Archives / Edgy Women

Edgy Women and Edgy Redux are feminist experimental art events devised by Miriam Ginestier and produced by Studio 303 that ran for 23 years from 1994 to 2016. Commemorating International Women’s Day, Edgy Redux continued the Edgy Women Festival’s mission to explore the complexity of contemporary feminisms through fun, experimental, and community-building artistic events.

History and milestones
Miriam Ginestier’s final statement
Blog
Photos
Audio history


1994 Women from the Edge

Studio 303 hosts a one-night dance event called Women from the Edge featured the work of three New Yorkers and two local choreographers, Irène Stamou and Danielle Lecourtois.

Karen Bernard (NY) (choreography, physical theatre)
Tara Bernstein (NY) (choreography)
Maxine Moerman (NY) (choreography)
Danielle Lecourtois (choreography)
Irene Stamou (choreography)

1995 Edgy Women II

The event is repeated and the name Edgy Women / Femmes au-delà is adopted.

Dominique Malacort (Aurore Boréalis) (clown)
Gerry Gradauer (choreography, performance artist)
Pascale Pigeon (choreography, performance artist)
Roberta Cooper (choreography)
Luciani Pinto (choreography, performance artist)
Lin Snelling (voice & movement)

1996 Edgy Women III

Now a full-on multidisciplinary two-night event, Edgy Women features a dozen artists including Céline Bonnier and Victoria Stanton.

Leah Raeven Vineberg (actor, performance artist)
Louise Dubreuil (actor, performance artist)
Josée Gagnon (voice & movement)
Joey Meyer (T.O.) (interdisciplinary artist)
Aimee Darcel / a.d. (activist performance artist)

1997 Edgy Women IV

Karen Bernard (NY) (choreography, physical theatre)
Jennifer Goodwin (choreography)
Gisèle Houle (installation, performance artist)
Sandra Botnen (choreography, circus)

1998 Edgy Women V

Karen Bernard (NY) (choreography, physical theatre)
Jennifer Goodwin (choreography, perfromance art)
Céline Bonnier (physical theatre)
Danielle Lecourtois & Hélène Langevin (clown, theatre)
Sylvette Babin (performance artist)
Victoria Stanton (performance artist)
Axis Mundi (interdisciplinary artists)
Alexandra Malabranque, Marie-Laure Cloarec, Carrie Katz, Mireille Leblanc & Marie-Pierre Michaud (experimental music)
Aimée Darcel (political, performance art)
Sebastian Yeung (interdisciplinary)
Cori Caulfield (choreography, physical theatre)
Régine Breyton (street, physical theatre)

1999 Edgy Women VI

Karen Bernard (NY) (choreography, physical theatre)
Blue Mou th collective (interdisciplinary)
Geneviève Lechasseur, Heloise Depocas & Michèle Barrère (choreography, physical theatre)
Kelly Jean Starship (choreography, interdisciplinary)
Rachel Echenberg (performance art, spoken word)
Aimee Darcel & Josephine Knot (political, performance art)
Jinny J Jacinto (contorsion, choreography)
Joe & Tonja Livingstone (choreography, drag, clown)
Nathalie Claude (physical theatre, mime)
Alyson Vishnovska & Becky Foon (choreography, interdisciplinary)
Renée Houle (spoken word)

2000 Edgy Women VII

A concurrent visual art exhibit takes place in Gallery 303, with works by Marie-Claude Pratte, Karen Spencer, Louise Dubreuil and Vanessa Yanow, among others.

