Katherine Semchuk
& Meghann Michalsky

"While in residency at New Dance Horizons, we have been working on the beginnings of our first choreographic collaboration which investigates forced closeness, interdependence, and abandonment through partner work. After so much time alone and without dancing with another person, this has been a timely residency to enter back into creation. Our time in the space has been essential in reacquainting ourselves with our partnering practices, intimacy with another body and propelling our choreographic practice together. Over the last week and a half, the new work Rigorous Connections (working title), has begun to take shape and is emerging as a window into both the hesitancy and desire for physical connection."
— Katherine Semchuk & Meghann Michalsky

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Photo credit: Kendra Epik

Katherine Semchuk is a dance-based collaborator, performer and instructor currently based in Tkaronto (Treaty 13 Territory). She is a graduate of Victoria School of the Arts and The School of Toronto Dance Theatre where she was the recipient of the Kathryn Ash Leadership Award. Katherine has had the pleasure of working with Good Women Dance Collective (GWDC), Kaeja d’Dance, Kylie Thompson, Mateo Galindo Torres, Meghann Michalsky, Mile Zero Dance, Nostos Collectives, Peggy Baker Dance Projects, Sasha Ivanochko, and Naishi Wang.

She feels liberated when she is able to act as a physical portal for her own and other collaborator's stories, ideas and sketches. She continues to investigate her own creative practice and has presented her work through numerous festivals and platforms including Feats Festival of Dance, Mile Zero Dance, and Expanse Festival. Katherine’s artistic work has been supported by Edmonton Arts Council and Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

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Meghann Michalsky is a dance artist working in Alberta. She is the co-creator of Project InTandem and YYC Contemporary Technique Training, two programs that offer opportunities to emerging artists in Canada. She was awarded the 2019 RBC Emerging Artist Award at the Mayor’s Lunch for Arts Champions - she is the first Dancer/Choreographer to receive this award.

Since graduating the University of Calgary dance program, she has rigorously pursued her dance technique training in Canada as well as in Israel, Portugal, Sweden, the U.K., the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria. 

She creates highly visceral works that combine intense musculature and athletic physicality with subtle internally driven flow-based movements. Her movement signature has been described as vigorous, raw, and interknit. Her knowledge of Hip-Hop and Krump movement principles has influenced her development of isolated, rhythmic, bound, and fast-twitch movement qualities into her contemporary choreographies.

Her most recent choreographic works have been presented at Project InTandem, Fluid Festival, Stream of Dance Festival, Annual Alberta Dance Festival, Convergence, and abroad in Finland. She will be presenting her work Deep END in Vancouver and Camrose this coming November.