance companies and institutions of professional dance training. Cruz is also often involved in theatre and opera projects. In her works, she explores detailed body language, sound and vocal expression, composing characters and sketches which portray an unsettling strangeness, but always hand in hand with a mischievous playfulness.
After many years of not performing, at age 67, Lina reconnected with the pleasures and challenges of the stage, performing solo work in Toronto, with more exciting adventures to come in 2025 and 2026!
Dancing from the Inside Out with Margie Gillis
Monday, January 27, 2025 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
WCD is thrilled to present the workshop, Dancing from the Inside Out with Margie Gillis on Monday, January 27th!
An incredible opportunity for local dancers! Geared towards experienced and professional level dancers.
Move into your body’s experiential wisdom and reveal the soul in motion. Develop your sensitivity to the connection between thought, feeling, spirit and body as you listen in to your body’s inner wisdom, impulses, conversations and emotions. Becoming sensitive to and engaging with this inner life provides information both for expanding well-being, as well as deepening your artistic and creative expression.
What is the architecture of our inner landscape? How can we discover the transcendent moments in ourselves and share this with our audiences? This workshop is for advanced and professional level dancers and focuses on the artist and reaching a profound communication through that art to others.
Internationally acclaimed dance Artist Margie Gillis is one of the most influential Canadian choreographers/dancers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her company, the Margie Gillis Dance Foundation, was founded in 1981. Margie has created more than one hundred and fifty creations, solos, duets, and group works, which have been performed around the globe. Her repertoire covers a wide array of topics including the feminine consciousness, the natural world, and the transformative process, all merging in a profound and powerful expression of humanism and emotion. Teaching, mentoring and passing her legacy and creative history are an integral part of her vision. From there
was born the Margie Gillis – Legacy Project Dance Company, which is now performing and touring both new and retrospective works. She has received numerous awards including Officer of the Order of Canada, Chevalier de l’Ordre du Québec, the Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award from the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award Foundation, an Honorary Degree from Concordia University and many more. She continues to develop her craft through experimenting, teaching, creation, innovation and performance. In 2023, Margie Gillis celebrated her 50th career anniversary: 50 years of creation, love, and dance.
Call for Artists
first posting: October 30, 2024
updated posting: December 09, 2024
extended deadline: January 05, 2025
Each season WCD provides multiple entry points for artists to connect, perform and create with WCD. This season we are proud to offer a submission-based, mainstage opportunity and are excited to see who may join us!
WCD’s 24/25 Call to Artists opens the stage to works that are “of today” and/or inspired by the future.
WCD is looking to program 1-2 contemporary dance artists for presentation April 25-27, 2025 at the Rachel Browne Theatre in Winnipeg, Canada. These works will be presented as part of WCD’s 60th Anniversary Season.
Deadline: January 05, 2025
More information can be found HERE
Professional Classes
WCD offers advanced/professional level classes. These classes are typically technique classes, run in conjunction with WCD’s project work, and often serve as company class. Most classes are free.
All current information about WCD class is posted here.
Classes listed here are also open to drop-ins; please register in advance.
To register and reserve your spot please email communications@winnipegscontemporarydancers.ca
UPCOMING CLASSES 24/25:
Spring 2025 Classes
More information to be announced
All classes run 10:00-11:00am, unless otherwise specified.
*Please do not attend class if you have a fever or are feeling unwell.
All drop-in dancers must complete a waiver before participating in class.
Classes are geared towards advanced/professional level contemporary dancers and most often serve as WCD’s company class. Participants often include WCD dancers, independent dancers, graduates and aspiring graduates of professional training programs, choreographers, and/or those that are working, or aspiring to work, as a contemporary dancer.
Classes are often led by Artistic Director, Jolene Bailie with live drumming by Ian Mikita.
In conjunction with seasonal programming, WCD may also offer workshops with Guest Artists.
24/25 Season Past Classes:
September:
September 05-06, 09-13, 16-19
October:
October 21-23, 28-31
November:
November 1, 4-8, 12-15,18-22
Classes & Workshops 23/24 Season:
In 2023/2024, WCD offered 73 professional-level classes, one workshop, and one Open House event.
scroll down for more info
Masterclass led by Claire O’Neil
Friday, November 17, 2023 10:00am-12:00pm
Call for Dancers
We are thrilled to commission Guest Choreographer, Jera Wolfe, to create a new work for WCD!
WCD invites Winnipeg-based contemporary dancers who wish to be considered for this project to join us for an in-person open house.
Open House for Dancers
Sunday, November 12,2023 3:15 pm – 5:00 pm at WCD
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TRY CLASS AT HOME – free online and on demand.
WCD: Class at Home!
Free! Online and on demand!
Geared towards advanced and professional level contemporary dancers, classes are created for a smaller dancing area and as an option for dancers to train at home during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Two versions of each class are available. The first version has a breakdown and teaching of each setting. The second version moves at a much quicker pace, offering the option to run class.
Available for dancers to do at home and at their convenience.
Artist Fees for WCD’s online classes were made possible with the additional support of a Safe at Home grant from the Government of Manitoba.
PAST SEASONS
In 22/23, WCD offered 108 in-person classes and an improvisation workshop with Guest Artist, Daina Ashbee.
In 21/22, WCD offered 88 in-person classes and creative workshops/classes with Guest Artists Sara Porter, Jera Wolfe and Marie-Josée Chartier.
In 20/21, WCD offered 72 in-person classes, free online classes (see WCD: Class at Home, links below) and creative workshops/classes with Guest Artists Syreeta Hector and Marie-Josée Chartier.