Karen Bernard (NY) (choreography, physical theatre)
aimee darcel / a.d. (activist performance art)
Alexis O’Hara (interdisc., spoken word)
Josée Dupuis, Nathalie Lamarche & Claire Piché (collective creation)
Elizabeth Reeve (movement)
Karen Bernard (NY) (choreography, physical theatre)
Skidmore (theatre)
Kelly Jean Starship (choreography, physical theatre)
Susi Lovell & Alexandra Malabranque (choreography, physical theatre)
Annie Roy & Annick Hamel (physical theatre)
Sara Porter (Toronto) (choreography)
Nathalie Claude (physical theatre)
Iwona Majdan (intervention artist)
Guylaine Bédard, a.d., Christine lebel, Marie-Claude Pratte & Karen Spencer (visual artist, Gallery 303 exhibit)

2001 Edgy Women VIII

Edgy Women became one of four events of Studio 303′s newly established Interdisciplinary Series.

a.d. (performance art)
Kinga Araya (performance art)
Karen Bernard (NY) (choreography, physical theatre)
Sonya Biernath (choreography, physical theatre)
Marie Brassard (experimental theatre)
Deborah Dunn (choreography, physical theatre)
Joe & Tonya Livingstone (choreography, drag, clown)
Maura Nguyen (NY) (choreography, video animation)
WWKA (Women with kitchen appliances) (sonic performance art)
Alexis O’Hara (interdisc. spoken word)
a. d. / elle corazon (visual artist, Gallery 303 exhibit)

2002 Edgy Women IX

Robin Akimbo (monologue)
Karen Bernard (NY) (choreography, physical theatre)
Den ise Boulanger (choreography, physical theatre)
Nathalie Claude (physical theatre)
Jenn Goodwin (interdisc. choreography)
Mary Ann Lacey (interdisc. choreography)
Cat Lipscombe (interdisc. choreography)
Nika Stein (performance art)
Lisa Rae Vineberg (experimental theatre)
Anita Ponton (UK) (video, performance)
Louise Dubreuil, Collectif Piquet, Ann Milligan, Anita Ponton & Vanessa Yanow (visual artist, Gallery 303 exhibit)

2003 Edgy Women X – 10th anniversary edition!

K8 Alsterlund (breakdance, physical theatre)
Karen Bernard (NY) (choreography, physical theatre)
Tara Cheyenne (Vancouver) (choreography, physical theatre)
Nathalie Claude (physical theatre)
Jess Dobkin (Toronto/NY) (performance art)
Taliesen McEnaney (physical theatre)
Dayna Mcleod (performance art, monologue)
Jody Sperling (NY) (choreography )
Eryn Dace Trudell & Moynan King (choreography, physical theatre)
Susanna Hood (interdisciplinary choreography)
Les fermières obsédées (Québec) (performance art)
Miriam Bohemia (visual artist, Gallery 303 exhibit)

2004 Edgy Women XI

Dixie FunLee Shulman (NY) (choreography)
Jackie Gallant & Dayna McLeod (performance art)
Josée Gagnon & Hélène Martinez (performance art, singing)
Julie Besner (performance art)
Lainie Towell (Ottawa) (choreography)
Virginia Preston (performance art)
Lamathilde (video)
Mary Ann Lacey & Miki Nishida (choreography)
Kathy Kennedy (voice)
Nancy Rozon
Jennifer Casimir
Taliesin McEnaney & Anna Levanthal
Deborah Dunn (choreography)

2005 Edgy Women XII

Edgy Women relocates to the Sala Rossa for 4 nights and features a performance-art concert by Swiss radicals les Reines Prochaines. Audiences quadruple from 166 in 2004 to 652 in 2005 and artist fees nearly tripled from $2,750 to $7,100.

Karen Bernard (New York) (dance-theatre)
Nathalie Claude (physical theatre)
Edwige Jean-Pierre (Ottawa) (monologue)
Amélie Lévesque Demers (dance-theatre)
Dayna McLeod (video)
Karen Sherman (Minneapolis) (dance)
Sasha Van Bon Bon (Toronto) (burlesque)
Deborah Dunn (dance-theatre)
Claudia Moore (Toronto) (dance-theatre)
Alexis O’Hara (sound performance)
Nathalie Derome (sound Performance)
Les Reines Prochaines (concert)

2006 Edgy Women XIII

Now a bonafide 3-week festival funded by the Canada Council for the Arts’ Inter-arts office, the Edgy Women Festival features screenings, exhibits, workshops, a zine fair and performances by 30 or so artists. The wildly popular Défi Edgy was created as well as a workshop co-facilitated by Nathalie Claude, Alexis O’Hara and Dayna McLeod. Partners included Café Esperanza, la Centrale, Reel Dames, Studio XX, Articule and Toronto’s Hysteria festival.

