Choreography | Gabrielle Martin

As a choreographer, I express the body as an object of external forces, struggling for autonomy. As a black woman, this is an externalization of inherited experience and my calling into existence of an embodied resistance; a perpetual study of tenacious, insubordinate bodies. As an artist with a formation in contemporary dance and a professional background as an aerial acrobat, my work explores the body’s ephemeral subversion of gravity and is realized from the floor to the air and the spaces between. Since 2018, I have been choreographing and producing contemporary aerial dance projects with Corporeal Imago, exploring the shadow-side of our human experience with the expressive power of suspension. Uninterested in realism, we make new illusions for the disenchanted.

Current Choreographic Repertoire and Presentations:

Photo: Chris Goff

Limb(e)s

Limb(e)s is visceral aerial dance set in our “darkest hour”. It questions what it means to hold onto or let go of one another and explores our ephemeral bonds using two bodies, rope cradles, and suspension. Drawing from their experience in circus and dance, Jeremiah Hughes and Gabrielle Martin perform an emotionally raw physicality to the haunting original soundscape of Canadian composer Nicolas Bernier. The result is a hypnotic, destabilizing narrative full of mourning, distant hope, and eerie beauty.

A Corporeal Imago production.

Original Concept: Gabrielle Martin

Choreographers + Performers: Gabrielle Martin + Jeremiah Hughes

Composer: Nicolas Bernier

Lighting Designer: Sophie Tang

Costume Designer: Amy McDougall

Director of Photography for digital version: Jessica Han

Past Presentations

• Aug 6-30 2021

Digital performance streamed at Assembly Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Edinburgh, UK

• July 8-21 2021

Digital performance screened and streamed at Dancing on the Edge Festival, Vancouver BC

• July 31 - Aug 25 2019

Assembly Festival at Edinburgh Fringe Festival

* SHORTLISTED for a TOTAL THEATRE AWARD in PHYSICAL AND VISUAL THEATRE 2019

• July 9 & 10 2019

Montréal Complètement Cirque and La Chapelle Scnènes Contemporaines'

L'Autre Cirque, Montreal QC

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien.

Spectacle accueilli dans le cadre des Résidences Ponctuelles de l’Espace Catastrophe //Centre International de Création des Arts du Cirque (BE)

Limb(e)s has also been supported through residency at Cirkör LAB (SE) and the Centre de Création (FR).

Previous Choreographic Repertoire and Presentations:

Infractions was developed upon my earlier work, Box, and was created with support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec Professional Artists Development Grant for Research and Creation in Dance

2012 WAVE RISING SERIES, New York, NY

2011 Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, Guelph Ontario

2011 Independently produced at Studio 303, Montréal QC

Infractions Choreography: Gabrielle Martin Dancers: Andrea Legg, Genevieve Bolla, Melina Stinson

Box Choreography: Gabrielle Martin Dancers: Melina Stinson, Andrea Legg

Box; contemporary dance duet

2010 Sadler’s Wells Global Dance Contest - Top ten finalist, London, UK

2009 Fresh Blood Showcase of Emerging Choreographers, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON

Chrysalis; butoh-inspired aerial fabric duet

(co-choreographed with Andrea Legg under the company Floating Seed)

2011 ROMP! A Festival of Independent Dance, Victoria BC

2010 Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, Guelph, ON

2010 Hillside Music Festival, Guelph, ON

2009 Vancouver International Dance Festival, Vancouver BC

2009 Montréal International Jazz Festival, Montréal QC

2009 Surface – Independently produced at Théâtre Ste Catherine, Montréal QC

Chrysalis

Choreography and performance: Andrea Legg and Gabrielle Martin

Dance Films

As a choreographer, I have collaborated on two dance films with filmmaker Ivan Rubio: Box and Axial and the Plane. These films have been presented internationally at film festivals including: American Dance Festival Dancing for the Camera (USA, 2009 and 2010), Video Danza BA Festival (Argentina, 2009 and 2010), Three Shadows Art Center (China, 2009), ROMP! A Festival of Independent Dance (Canada, 2010), Dance Camera West (USA, 2011), Dance on Camera Festival of the Dance Film Association (USA 2011), Images Festival (Canada, 2011), Agite y Sirva Festival (Mexico, 2012), and Quinzena Contemporary Dance Festival (Portugal, 2012).