Jennifer Mascall
Artistic Director
As an emerging choreographer. Jennifer Mascall was characterized as a maverick, a visionary, a radical re-visionary and "the enfant terrible of Canadian dance". Mascall's work has consistently fulfilled this promise,defying assumptions, intensely fascinated with body research. Works such as The Shostakovich, and The Light At The End Of The Tunnel May Be Another Train Coming Toward You, I'll Leave The Back Door Open and Housewerk - all characteristically inventive, insightful, and witty - provoke (re) consideration of the relationship of movemet to meaning. Other works,The Brutal Telling, WhaT,?, Cathedral,and Make A Dance, consider equally the relationship of words to movement to meaning.
Jennifer Mascall's exuberantly prolific performance career began as a improviser and rapidly received international attention. Primary influences include Laban, Alexander, Cunningham. Paxton, T'ai Chi, New Music, and more recently Putnam and Bainbridge Cohen.
Characteristics with which she has long been associated - originality, passionate inventor, catalyst - are also seen in such diverse undertakings (among many) as the initiation of GRID (1975), a collective for site-specific work; the collection and publishing of FOOTNOTES (1978), an iconoclastic sampler of choreographic notation methods by significant and wide-ranging choreograhic voices of the period; the founding with seven other independent artists of the collaborative EDAM (1982) and the formation of, Mascall Dance, where she has been Artistic Director since 1989.
Mascall is also a skilled lecturer and teacher. Educational programs such as Make A Dance and Homewerk tour extensively in th school system and are considered highly effective bridges between contemporary dance and multilevel learning. Mascall's development of a teaching pedagogy for dance performers, influenced by the work of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, is a central strand of her artistic research. Jennifer Mascall's on going advocacy for dancers and the art of dance continues to inform her contributions to juries, boards, committees, and mentorships.
Body-Mind-Centering® Training (BMC)
As a teacher, Artistic Director Jennifer Mascall is the only fully certified BMC® practitioner in Vancouver. She teaches classes that inform dancers in new ways, that actively help their dancing technically and their performance range. Jennifer is researching ways of adapting the teaching of BMC® to align it more closely with the professional dancer’s technical training.
BFA, York University, 1974
Certified Body Mind Centering® Practitioner, 1999
Independent Choreographer, 1975–82
Co-founder and Co-Artistic Director, EDAM, 1982–89
Director, Nijinsky Gibber Jazz Club, 1990–2005
Teacher, Stratford Festival, 1975
Teacher, EDAM, 1982–89
Instructor, Mount Allison Summer School, 1982–83
Instructor, Simon Fraser University, 1986, 1992, 2007 (one semester)
Teacher, Mascall Dance Summer School, 1990–2005
National and international workshops in improvisation, composition, performance
Choreography:
The White Spider 2010
WhaT,? 2009
521BBZmini 2007
Bean Bar Zambuka, 2006
Homewerk, 2002
Housewerk, 2002
The Brutal Telling, 1998
Not Only, But Also, 1996
The Shostakovich, 1993
I’ll Leave the Back Door Open, 1992
The Lesson, 1992
Within These Four Walls, 1991
Make a Dance, 1990–98
Cathedral, 1999
New Material Only, 1990
Carnival of the Animals, 1990
The Dumbfounding, 1989
Parade, 1986
The Wash, the Image and the Story 1986
The Light at the End of the Tunnel May Be the Other Train Coming Toward You, 1984
Hurry Blurry See Dot Quick, 1984
No Picnic, 1981
Acoustic Noose, 1981
All Flames are Waiting to Kill All Moths 1979
Smashed Carapace, 1979
Swank (Olors), 1978
Unicycle Blues, 1978
Fatty Acids, 1977
Conduction, 1975
Commissions:
Canadian Ice Dance Theatre
Simon Fraser University
Ron Stewart
K. Ricketts
H. Bright
O. Thorvaldson
Vancouver New Music Society
Atlantic Dance
Nova Dance
Tamanhous
Autumn Angel Theatre
Contemporary Dancers Canada
Dancemakers
Expo 86
World Festival
Canada Dance Festival
World Council of Churches
Arts Umbrella Youth Dance Company
Tide
Boards:
BC Status of the Artist Advisory Committee, 1993–94
Dance Advisory Panel, Canada Council, 1986–90
Canada Council Arts Awards Juries, 1985–91
Vancouver Dance Centre, 1986–87
CAPDO, 1994–95
SHAPE, 1998-2003
Commemorative Medal for 125th Anniversary of Canadian Confederation, 1992
Jesse Award, 1988
Jacqueline Lemieux Award, 1983
Dora Mavor Moore Award, 1983
Ann O’Connor Award, 1983
Clifford E. Lee Award, 1982