I am an independent dance artist and scholar born and raised in Treaty 1 Territory in Winnipeg, MB. Before returning to Winnipeg in 2022, I lived in the US for over 20 years, earning a BA in Dance with a double major in Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College (PA) and a PhD in Critical Dance Studies from the University of California, Riverside. I spent 12 years in Philadelphia as a dance artist, dance dramaturge and Adjunct Professor of Dance at Temple University and Bryn Mawr College. I identify as a fat and disabled dance artist and seek to make space for body diversity in dance
I make dances about the strangeness, sadness, absurdity, messiness and occasional wonder of being human. I am informed by my interest in the following: feeling awkward, being awkward, neologisms, speculative fiction, disaster preparedness, lines and grids, nostalgia for fictional histories, female reproductive anatomy, multi-linguistic curse words, poststructural semiotics, sweetness & sadness, regency era undergarments, the possibility of growing antlers, fleshiness, the footwear aesthetics of like-minded groups, and becoming inoperative.
Coming up:
September 24th, 2023
A Research of One’s Own: Creating an individual process for making and developing performance
For choreographers and movement based performance makers.
This workshop explores methods of research for developing performance worlds and languages that are unique to each maker’s curiosities while engaging broadly different human experiences. Participants may bring in work or an idea for a work, that they are interested in discussing and exploring within our pop-up “community of inquiry”.
To register, email lvriend@gmail.com. Questions can be directed to Laura and David at this email as well.
Sunday, September 24th, 3:15-7pm at the Output @videopool. 100 Arthur Street, 2nd floor.
Workshop is pay what you can at the door or by e-transfer to lvriend@gmail.com.
September 29, 2023
Image: Karen Asher, from 2023 Young Lungs Dance Exchange Research Series
I am excited to continue the choreographic research I began during the 2023 Young Lungs Dance Exchange research residency with the mentorship and advising of Philadelphia-based choreographer David Brick. “Vignettes for Sewing Dances and Choreographing Clothing” is a collaborative dance project between Laura Vriend and Katherine Magne of Winnipeg Sews, using scrap fabric collected form the Winnipeg sewing community to explore the creative possibilities offered by the global abundance of textile waste. We explore sewing as performance, we question the comforts and perils of consumption, we invite the audience to sew with us. And we sort, we sew, we twirl and thrash. We play in the soup of colors and textures and see what we can recuperate from what’s been discarded. We’ll be showing our work in progress on Friday, September 29th at 7:30 at the Output at Video Pool, 100 Arthur St, 2nd floor, Winnipeg, MB
Pay what you can at the door or by e-transfer to lvriend@gmail.com. Refreshments will be served and we welcome all thoughts, feedback and discussion.
David Brick’s work in Winnipeg is made possible in part by a travel grant from Canada Council for the Arts