Nathalie Baroud (performance)
Anita Ponton (performance)
Anick Bouchard (music)
Jenn Goodwin (film)
Mary Ann Lacey (performance)
Céline B. Laterreur (videoclip and performance)
Victoria Libertore (performance)
Dayna McLeod (video)
Dana Michel (dance)
Aurélie Pedron (film)
Antonija Livingstone (performance)
Mirha-Soleil Ross (film)
Juana Awad (voice and video performance)
The Boychoir of Lesbos (music)
Jess Dobkin (performance and urban intervention)
Edwige Jean-Pierre (monologue)
Jen Markowitz (performance)
Allyson Mitchell (performance)
Allison Rees Cummings (performance)
Rosemary Rowe (performance)
Mariko Tamaki (performance)
Marijs Boulogne (theatre)
Sara De Bosschere (theatre)
Isabel Mohn (performance)
Nadine Sures (performance)
Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg (dance)
Sarah Williams (dance)
Evie Farmer (video)

2007 Edgy Women XIV

Moynan King (performance/installation)
Nathalie Derome (performance)
Émilie Laforest (performance)
Anna Leventhal (performance)
Brigitte Poupart (performance)
Félixe Ross (performance)
Skidmore (performance)
Nadine Sures (performance)
Nathalie Claude (performance)
Dayna McLeod (performance)
Alexis O’Hara (performance, music)
D. Kimm (music)
Werner Hirsch & Antiona Baehr (performance)
Christal Brown (solo)
Lesley Ewen (dance)
Heather Kravas (performance)
Tonja Livingstone (performance)
Les Moquettes Coquettes (sketchs)
Projet Inim (music)
Anana Rydvald / Amy Sobol (dance)
Karen Sherman (dance)

2008 Edgy Women XV

The festival suffered a blow when it did not receive festival funding. Making the best of a dire situation, Edgy moved back to 303 and had a particularly process-based community-outreach edition. We had an Edgy career day, a fundraising concert for Project 10, and an adventure in gender-bending with the trans artist Lazlo Pearlman and the “woman with a beard” Jennifer Miller.

Dayna McLeod (theatre, blender workshop)
Lazlo Pearlman (UK) (performance, physical theatre workshop, Juggling Gender)
Jennifer Miller (USA) (Circus workshop, Edgy Careers, Juggling Gender)
Ivan Coyote (spoken word, writing workshop)
Choeur Maha (singing)
Nathalie Claude (physical theatre workshop)
Alexis O’Hara (Blender workshop)
Clara Furey (singing)
Aimee Darcel (Edgy Careers)
Melissa Garrido (Edgy Careers)
Alexandra ‘Spicey’ Landé (Edgy Careers)
Vanessa Yanow (Edgy Careers)

2009 Edgy Women XVI

The short-lived festival funding is no longer available to Studio 303, but the festival finds other ways to survive. Tangente becomes a presenting partner for the next 3 years, and the festival benefits from new collaborations with Eastern Bloc and Mainline Theatre which hosts the sold-out four-night run of the Scandelle’s Neon Nights.

