PROJECT // unnevering
unnevering is the title of a new project undertaken with collaborators/dancers Rachel Harris and Elinor Fueter that revisits and expands on methods for research, creation and performance that we have been developing since 2014. In particular, this project is born out of an acute traumatic loss with the sudden and violent death in August 2021 of my life partner and artistic collaborator Jeremy Gordaneer . Thus, unnevering starts from there, from where it is. This includes the reality of the context in which I/we encounter it as the frame for both its content and form. It is a way back and a way forward.
And so, unnevering asks: how can we be together even when we are not… especially and in particular across the veil of loss that seems so (in)finite? What is it to unnever? What form(s) might unnevering take? Or not take? Can the shape, texture and tone of loss/grief exist within the frame of our being together (or not together) (or not never)? Can unnevering be a place and a container of/for embodied exchange?
What if there is no never?
BIO // Thea Patterson is a Montreal based dance dramaturg, choreographer, and performer. Her performance practice revolves around an acute set of questions regarding the body, objects, perception, vitality, and time. 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 many independent choreographers including Katie Ward, Lois Brown, Sasha Kleinplatz, Pam Tzeng, Karen Fennel, Nathan Yaffe and Andrew Turner. She completed a Master’s degree at DAS Choreography in Amsterdam (2016) which explored emergent choreographic forms, and other methods for altering aspects of spectatorship. Thea has several ongoing collaborations as a dramaturg, collaborator, choreographer and performer in Montreal, Portugal, Edmonton, and Newfoundland. Her most recent work Silvering (2020) was presented at Mile Zero Dance in Edmonton. She is a SSHRC funded PhD student in Performance Studies at the University of Alberta and from 2019-2021 was Co-editor-in-chief of Intonations, an online Graduate journal.
DETAILS //
Collaborators: Rachel Harris, Elinor Fueter and Jeremy Gordaneer (decd).
This project has benefited from initial residency support from ParB.L.eux.