Heidi Strauss
Photo Credit: Jeremy Mimnagh
Dance artist Heidi Strauss has worked for companies and choreographers from across Canada, as well as within Europe and Asia. A multi-Dora Award winning choreographer and the Artistic Director of Toronto-based adelheid, Heidi has been a resident artist at The Duncan Centre (CZ), and in Toronto at the Factory Theatre, The Theatre Centre, Harbourfront Centre, and currently at The Citadel through their Creative Incubator program. Her installation work has recently been recognized by UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network. She has been commissioned by/choreographed for Toronto Dance Theatre, Mocean Dance, The Frankfurt Opera, The Canadian Opera Company, Volcano Theatre, the Stratford Festival, among others.
Through adelheid she initiates opportunities for other artists, recently including ‘re:research’ for emerging dance creators, ‘space’– a pop-up for creation and practice towards pandemic recovery, and ‘cohort’ for creators integrating smartphone technologies into their performance-making practice. Heidi is a KM Hunter Award recipient who continues to evolve her teaching practice relative to her creative explorations; she has given workshops across Canada and internationally.
PRACTICE STATEMENT
As a performance-maker, I am drawn to examining human behaviour from different perspectives. This extends from the collaborative creative process to the choreographing of, and learning from audience. I am interested in the ‘realness’ of where and who we are, here and now – how we are affected by the world around us, and how we are affected by each other.
In my work, relationships often form the basis to consider our current social and environmental moment. I am curious about softly interrogating shared experience, and the possibilities afforded by inhabiting less conventional and/or virtual spaces. By challenging habitual spectatorship and shifting the physical perspective of the audience, space is made to register presence and reflect on comfort zones and boundaries. This has drawn me towards creating immersive, installation, ambulatory, site-sensitive and digital works for theatre and non-theatre environments.