DRED Daring Reality Every Day (NY) (theatre, edgy cabaret)
Coral Short (performance, edgy cabaret)
Pinkie Special (NY/Lyon) (hula hoop, edgy cabaret)
Mimi (contorsion, edgy cabaret)
Sasha Kleinplatz (dance, edgy challenge)
Maya Kuroki (music, edgy challenge)
Victoria Stanton (interdisciplinary performance, edgy challenge)
Lise Vigneault (performance, edgy challenge)
Alyson Wishnousky (dance, edgy challenge)
Carole Nadeau (performance, edgy challenge)
Taliesin McEnaney (performance, edgy challenge)
Miss Saturn (hula hoop, edgy challenge)
Antonija Livingstone (performance, Even Steven II)
Tammy Forsythe (dance, Si! Va!)
Nathalie Baroud (theatre, Si! Va!)
Susana Cook (NY) (theatre, Si! Va!)
Lesley Farley (SK) (video, Si! Va!)
Mary Ann Lacey (dance, Si! Va!)
Viva Delorme (Paris) (video, Si! Va!)
Val Desjardins (theatre, Peur Laine Pig)
Kristine Nutting (music hall, Peur Laine Pig)
Jess Dobkin & Lex Vaughn (TO) (performance, Just Being)
Maya Kuroki & Tomomi Morimoto (music, Just Being)
Alexis O’Hara (sound exploration, Just Being)
Julie Tolentino (USA) (dance, Just Being)
Chanti Wadge (dance, Just Being)
Mimi & Willow Rutherford (music & contorsion, Just Being)

2010 Edgy Women XVII

The Scandelles (Toronto) (theatre)
Jess Dobkin (Toronto) (performance)
Yumiko Yoshioka (Berlin) (dance)
Lise Vigneault (performance)
Karen Sherman (Minneapolis) (danse)
La Zampa (Toulouse) (dance)
Krin Maren Haglund (circus)
Shannon Cochrane (Toronto) (performance)
Leslie Baker (edgy challenge)
Sophie Castonguay (edgy challenge)
T.L. Cowan (edgy challenge)
Jackie Gallant (edgy challenge)
Suzanne Miller (edgy challenge)
Helen Simard & Jennifer Casimir (edgy challenge)
Mariko Tamaki (edgy challenge)
Soufia Bensaïd (diodrama)
Jaqueline Van de Geer (diodrama)
Catherine Lalonde (diodrama)
Caroline Boileau (performance)
Geneviève Caron-Ferron (installation)
Johnny Forever (performance)
Nikol Mikus & Alyson Wishnousky (installation)
Coral Short & Lamathilde (performance)

2011 Edgy Women XVIII

Edgy hosts two unusual events which bleed away from known artistic territory into sports/leisure, and sex eduction: Karen Sherman’s Slippery on a public ice rink and Annie Sprinkle’s Sidewalk Sex Clinic.

Annie Sprinkle & Elizabeth Stephens (San Francisco) (performance & artist talk)
Karen Sherman (Mineapolis) (performance)
Janine Eisenaecher (Berlin) (performance)
Amalie Atkins (Saskatoon) (performance)
Julianna Barabas (Saskatoon) (performance)
Laura Margita (Saskatoon) (performance)
anti-cool (Japon) (performance & professional workshops)
Leslie Baker (Montréal) (performance)
Narcissister (Brooklyn) (performance)
Nathalie Claude & Danielle Lecourtois (Montreal) (performance)
Mia Van Leeuwen (Calgary) (performance)
Dayna McLeod (Montreal) (installation)
Nikol Mikus (Montreal) (installation)
Sylvie Tourangeau (Montreal) (professional workshops)
Les fermières obsédées (Montréal) (artist talk)

2012 Edgy Women XIX

We host the inaugural edition of Edgy Hockey, a UPOP-inspired conference at the Casa del Popolo, several full-length works and a Zombie-zine launch, all with the much-welcomed help of a dozen volunteers from France!

Collectif GLSINS (France) (book launch & performance)
Groupe Intervention Vidéo (Montreal) (projection)
Evalyn Parry (Toronto) (performance)
Gaëlle Bourges/Association OS (France) (performance & conference)
Andréane Leclerc/Holly Gauthier-Frankel/Lisa Gamble (Montreal) (performance & Edgy Upop)
Operation Snatch (formely The Scandelles) (Toronto) (performance & conference)
Barbara Legault (Montreal) (collaboration Edgy blog & Edgy Upop)
Laura Beeston (Montreal) (collaboration Edgy blog)
Alexis O’Hara (Montreal) (performance & collaboration Edgy blog)
M. E. Winks (Montreal) (Edgy Hockey & Edgy Upop)
Antonija Livingstone (Berlin) (professional workshop)
Gaëlle Bourges (France) (professional workshop)

2013 Edgy Women XX

We celebrated the 20th edition by moving into the Blue Cat boxing club with unprecedented artistic collaborations between avant-garde theatre artists and professional wrestlers, visual artists and body-builders, etc. Rich conversations took place between artists, audiences, academics and activists during a full-day colloquium and through our commemorative zine.

