Belinda McGuire

Belinda McGuire (dancer, choreographer, producer), originally from Toronto, graduated from The Juilliard School (BFA 2006) and currently produces, choreographs, commissions and performs solo work. Her most recent one-woman show, The Desert Island Project also engaged her as a choreographer, costume and light designer and stage manager.

Her choreography has been presented at the Festival de la Ciudad 2009 (Merida, Yucatan Mexico), the Canada Dance Festival (Ottawa), in Toronto and in New York City on the stages of the Peter Jay Sharp Theater and Alice Tully Hall, Joyce Soho as well as in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Belinda was awarded the 2008 Bessie Schönberg Residency at the Yard, and recognized by the 2007 Susan Braun Award of The Dance Films Association. As a dancer, she currently performs with The Jose Limon Dance Company and has danced with Doug Varone and Dancers, Gallim Dance, Ofelia Lorette de Mola's DANSCORES, the DOORKNOB Company and The Canadian Children's Dance Theatre.

Belinda teaches dance in Canada and the U.S.A. and finds the experience greatly rewarding.

What was the goal of your research project and how did it come about? What the collaboration with ICK consist of?

The goal during my time in Amsterdam was to create a new work with Emio and Pieter as a part of The Heist Project, a solo production in four parts (this was one), which I will present in New York City and Toronto within the next year.  Each of the other three parts are being created by choreographers in NYC, Toronto and Tel Aviv.  I was determined to work with all these artists because of the clarity and vitality of their vision.  The "clarity" relates to the uniqueness of their approach to creation, and the "vitality" of the work results from each artist's use or acknowledgement of the interplay between controlled and uncontrolled variables in live performance.  This can sound a little scientific, but really has to do with the most human element of a choreographed, written or directed work of art.   It was evident to me, watching Emio and Pieter's Conjunto di Nero, HELL, and POPOPERA, that the repercussions of choreographed events were as essential to the overall work as was the pre-existing design of these events.  "Reaction" or "human response" was a part of the choreography, and made it feel quite real, transparent and honest. It is this spontaneity and reactivity which I wanted to investigate, and given its presence (as I perceived) in Emio and Pieter's work, I linked them to the theme of The Heist Project.

The project is likened to a jewel heist – meticulously imagined and designed, but ultimately brought to life or “achieved” through necessary spontaneity in response to the unfolding action.  This theme applies to Heist as a whole, and to the individual dances of which it is composed.  Though this is an essential aspect of live performance, and therefore not uncommon, "necessary spontaneity" and reactivity serve as the backbone of each choreographers' work - peaking their curiosity, driving the creative process and shaping their artistic identity.  It is one common trait of these five creators, though it propels their choreography in very different ways.

My collaboration with Emio and Pieter began with the proposal of one pre-choreographic element: Around Ball.  I found that the movement generated with this imagery (ten phrases in total) searches (each in their own way) for a sense of relativity.  I now see recurring themes of cause-and-effect, inevitability, the emergence of obstacles and the subsequent resolution, leading to the creation of another.
 
Where do you want to be as an artist in 10 years from now?


Continuing to collaborate, exchange with and commission other artists, then presenting/performing the resulting work.  I am doing this already, though I hope to have a farther reach and to establish stronger infrastructure to support the art.

Read more about Belinda's project: The Heist Project