Photo by: Ashlene Nairn
Join Xchanges online in this exciting 4 part series in the fall 2021.
WHEN: Sundays, 1-3pm – starting in the fall, 2021
WHO: For Visual Artists of all Stages and Ages, life drawing with the moving form.
WHERE: Online via Zoom. Link and info in the registration item at the online store.
Event Details
Over 2 hours, participants will be working virtually with a professional dancer, movement coach/choreographer, and visual art facilitator offering moving poses in limbo and site specific spaces. The dancer will create innovative shapes and movements, playing with negative space, scale, angles and inertia. Poses will vary in tempo and quality to invite a variety of artistic responses from the visual artists. This experimental form of drawing is not the traditional hold-a-pose life drawing session – artists will be challenged to work quickly and take risks.
Meet Our Dancer
Kayla Henry is Victoria BC based contemporary dance artist who is honored to be living and making art on the unceded lands of the Lekwungen peoples, today known as Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations.
Upon graduating from The School of Contemporary Dancers in 2011, Kayla started dancing with Canada’s longest-running contemporary dance company, Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers. She has worked with many choreographers including Constance Cooke (Victoria BC), Odette Heyn (Winnipeg MB), Helen Husak (Calgary AB), Christina Medina (Vienna, Austria), Menaka Thakkar (Toronto ON), Paras Terezakis (Vancouver BC), and has appeared in works by Roger Sinha (Montreal QB), and many more. Internationally she has worked in Berlin, Germany; Vienna, Austria; Graz, Austria and New York City, USA.
Independently, Kayla has been creating solo work since 2013 with performances in Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria, and Winnipeg, Canada. Her creations have been supported by Constance Cooke, Jennifer Mascall, Good Women Dance Collective, Springboard Performance, Theatre Junction LAB Residency, and Dance Victoria. Kayla has also acted as an understudy, rehearsal director and artistic collaborator in works by Helen Husak and Rebecca Sawdon. Kayla is the founder and Artistic Director of Noble Riot Dance Theatre in Victoria BC and is currently deeply inspired by her recent journey with cancer.
Meet the Artistic Facilitators
Constance Cooke, Dance
Choreographer for Stage, Screendance and Site Specific Work, Educator of Contemporary Dance, Mentor, Somatic Movement Teacher.
Cooke is an Established Canadian Dance Artist who lives, creates and works on the unceded Coast Salish Territory of the Lekwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ Nations, in Victoria British Columbia. Her work has attracted and cultivated curious, open and intelligent audiences for contemporary and experimental work for over 30 years.
Her work has been presented in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Germany and The United Kingdom by Festivals, Galleries and Presenters such as The American Dance Festival, Dancing on the Edge, The Reel Film Festival, Romp, Dance Matters, Dance Victoria, Media-Net and more. Cooke also self-produces many of her own full length-works, has received commissions from Ballet and Contemporary Companies, as well number of Canadian and International independent Dance Artists.
Cooke teaches experiential movement, choreographic composition, improvisation, contemporary technique, screendance and choreography for the frame, a programme she specifically devised for dancers, choreographers and directors.
As a mentor and dramaturg, Cooke has supported the creation processes of new works for Stage, Site- Specific Installations and Screendances, working with Choreographers, Media Artists, Flamenco Dancers and Performance Artists.
In March 2020 Cooke began teaching movement for the frame online and continues to virtually mentor both video and dance artists during these times of COVID. She has also devised a Workshop Series called Moving Forms alongside visual artists Heidi Bergstom and Pamrela Millar that will be offered through Xchanges online programing.
Heidi Bergstrom, MA, BFA Visual Artist
Heidi Bergstrom, MA, BFA, is a multimedia visual artist and cultural researcher in Victoria, BC, Canada. Her fine art practice and exhibitions include works in painting, printmaking, video and photography and multimedia installations. She has exhibited her work in Canada and the USA. Heidi has been involved with many arts organizations including her current role as President for Xchanges’ Artists’ Gallery and Studios in Victoria, BC where she also facilitates life drawing and portrait drawing online weekly. You can learn more about Heidi and her studio in Metchosin at her personal website and her International Artist Residency program site.
This workshop is for artists of all ages and stages.
It’s a great place to meet other artists and hone your figurative skills in a supportive and creative environment and just have fun. Participants are encouraged to share or post their drawings and art resulting from the life drawing session on our Facebook page or send us images to post on our Instagram and website!
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