Art Talk: Anatomy of a Choreography

Anatomy of a Choreography by M-Body's Artistic Director, Davida Monk (50 mins with Q & A)

This audio-visual presentation features an in-depth look at one of Davida Monk’s choreographic processes from the earliest intimations for the work, through the breadth and depth of preparatory research, to the creation and structuring of movement and the final integration of production elements.

Guest Artist

Davida Monk, Dance Artist 

Davida Monk began her professional career in 1985 with Le Groupe de la Place Royale of Ottawa, and was instrumental in the development of Canada’s first professional contemporary dance laboratory for choreographic development, Le Groupe Dance Lab.  Monk’s works have been presented across Canada, in South America and in Europe.  

In her most recent project, Songs Without Words, she has created 20 distinct solos which are available for viewing, complete with collaborator comments, studio notes and artists’ responses at www.m-body.ca.   In addition to performing these works, Monk is in the process of giving them to other emerging and mature dance artists for their own performance repertoires.  The next phases of Songs Without Words will also include productions of reimagined combinations of the SWW body of work. 

Monk has taught dance technique, creative process and choreography in a wide variety of contexts and has danced for and collaborated with many Canadian choreographers and artists of other disciplines. She became a Certified Holden Qi Gong Instructor in 2023.

Monks is the recipient of awards for choreographic development and touring from the University of Calgary, Calgary Arts Development, and Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Banff Centre.  From 2008 to 2018 Monk directed Calgary’s Dancers’ Studio West, an organization dedicated to the development of choreographers. Monk is Associate Professor Emerita (University of Calgary), and Artistic Director of M-Body, dedicated to the development of her own works, since 2004.