Lesley Telford is presently based in Vancouver, Canada as choreographer and director of Inverso Productions as well as directing the Performance Research Project (PReP) at Arts Umbrella's Professional Dance Program. PReP is geared towards research and development for the emerging artist and Inverso Productions is performance-based.
Lesley finished her studies in Montreal at L´École Supérieur de Danse du Québec before joining the company Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. She went on to dance with Nacho Duato´s Compañia Nacional de Danza in Madrid, Spain. Most recently she danced with Netherlands Dans Theater 1 where she worked with choreographers such as Jiri Kylian, Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon, William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, Johan Inger, Crystal Pite and others and performed in major theatres worldwide. She has set and staged the work of Jiri Kylian as well as Lightfoot/Leon.
As a choreographer, she has created for Ballet BC, Netherlands Dans Theater 1, Hubbard Street Dance Company 2 (US), Compañia Nacional de Danza 2 (Spain), Ballet Vorpommern (Germany), International Project for Dance in Rome- DAF (Italy), Butler Ballet (US), University of Utah (US) and Arts Umbrella Dance Company. She won the Pretty Creatives choreographic competition at Northwest Dance Project in 2014. Her work has been presented in the CaDance Festival and Korzo Theatre in the Netherlands, International Festival Madrid en Danza and the Reina Sophia Museum in Spain, Chutzpah Festival, the Banff Festival of the Arts, The Gothenburg Dance and Theatre Festival and the Schmiede Festival. She is the founder of Inverso Productions, a platform for interdisciplinary performance, through which she produced and choreographed a full-length work: Brittle Failure which has been a part of tours and festivals in Spain, the Netherlands and Canada.
As a teacher, she has given workshops and classes internationally in many companies and schools such as Ballet BC, Spring Seminar Vancouver, Prague International Contemporary Dance Intensive, Danscentrum Gothenburg, Madrid Conservatory of Dance, NDT Summer Intensive and NDT educational projects. She teaches classes of repertoire, ballet, contemporary, movement exploration and improvisation/composition.
Interested in furthering her artistic research and exploration into the field, she has a Master of Arts in Cultural Production from the joint program of the University of Salzburg and the Mozarteum. Her thesis examined the use of the museum as a performance space for dance. She was also a fellow in a joint research project with the Zurich University of the Arts in 2013.
She was recently selected by Crystal Pite for the Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award 2015 as emerging artist in dance.
Lesley finished her studies in Montreal at L´École Supérieur de Danse du Québec before joining the company Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. She went on to dance with Nacho Duato´s Compañia Nacional de Danza in Madrid, Spain. Most recently she danced with Netherlands Dans Theater 1 where she worked with choreographers such as Jiri Kylian, Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon, William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, Johan Inger, Crystal Pite and others and performed in major theatres worldwide. She has set and staged the work of Jiri Kylian as well as Lightfoot/Leon.
As a choreographer, she has created for Ballet BC, Netherlands Dans Theater 1, Hubbard Street Dance Company 2 (US), Compañia Nacional de Danza 2 (Spain), Ballet Vorpommern (Germany), International Project for Dance in Rome- DAF (Italy), Butler Ballet (US), University of Utah (US) and Arts Umbrella Dance Company. She won the Pretty Creatives choreographic competition at Northwest Dance Project in 2014. Her work has been presented in the CaDance Festival and Korzo Theatre in the Netherlands, International Festival Madrid en Danza and the Reina Sophia Museum in Spain, Chutzpah Festival, the Banff Festival of the Arts, The Gothenburg Dance and Theatre Festival and the Schmiede Festival. She is the founder of Inverso Productions, a platform for interdisciplinary performance, through which she produced and choreographed a full-length work: Brittle Failure which has been a part of tours and festivals in Spain, the Netherlands and Canada.
As a teacher, she has given workshops and classes internationally in many companies and schools such as Ballet BC, Spring Seminar Vancouver, Prague International Contemporary Dance Intensive, Danscentrum Gothenburg, Madrid Conservatory of Dance, NDT Summer Intensive and NDT educational projects. She teaches classes of repertoire, ballet, contemporary, movement exploration and improvisation/composition.
Interested in furthering her artistic research and exploration into the field, she has a Master of Arts in Cultural Production from the joint program of the University of Salzburg and the Mozarteum. Her thesis examined the use of the museum as a performance space for dance. She was also a fellow in a joint research project with the Zurich University of the Arts in 2013.
She was recently selected by Crystal Pite for the Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award 2015 as emerging artist in dance.
Artist statement |
It disappears as soon as it happens. As a form, dance is elusive...only present when it is actually mid-momentum, which can be frustrating, fragile and beautiful.
In attempting to grasp the ungraspable, I try to create situations that can propel you into something you didn’t predict. We spend years developing this extreme control and extreme purpose in what we do, and I am fascinated with the stripping-down of that control. How far can you go before hitting a breaking point? Where is that point? I feel like it pulls out a level of honesty and vulnerability when you have a goal beyond your grasp. I like to encourage dancers to dig into real moments in their own lives to source movement from their own stories. When this happens it’s not just movement. They are reliving it. Each person creates his own world within a work and through a work including the public who may come up with a multitude of interpretations through the lens of their own experiences. Beyond the details of a creation, the frame of the work shifts and changes according to the situation. After a career spent in the theatre, I am interested in exploring other spatial contexts and how these settings affect the experience of a piece. The theatre is always magical, but I find it adds another dimension to have the reference of an alternative or site-specific performance environment as a counterpoint. |
