BLOOM at the ZAGAR November 19, 2020
Join us for BLOOM at the ZAGAR, in OFF-Dance in Vancouver
5:45-6:30 this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Get your tickets!
The Performance Research Program with Lesley Telford is showing
“Influence” in progress.
Performance Research Program / Arts Umbrella 2019, with Lesley Telford. Photo: David Cooper
Susan McKenzie: Tell me an influence on your work’s direction in general.
Lesley Telford: What’s influencing me right now is how we move each other… transecting, say, the person you pass at the market…how from one person to another, our gaze changes. We don’t operate independently. How sensitive we are to one another.
SM In keeping with BLOOM, do you have a favourite wine?
LT Rioja!
SM You’re showing an excerpt from “Influence” at BLOOM. Tell me about your collaborators.
LT They’re a group of emerging professional dancers who I work with every day in the Performance Research Program of Arts Umbrella. There will be 12 dancers in that small space (the Zagar studio)! Talk about influence!
SM What’s the last thing you remember laughing about from the bottom of your soul?
LT I can’t remember exactly - a flash of something ridiculous like a sideways look - with my partner and my daughter - the kind of humour that’s layered with us knowing each other so well.
SM What’s changed in your art through becoming a parent?
LT Oh, my daughter teaches me so many things. She’s a really good art critic, and if I can keep her interested, I know I’m on track. She’s eleven now and she’s my consultant, giving me great advice.
SM Your most recent read?
LT “Wonder”, with my daughter.
Desi Rekrut, Ariana Barr, Eowynn Enquist, Performance Research Project 2019 Photo: David Cooper
SM Your art hero?
LT Anne Carson; and of course Jiri Kylian is always going to be right up there; and Bill Viola.
SM What is your choreographic pet peeve?
LT Moving. Too much movement!
SM What do you most value in a performer?
LT Honesty.
SM What’s the one word your best friend would use to describe your dances?
LT Impulse.
“Don’t jump ahead in your timeline – be in the moment so that you can be surprised by yourself. In one word, “unprecipitated.””
— Lesley Telford
Ria Girard and Terra Kell Performance Research Program, Arts Umbrella, 2019 Photo: David Cooper
SM One thing no one knows about you.
LT Bit of an open book, really, everyone knows everything about me – I can’t think of an answer to that!
SM What is your choreographic mantra?
LT Don’t jump ahead in your timeline – be in the moment so that you can be surprised by yourself. In one word, “unprecipitated”.
SM The one thing you’re most proud of?
LT My daughter.
SM Who would you most like to have dinner with?
LT Well, my art idols - but mostly, my daughter, and I am lucky because I get to do that every single night!
SM Your idea of happiness?
LT Gardening.
SM If you could go back, what would you tell your twenty-year-old self?
LT There’s time. And there’s no time.
SM Something surprising you’ve discovered about making dances?
LT That when you make make dances the things you couldn’t bring out - which were there in your subconscious - reveal themselves.
Also, understanding people. We all get to know each other better by making dances.
Performance Research Program, 2019 with Lesley Telford Photo: David Cooper