A collaboration between Studio 303, MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) and La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines, Queer Performance Camp aims to create new ways to connect, grow and build community, while supporting the development of queer artists through workshops, gatherings and shows.

For this 4th edition, Queer Performance Camp relocates to the dead of winter to promote love and light in this cold, dark time of year. This year’s activities include two Canadian premiere performances by international artists, five eclectic workshops, creative residencies and a Valentine’s day screen-free slumber party.

PUBLIC PERFORMANCES
La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines + MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels)
i ride in colour and soft focus, no longer anywhere

Jamila Johnson-Small/Last Yearz Interesting Negro (London, UK)
February 8, 2020 at 8 p.m. + February 9 at 4 p.m.
La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines
lachapelle.org/en/schedule/i-ride-in-colour-and-soft-focus-no-longer-anywhere-queer-performance-camp

The performance i ride in colour and soft focus, no longer anywhere explores multiple and contradictory spaces, which consider movement and transformation as inevitable. Like all of Jamila Johnson-Small’s works, this piece is informed by their dance practice that acts as a tool for divination, decoding messages from an oracular body, always thinking about the metabolic impact and exchange through/in/as movement.

Trained in contemporary dance, Jamila Johnson-Small lives and works in London, UK. They lead numerous long-term collaborations with other artists, as well as a solo performance project, Last Yearz Interesting Negro. Their genre-disobedient practice is always relational, moving across spaces, contexts, roles and collaborations. Thinking cumulatively, their work gathers and transmits information through inviting others in, creating various constellations to build.

WHITE [ARIANE]
Ariah Lester (Amsterdam, NL)
February 13-14-15, 2020 at 8 p.m.
MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels)
www.m-a-i.qc.ca/en/event/white-ariane

Photo credit: Bas de Brouwer

ACTIVITIES
Studio 303

This is Actively Built/CanDance Creative Exchange
This research residency holds space for queer dance artists based in Calgary and Montreal to dialogue and create, while developing new art-making structures. Devised by Nate Yaffe, with Julie Ferguson, Kevin Jesuino, Winnie Ho and Melina Stinson. Following a week in Calgary in October at the Fluid Festival, the artists reunite in Montreal.

Mini-Residencies
Studio 303 welcomes 3 artists in residence: Iqrar Rizvi (Toronto) as well as local dance-makers, Jordan Brown and Georges-Nicolas Tremblay. Stay tuned for an informal showing by Iqrar and Jordan on February 9th!

Slumber Party
Friday February 14th, 2020 from 7 p.m. to 9 a.m. the next morning!
A screen-free slumber party with pillow fights, vintage puzzles, tarot readings and more! Entry includes inflatable mattresses and breakfast.

WORKSHOPS
Studio 303

Presence, Focus and Availability
with Peter James (Montreal, CA)
February 1-2, 2020 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
A rigorous exploration of our limits, self-perceptions and personal mythologies.

I have to give back all names
with Last Yearz Interesting Negro (London, UK)
February 3-7, 2020 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
We will move from and through and with states of overwhelm. We will spend time at/tuning.

The space of the heart: weeeerk da’space through presence, pure creative intuition and intention
with Ariah Lester (Amsterdam, NL)
February 8, 2020 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
We dance, we move, we sing, we speak, we dialogue about art and life from the space of the heart.

Dancing Magic Together
with Keith Hennessy (San Fransisco, US)
February 10-14, 2020 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
A five-class series exploring the poetics, politics, and potentials of dancing together, supported by ritual technologies of divination, ancestors, elements, care, and prayer.

Queer Contact (class and jam)
with Kinga Michalska + George Longshadow (Montreal, CA)
February 15, 2020 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Let’s explore contact improvisation’s queer potentials using somatic and clown techniques to warm up our connections to play and pleasure. 

www.facebook.com/queerperformancecamp
www.studio303.ca/en/queer-performance-camp