Nikol Mikus (projection)
Danielle Barkeley (colloque)
Meg Hewings (performance)
Heather Cassils (performance)
Coral Short (performance)
Judith Depaule et Mabel Octobre (performance)
Antonija Livingstone (performance)
Anna Jane McIntyre (performance)
Catherine Lalonde Massecar (performance et atelier)
Florence S. Larose et Virginie Jourdain (performance)
Julienne Doko (performance)
Lex Vaughn (performance)
Marijs Boulogne (performance et atelier)
Gen Goulet aka LuFisto (Lucha)

2014 Edgy Redux

After losing 85% of our budget for Edgy when the ministry of Canadian Heritage decided not to renew our funding, the board of directors took many measures to weather the storm including shrinking Edgy down to a 3-day event. This first edition of Edgy Redux featured short videos on Nuit Blanche curated by Dayna McLeod, the return of the Défi Edgy hosted by Alexis O’Hara at Sala Rossa, and an in-studio colloque featuring performative lectures from artists such as kg Guttman. We also saw new-comer Andrea Rideout working along side Miriam to conceive and plan the programming this and subsequent editions.

Nikol Mikus + Alyson Wish (photomaton)
Dayna McLeod (projection)
Danielle Barkeley (colloque)
Rebecca Lavoie (colloque)
Guizo LaNuit (performance)
Christine Bellerose + Evelyne Bouchard (performance)
Dana Michel (performance)
Susana Cook (new york city) (performance)
Karen Fennell + Jackie Gallant (performance)
Stéphanie Morin-Robert (performance)
Hannah Morrow + Heather Caplap (performance )
Morgan Sea (performance)
Jacqueline van de Geer (performance)

2015 Edgy Redux

Miriam takes a 9 month sabbatical while Andrea takes the reins of Edgy Redux for another season. Coral Short & Angela Gabereau present their curation of short videos at Nuit Blanche, Alexis O’hara hosts a feminist magic-themed cabaret at Sala Rossa, and Anne Goldenberg hosts a community discussion exploring the ways that feminist artists make their work.

Johnny (Forever) Nawracaj + Lisa Gamble (Gambletron) (performance)
Anne Goldenberg (colloque)
Kathy Kennedy (performance)
Cynthia Naggar (installation)
Alexis O’Hara (performance)
Jamie Ross (performance)
Coral Short + Angela Gabereau (video installation)
Winnie Superhova (performance)
Jacqueline van de Geer (performance)

2016 Edgy Redux

Studio 303 comes to the mixed conclusion that Edgy resources could better serve feminist audiences by being turned over to emerging curators in residence so the farewell edition of Edgy is planned around the theme: The End. Miriam Ginestier curates a video archive retrospective for Nuit Blanche, Nathalie Claude & Dayna McLeod return to host a final cabaret at Lion D’or, and Edgy receives a digital internment via a feminist Wiki-thon. Finally, Edgy is invited for the 30th anniversary of the Performance Mix Festival in New York.

