Welcome to Studio 303’s online archives!
This page exists to preserve our institutional memory and facilitate access to our history for artists and researchers. The Projects, Audio / Video / Photo, and Documents sections offer a wide array of things to look at and read, while our Classes, Events, and Residencies sections feature lists of involved artists’ names.
For artists: if you want to know if a video recording exists for a certain performance, have a look at this spreadsheet!
Studio 303’s archives map the path taken by an idiosyncratic organization, and reflect shifts in social history, programming practices and aesthetic trends. Our archives document independent dance and interdisciplinary performance, and trace part of Montreal’s feminist and queer performance history–for some years, Edgy Women was one of the only experimental feminist performance festivals in the world.
If you want to see our press clippings, flyers/posters, watch older videos (on VHS and Hi-8 or DVD), browse printed photos, old budgets, zines and other tangible fragments, you are welcome to visit our office and get your hands dirty 🙂
CLASSES
Since its inception in 1989, Studio 303 offers a wide range of open classes and professional-level workshops exploring a variety of approaches to performance-practice. Here you will find an in-development index of our workshops since 2003.
*We do not currently have a digital archive of our open level classes
EVENTS
Presenting by Season (1994 – ongoing)
In this section, you will find a list of Studio 303’s public events, by season as of 2001. Prior to this time, we organized our events by series (see Past Series below). You may also consult a sortable and complete-ish directory of events via this spreadsheet. The fluctuations in the volume or types of events we present are often influenced by many factors, notably our access to funding. It is also worth noting that in 2017 we re-oriented ourselves from a ‘Presenting organisation’ to a ‘Service organisation’.
Queer Performance Camp (2016 – ongoing )
Born in 2016, the Queer Performance Camp series offers a rare opportunity to explore, create, perform and network in a safe space where “queer” is the dominant culture. These events aim to create new ways to connect, grow and build community, while supporting the development of queer artists through shows, workshops and gatherings. Organised in collaboration with MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) and La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines, Queer Performance Camp is open to ALL artists (whatever their gender and sexuality).
PAST SERIES
This longstanding feminist experimental art event series ran for 23 years from 1994 to 2016. Commemorating International Women’s Day, Edgy’s mission was to explore the complexity of contemporary feminisms through fun, experimental, and community-building artistic events. Here you can view a list of contributing artists, a project history, and some event documentation.
Studio 303’s most prolific series, the Vernissage-Danse ran approximately 6 times per year for 20 years for a total of 145 editions! As we weren’t technically supposed to present “shows” in the studio, we emulated our neighbouring art galleries and held monthly “vernissages” instead. A typical Vernissage-Danse event presented 5 short works on a shared programme featuring emerging and/or established artists from Montreal and abroad. At first the series was programmed on a first-come first-served basis, eventually evolving into a curated thematic series. For many years, we integrated an annual artist exchange with New York’s New Dance Alliance (NDA) / Performance Mix.
Other Past Series (1993 – 2009)
At Studio 303, we are constantly dreaming up new projects, in reponse to current desires, needs and opportunities. We often explore these for several years, before laying them to rest in order to make space for new ideas. Here you will find a list of past series and the artists who participated, including the iconic Noises from the Dark, projet/projo and The Home Show. Since 2009, our series (such as REMIX and Métamorphose) are integrated into the Presenting by Season section.
RESIDENCIES
Since 1999, Studio 303 has hosted residencies for emerging and mid-career dance and interdisciplinary artists, as well as for performance curators. Projects we support are often in the early stages of development, with a preference for collaborative, risky, or experimental work. Here you will find a list of past artists in residence at Studio 303.
PROJECTS
Conversations in a shifting landscape (2022)
Conversations in a shifting landscape is a podcast series of four frank discussions (in French) between choreographers and representatives of organizations in transition in Quebec. Interviews led by Dorian Nuskind Oder, Georges-Nicolas Tremblay, Marie-Reine Kabasha, and Erin Hill, with support from Angie Cheng and Nien Tzu Weng.
Queer Body Politic is an online contemplative space featuring video-performances by a small cross-section of queer-identified Montreal artists, as well as excerpts from interviews with five artists, and an essay. The project was conceived by Studio 303’s 2019-20 Curator-in-residence, Aaron Pollard.
Studio 303 25th Anniversary Project (2014)
A trip through time in documents and images culled from Studio 303’s first 25 years (1989-2014).
Initiated by the 2012 Salon Lab artists, Re-tours aims to demystify touring through personal anecdotes from a selection of performers. Learn about artistic opportunities abroad from your peers and catch a glimpse of their early beginnings!
Slippery (2011)
A mini documentary on the making of Slippery – a performance on ice choreographed by Karen Sherman (as part of the Edgy Women festival). Filmed and edited by Viva Delorme.
AUDIO / VIDEO / PHOTO
Audio / Video / Photo
Studio 303 has extensive video / photo / audio archives, mostly relating to artists’ residencies and public events. Since 2009, we have been publishing photos and videos on Vimeo and Flickr respectively. You’ll have to come to our office and dig through some boxes to find documentation from before then, checking this spreadsheet first to see if a video even exists.
Our audio file collection is more complex… It includes recordings of topical conversational events (Long Table / Performative Discussion, since 2017) most of which reside on our Vimeo account; an oral history project and audio documentary related to the Edgy Women festival (2016) on Soundcloud and a new podcast series called Milieu en Mutation (2022) available in podcast form on Anchor.fm or on Vimeo for the raw interviews with English subtitles. Finally, we know there must be some recordings of Noises from the Dark (1994-2004) somewhere, but at the present time, we’re not sure where!
Vimeo >
Video archives as of 2009, and some audio archives
Flickr >
Photo archives as of 2009
Soundcloud >
Edgy oral history (2016) + 1 Long Table (2017)
Anchor.fm >
Podcasts as of 2022
DOCUMENTS
Annual Newsletters and Reports
This section contains digital versions of Studio 303’s annual reports (since 2013) and newsletters (since 2006)