Thea Patterson – Practices for Sideways Dances
05 ⇾ Oct. 09 2026 (Monday – Friday)
10:00 to 12:00
Weekly rate:$75
Drop-in:$22
French, English
#Creative process #Interdisciplinary #Somatic #Toolbox
© Nellie De Boer
Objective
“Practices for sideways dances” is the term I’ve developed for movement and dramaturgical practices, and an aestho-political commitment, that decentres the autonomous, individuated subject. It names a way of working and dancing that moves agency sideways from any singular position, toward the relational, the distributed, the more-than-one. It is a concept, but more importantly a practice and a speculative gesture. Through scores and propositions I ask: is it possible to situate my subjectivity outside my own centrifugal core? What if the body does not end at the edges of the skin? How might I be you? And you me? And how am I also the floor, the air, the view out the window? What happens when the dance forms outside my singular authorial hand? How does a distributed sideways subjectivity trouble human centrality?
This session offers scores and activations for distributing our dances, letting them emerge in the gaps.
Content
We will engage in scores and exercises in various groupings that redirect the origin of our dance and, that, or prioritize relations… some will be game like, some will be speculative, some will be telepathic, some will be somatic. We will practice listening, telekinetic empathy… we will sometimes do dances that move the body, and other times the dances may move through writing. We will pass our dances along, we will wear each others dances, as we also offer them back.
Workshop Rhythm
Accessibility Features
Biography
Thea Patterson is a Tiohti:áke/ Mooniyang/Montreal based choreographer, performer, and dance dramaturg. Her early choreographic works include Rhyming Couplets (08), and A Soft Place to Fall which was made into a BravoFact film by Mouvement Perpétuel (06) and the dance I cannot do (2013) which was presented at, amongst others, Movement Research-The Judson Church, and the Munich Dance Festival. An interest in collaborative models led to the co- founding of the collective The Choreographers (2007-2011) with Peter Trosztmer, Katie Ward, and Audrée Juteau. From 2007 to 2015 she was dramaturg, and co-artistic director with Peter Trosztmer on seven acclaimed works, including Eesti: Myths and Machines (2011) and #Boxtape (2014).
She has also provided dramaturgy for several independent choreographers including Nathan Yaffe, Andrew Turner, Lois Brown, Sasha Kleinplatz, Isabel Mohn, and Katie Ward. From 2014-16 she completed a Master’s degree at DAS Choreography in Amsterdam Thea has several ongoing collaborations, in Montreal, Portugal, Edmonton, and Newfoundland. Her most recent work Un-nevering was presented at the OFFTA in 2023, and FTA in 2026. She is also currently a SSHRC funded PhD candidate in Performance Studies at the University of Alberta.
“Took out the pressure of research, creating, practicing this workshop was extremely relevant and an important moment for my career (and my life :] ) <3 <3 <3”
— Stefania
Partners
This workshop is supported by the Conseil de la formation continue arts et culture de Montréal (CFC) in collaboration with Studio 303. The CFC’s continuing education activities are supported by the Intervention-Compétences program, thanks to the financial participation of the Quebec government.