Amber Berson (animatrice Wiki-thon)
Anne Goldenberg (animatrice Wiki-thon)
Andréanne Leclerc + Dany Desjardins (performance) Edgy New York
Alexis O’Hara (performance) Cabaret + Edgy New York
Alvis Parsley (toronto) (performance)
Claudia Chan Tak (performance)
Judy Virago (performance)
Marie La Vierge (performance)
Nathalie Claude + Dayna McLeod (performance) Cabaret + Edgy New York
Sonja Zlatanova (bouffe + vidéo)
T.L. Cowan (new york city)(performance)
WIVES (performance) Edgy New York


HISTORY

Edgy Women Edgy Women began as a one-night dance event in 1994, eventually blossoming into an interdisciplinary two-night event with a concurrent visual art exhibit. In 2006, Edgy Women took on an expanded festival format in multiple partner venues, providing a refreshed context in which to showcase longer works, more out-of-province artists, and parallel activities. In 2013, we celebrated the 20th edition of the festival. Unprecedented artistic collaborations occurred between avant-garde theatre artists and professional wrestlers, visual artists and body-builders, hockey players, and novice skaters. Rich conversations took place between artists, audiences, academics and activists during a full-day colloquium and through our commemorative zine. In 2013, after losing 85% of its funding, Edgy entered a new transition phase, being rebranded into the more concise Edgy Redux which also saw the participation of Andrea Rideout as programming director. This 3-day incarnation of Edgy continued for three more editions before coming to a close in 2016.

MILESTONES

• 1994: Studio 303 hosts a one-night dance event called Women from the Edge featured the work of three New Yorkers and two local choreographers, Irène Stamou and Danielle Lecourtois.
• 1995: the event is repeated and the name Edgy Women / Femmes au-delà is adopted.
• 1998: now a full-on multidisciplinary two-night event, Edgy Women features a dozen artists including Céline Bonnier and Victoria Stanton.
• 2000-2003: a concurrent visual art exhibit takes place in Gallery 303, with works by Marie-Claude Pratte, Karen Spencer, Louise Dubreuil and Vanessa Yanow, among others.
• 2001: Edgy Women became one of four events of Studio 303’s newly established Interdisciplinary Series.
• 2005: Edgy Women relocates to the Sala Rossa for 4 nights and features a performance-art concert by Swiss radicals les Reines Prochaines. Audiences quadruple from 166 in 2004 to 652 in 2005 and artist fees nearly tripled from $2,750 to $7,100.
• 2006-2007: now a bonafide 3-week festival funded by the Canada Council for the Arts’ Inter-arts office, the Edgy Women Festival features screenings, exhibits, workshops, a zine fair and performances by 30 or so artists. The wildly popular Défi Edgy was created as well as a workshop co-facilitated by Nathalie Claude, Alexis O’Hara and Dayna McLeod. Partners included Café Esperanza, la Centrale, Reel Dames, Studio XX, Articule and Toronto’s Hysteria festival.
• 2008: the festival suffered a blow when it did not receive festival funding. Making the best of a dire situation, Edgy moved back to 303 and had a particularly process-based community-outreach edition. We had an Edgy career day, a fundraising concert for Project 10, and an adventure in gender-bending with the trans artist Lazlo Pearlman and the “woman with a beard” Jennifer Miller.
• 2009: the short-lived festival funding is no longer available to Studio 303, but the festival finds other ways to survive. Tangente becomes a presenting partner for the next 3 years, and the festival benefits from new collaborations with Eastern Bloc and Mainline Theatre which hosts the sold-out four-night run of the Scandelle’s Neon Nights.
• 2011: Edgy hosts two unusual events which bleed away from known artistic territory into sports/leisure, and sex eduction: Karen Sherman’s Slippery on a public ice rink and Annie Sprinkle’s Sidewalk Sex Clinic.
• 2012 – We host the inaugural edition of Edgy Hockey, a UPOP-inspired conference at the Casa del Popolo, several full-length works and a Zombie-zine launch, all with the much-welcomed help of a dozen volunteers from France!
• 2013 – We celebrated the 20th edition by moving into the Blue Cat boxing club with unprecedented artistic collaborations between avant-garde theatre artists and professional wrestlers, visual artists and body-builders, etc. Rich conversations took place between artists, audiences, academics and activists during a full-day colloquium and through our commemorative zine.
• 2014 – After losing 85% of our budget for Edgy when the ministry of Canadian Heritage decided not to renew our funding, the board of directors took many measures to weather the storm including shrinking Edgy down to a 3-day event. This first edition of Edgy Redux featured short videos on Nuit Blanche curated by Dayna McLeod, the return of the Défi Edgy hosted by Alexis O’Hara at Sala Rossa, and an in-studio colloque featuring performative lectures from artists such as kg Guttman. We also saw new-comer Andrea Rideout working along side Miriam to conceive and plan the programming this and subsequent editions.
• 2015 – Miriam takes a 9 month sabbatical while Andrea takes the reins of Edgy Redux for another season. Coral Short & Angela Gabereau present their curation of short videos at Nuit Blanche, Alexis O’hara hosts a feminist magic-themed cabaret at Sala Rossa, and Anne Goldenberg hosts a community discussion exploring the ways that feminist artists make their work.

