Switching Kjipuktuk
In this "Switch Praxis" Workshop & performance for the 2023 Canadian Association of Theatre Research (CATR) Conference we invited queer & allied participants to join the Switch collective in an exploration of our methodologies for developing radical & roving queer street performance. This was open to anyone interested in street art for social change, collaborative creation using transformative justice frameworks, or simply exploring personal modes of performative inqueery in unexpected settings. We also invited 3 local two spirit, queer & trans (2SQT) performers Mahia T, Lara Lewis and Lou Campbell to collaborate with us! As the term ‘switch’ implies, we are using performative frameworks that center queer cultures, sex/desire positivity, versatility, consent practice & radical change as well as improvisation and adaptability. We played with queer “warm ups” using prompts to guide stretching, words & gestures to introduce ourselves to one another, describe our passions & explore transgressive bodily expressions. We used circle work to explore key concepts that inform our work including regenerative reciprocity, consent, switchiness, accessibility & care. We moved through exercises that explored transgressive movement through space, working with place & architecture, mixing mediums into collaborative performance gestures & animating political prompts rooted in the site(s) of our work- namely Djibuktuk (Halifax) and the areas around Dalhousie University.
We then harvested insights gained from these exercises to loosely curate and improve a thread of performative gestures (inspired by Pocha Nostra, Violeta Luna), followed by a brief discussion returning to ‘care’ in order to then take our experiments to the streets for a roving mini performance. We hope to document this street experiment and share with participants of the workshop.
Workshop team: Lexi Sproule, Naty Tremblay, Sedina Fiati
Performance collaborators: Lara Lewis, Lou Campbell, Mahia T, Laura Nanni
Performance documentation: Patricia Vinluan
Host partners: The Canadian Association for Theatre Research Conference and Dalhousie University
Note - "Kjipuktuk" is the Miq'mak term for the area that is colonially known as "Halifax". We honour the unceaded territories of Miq'maki by referring to the traditional name for this place and acknowledging the original and ongoing stewards of these lands, the Miq'mak peoples.
We then harvested insights gained from these exercises to loosely curate and improve a thread of performative gestures (inspired by Pocha Nostra, Violeta Luna), followed by a brief discussion returning to ‘care’ in order to then take our experiments to the streets for a roving mini performance. We hope to document this street experiment and share with participants of the workshop.
Workshop team: Lexi Sproule, Naty Tremblay, Sedina Fiati
Performance collaborators: Lara Lewis, Lou Campbell, Mahia T, Laura Nanni
Performance documentation: Patricia Vinluan
Host partners: The Canadian Association for Theatre Research Conference and Dalhousie University
Note - "Kjipuktuk" is the Miq'mak term for the area that is colonially known as "Halifax". We honour the unceaded territories of Miq'maki by referring to the traditional name for this place and acknowledging the original and ongoing stewards of these lands, the Miq'mak peoples.