KickStart 2023 Commissioned Choreographer
Katherine Ng
Choreographer/ Performer
Ottawa
Katherine Ng has been actively working as a professional dancer since 2014. Born and raised in Ottawa, she graduated from The School of Dance’s Contemporary Dance Diploma, under director Sylvie Desrosiers. Her career began in Montréal, where Katherine had the opportunity to perform and create with <AP&A>, Interlope, La Tresse, and many more, while participating in many international dance festivals. She also had the opportunity to work on a touring production called Pearl Production with choreographer Daniel Ezralow. Where East meets West, Pearl Production had an exchange with dancers from Nanjing, China. Her last contract was with MGM in Macau, where she had worked with Michael Jackson’s trusty choreographer Travis Payne. Currently, she is working with Ottawa Dance Directives and recently performed a work by Jocelyn Todd and Tedd Robinson.
About the Work
calm and dormant with strength
and power;
sinuous and flowing
“When you have lost your way, go back to where you started from.” Dai Ailian
calm and dormant with strength and power; sinuous and flowing is a personal story. Through it, choreographer-performer Katherine Ng explores a side of herself that, for much of her life, she has tried to run away from. As a second generation Chinese immigrant, this solo is an opportunity to dig deeper into her roots and embrace the beauty that lies in her family’s history and rich cultural traditions. The choreographic language is primarily defined by strict and disciplined movement, while simultaneously breaking in and out of a physical vocabulary that is soft and sumptuous. This duality creates a universe that playfully oscillates between form and all that exists on its threshold. At times, she finds repose in moments of silence and stillness before allowing new movement to emerge.
Dancer / Choreographer
Katherine Ng
Music
Johnathan Bendavid
Dramaturge
Daniel Mroz
Rehearsal Director
Jocelyn Todd
Lighting Design
Jareth Li
Creative Credits
Daniel Mroz, PhD
Dramaturg
Ottawa
Daniel Mroz directs original theatre in Canada and teaches actors, directors, dancers, and choreographers internationally. He has been a professor in the Department of Theatre of the University of Ottawa since 2005. He began practising Chinese martial arts in 1993 and is a teacher of Càilǐfóquán蔡李佛拳, Chén Tàijíquán 陈太极拳 and Wǔdāng 武当 swordplay. He is the author of The Dancing Word (Brill, 2011), a book about the Chinese martial arts in the creation of contemporary theatre, and he contributes regularly to the scholarly research area of Martial Arts Studies.
Photo by David Wong
Photo by David Wong
Photo by David Wong
Photo by David Wong
Both Photos of Katherine Ng by Marianne Duval, Photo of Daniel Mroz by Tracey Eve Winton