• 2016 – Studio 303 comes to the mixed conclusion that Edgy resources could better serve feminist audiences by being turned over to emerging curators in residence so the farewell edition of Edgy is planned around the theme: The End. Miriam curates a video archive retrospective for Nuit Blanche, Nathalie Claude & Dayna McLeod return to host a final cabaret at Lion D’or and Edgy receives a digital internment via a feminist wikipedia edit-a-thon.

ARTISTS WHO CONTRIBUTED IMMENSELY TO THE EDGY IDENTITY

• Nathalie Claude: 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2016
• Alexis O’Hara: 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016
• Dayna McLeod: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016
• Karen Sherman: 2005, 2007, 2010, 2011
• Karen Bernard: 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005
• Tonija Livingstone: 1999, 2001, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2013
• Jess Dobkin: 2004, 2006, 2009, 2010
• Coral Short: 2009, 2010, 2013, 2015
• Lamathilde: 2004, 2010, 2013, 2014
• Nikol Mikus: 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014
• Jaqueline Van de Geer: 2010, 2014, 2015

THE END, FINAL STATEMENT BY MIRIAM GINESTIER

Why end Edgy?
There is no simple answer to this question.

Edgy was my most beloved event at Studio 303, but there is no denying when the love affair feels over. I don’t know how else to explain it. All break-ups are hard: as we grow together our identities intertwine, and there are so many shared memories, so many common friends. Edgy was the sum of many parts – including many of you! Over 500 talented, brave, wacky, smart and hilarious die-hard artists and cultural workers created the Edgy identity and momentum. How does one leave that?

Several factors prompted the decision to end the festival and create Edgy Redux in its stead: some personal, some external. Edgy Women’s iconic 20th anniversary edition in 2013 exploring Sports/Art/Gender was the culmination of several years of research and desire – frankly I couldn’t imagine topping it and was really unmotivated to put on a 21st edition. In addition, I harboured an increasing malaise with its gendered and anglophone name which sometimes felt dated and exclusionary. And when Studio 303 lost significant Canadian Heritage funding for presenting, our biggest event had to be radically downsized.

So the festival morphed into Edgy Redux, condensed because of finances, and reborn because we weren’t ready to let it go, and thought we’d try a new distilled model. My colleague Andrea Joy Rideout is responsible for much of the artistic direction of Edgy Redux’s three editions – from it’s inaugural theme of “Transitions”, to 2015’s “Feminist Magic” and this year’s “The End”. I am so grateful that she is steering this final edition. Andrea has devised an intelligent, nostalgic and pragmatic way to guide us all in saying goodbye to Edgy, while strengthening the event’s legacy. Ultimately, Edgy is ending because as we gear up for a new multi-year programming cycle, neither one of us are willing to commit to directing a new cycle of four editions. We’re more excited by what comes next.

Sadly, feminist experimental performance festivals are few and far between (R.I.P. Hysteria). But amazing things come from a vacuum and feminism will continue to be a compelling programming theme at 303 as it continues to pop up in our artists’ work whether they identify as feminist or not. Studio 303 has always been and always will be a place where artists working with marginalized practices and perspectives are welcome to train, create and present.

Edgy is dead, long live Edgy!

– Miriam Ginestier, Edgy’s founder and long-time director