Today on the show I get to speak with Laura Victoria Ward, CMA, RSME, a dancer, choreographer, movement teacher, Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst, musician, painter, consciousness explorer, somanaut, and meditator.
She is the artistic director of Kingston Contemporary Dance Theatre (formerly Octavia Cup Dance Theatre), a multi-disciplinary, multi-generational company. She has been creating dance theater and performing in New York City, the Hudson Valley, and internationally for over 25 years.
She regularly creates and performs with Tonus Maximus and the Glam Rock Cabaret, The Goddess Party, and she is in your grandmother’s punk rock band–a.k.a. Dick Pinchers. Recently, she played Columbia in Rocky Horror Picture Show with R’Ville Stage Creations.
She holds a BA from SUNY Empire State in Dance, Theatre, and Movement Studies and has studied with Irene Dowd, Liz Koch, and Gil Hedley. She studied the Meisner technique with Michael Harney. Her teaching experience includes Wagner College, Gina Gibney, Dance New Amsterdam, Equinox, Dutchess Community College, Manhattan School of Music, the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies, Cornell Creative Arts Center, and privately. She has received several KCACTF Awards for her choreography at Ramapo College in New Jersey, as have the ensembles she has worked with. Her Ramapo choreography credits include Spring Awakening, Twelfth Night, Urinetown, Church, Ride the Cyclone, and Church.
This year Laura received a Dance Force Choreographer’s Initiative grant (NYSCA) which she is just beginning to work on. She has 2 paintings in a show at the Berkeley Alembic.
She shares her early memories of movement and how her awareness of the body has developed and shaped who she is and the work she does. It’s quite an inspiring conversation as Laura is steeped in body wisdom while being playful and open about how that weaves into her life. We learn about her own practices in both movement and stillness and what she offers to others as their guide. She indulges my questions about toddler movement, the nervous system and truth and offers a short yet powerful practice towards the end of the show. Connect with her via Facebook or Instagram for updates on classes, Dick Pinchers and Tonus Maximus and the Glam Rock Caberet.
You can also check out her YOUTUBE Channel, Somatics with Laura V Ward here!
See you at The Goddess Party performance this Saturday. And here’s the info on costume designer Ramona who we gushed about!
Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda from Radiokingston.org.
Our show music is from Shana Falana!
Feel free to email me, say hello: she@iwantwhatshehas.org
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