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Our final DanceLab of the season features a collaborative work from choreographer Rebecca Margolick and violinist Hannah Epperson. We sat down with Rebecca to discuss her dance career, her history with her collaborator, and their piece Catenary, which they will share and discuss in a studio showing July 25.

Briefly describe your dance career to date. 
I have been a freelance dancer since 2012 and an independent choreographer since 2016. I create solo work, collaborative duets, multidisciplinary work, and am occasionally commissioned to create on companies or training programs. I have been nomadic for the past year and a half, working mostly between New York City and Vancouver while touring internationally. This summer, I will be resettling in my hometown of Vancouver!

Tell us about your collaborator, Hannah Epperson. How did you meet, and why did you choose to work together? 
Hannah and I met in NYC in 2016 through friends and through working on an immersive performance project we were both performing in. We quickly became close friends, and recognized this sense of kinship and magic we felt when working together. Hannah is one of the most special musicians, creative minds, and human, that I know. We share a desire to uncover and balance the line between darkness, beauty, and intensity, in our work. And so, we decided to create this project together back in 2019. We had a residency through Island Mountain Arts at the Arts Wells Festival in August 2019. We worked for a week at a beautiful old gym in small-town Wells. My partner at the time, Maxx Berkowitz collaborated with us creating supportive ambient soundscapes. We performed a work-in-progress version of Catenary at two different venues at the festival. We met again in December 2019 at the Banff Centre Dance Artist in Residence program. Then, COVID happened and we dropped our plans for this project for the time being. Hannah and I have undergone fundamental life changes in the past few years (Hannah is now a mom of two!), so we put the project on hold until this opportunity through the Dance Centre came up.

Tell us about your DanceLab project, Catenary
A catenary is the curve that an idealized hanging rope assumes under its own weight when supported at its two ends. This definition and the relationship it describes is the foundational concept for the piece, which explores the centers of symmetry not only between us, and our respective disciplines – but between the poles of antagonism that define our social, economic and political reality. Hannah and I are working with themes of motherhood, invisible labour, and relational complexities (to name a few).

What do you hope to achieve during the lab?
We are resurfacing all the work and creation we did five years ago, but distilling the ideas and seeing what feels relevant to us now, and what we can let go of, and what we’re missing. During these two weeks, we’re diving more into the research and concept of the work, including our relationship to each other, both physically and musically.

From here, we’ll have a solid base for a future technical residency to develop the sound design and lighting aspects of the work.

What is your next project(s)?
I am currently dancing in Andrea Peña & Artists’ new project UAQUE  at the National Arts Centre in September. Livona Ellis and I will be working towards a premiere of our duet Fortress in Vancouver. I will also be premiering a new duet with Tushrik Fredericks in NYC at the end of November.
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DanceLab Studio Showing

Rebecca Margolick
Catenary
Thursday July 25 | 5pm
Free Admission
Details

Photos: Mary Matheson and Effy Grey

Explore dance performances currently presented by The Dance Centre. Each season, you’ll find new dance shows. See what’s on today.