Curatorial Statement - Jennifer Robichaud Artistic Director, DanceWorks

At DanceWorks, our curatorial vision is driven by a dedication to nurture artists at all stages of their careers - emerging, mid-career, and established alike. We seek to elevate artistic practice and presentation, supporting research and process, and propelling DanceWorks’ legacy of presenting leading Canadian artists into the future with integrity, responsibility, and commitment.

As Artistic Director, I see the presenter’s role not as gatekeeper but as facilitator - one who cultivates the conditions for artistic discovery and exchange. Presentation is part of a continuum that values inquiry, risk, and reflection as essential to artistic evolution. By fostering environments where experimentation and dialogue thrive, DanceWorks reaffirms its role as a vital home for artists and audiences alike.

Our curatorial approach is expansive and inclusive. We embrace practices that dissolve assumptions about artists’ contexts and urgencies, favouring questions that spark dialogue and bridge understanding. DanceWorks is a site of exchange where choreographic research, creation, and performance are nurtured through insight, collaboration, and shared responsibility. We extend this openness to audiences, inviting engagement with dance as a living language that holds multiplicity, complexity, and transformation.

I understand choreography as the physical expression of ideas - an evolving dialogue between body, sound, image, and emotion.  It reflects our histories while imagining new futures. Our commitment is to expand the scope of choreographic performance to include a spectrum of movement traditions spanning contemporary, intercultural, street, digital, and multidisciplinary forms.

Through this lens, DanceWorks evolves - honouring its legacy while advancing new voices, practices, and possibilities.  We invite artists at all stages of their choreographic development to connect through our Invitation for Artistic Proposals, fostering collaboration, dialogue, and opportunities for meaningful presentation and performance.