About the artist
Kayla Jeanson is an artist working with human movement and moving pictures. As a contemporary dance choreographer and professional filmmaker, her practice merges artistic disciplines and examines hybrid conceptual territories.
(portrait photo by Eva Blue)
Born in Winnipeg, Montreal-based artist Kayla Jeanson choreographs interdisciplinary work rooted in a desire to navigate the line between artist and audience, aiming to reveal movement as a cognitive process. She works within the worlds of documentary cinema, contemporary dance, poetry film, and circus arts. In collaborating with numerous artists including Luca “Lazylegz” Patuelli, Nicolas Montes de Oca, Kyra Jean Green, Damian Siqueiros, Stephanie Ballard, Ess Hödlmoser, and Ming Hon, Kayla aims to create work that is non-ableist and celebrates all gender, sexual, and cultural identities.
Having trained at the School of Contemporary Dancers in Winnipeg as well as the University of Manitoba's Film Studies program, Kayla brings awareness of her privilege as a woman of white settler heritage, striving to unpack narratives historically reflected in conventional film and dance. Her efforts to create opportunity for a diverse array of artists include work in her roles as founder of circus/dance collective Go North, Land South and as president of Young Lungs Dance Exchange.
Kayla is also an accomplished film director, producer, cinematographer, and video editor who has worked for companies such as Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, and Cirque du Soleil. Her films have screened at festivals internationally, garnering awards including Best Poetry Film for her 2015 short Descrambled Eggs. You can learn more about her videography and collaborations here: www.kaylajeanson.com
Why "behold"?
Having spent over a decade behind a camera in my parallel career as videographer, I think a lot about the role of the observer. To behold is to become: what we perceive becomes a part of our bodies.