Kerwin Barrington
Dance Artist
Kerwin Barrington
Dance Artist
_preview_rev_1.png "Illustration made by Adele Reeves")
Biography
I come from the Chateauguay Valley in south-western Quebec. My ancestors arrived from Scotland, Ireland, England and France in the 18th century and were mostly farmers. I grew up surrounded by a big family, fields, rivers, orchards and forests.
I have been dancing since I can remember. My first memories are making up dances in my living room with the Solid Gold dancers https://youtu.be/25ncJjYPQrI?si=WcSdvUdhGzAOgOdv . I can remember, at a very young age, bringing the local kids together to teach them moves and put on a shows for anyone who would watch.
I became a mother of two beautiful girls at a very young age. This impacted my life in a profound way, bringing me through a different path than most dance artists.
My time in the Concordia Contemporary Dance Department from 2007-2012, oriented me towards having a practice that stands out as my own. One that is connected to life. The teaching there inspired me to be myself and to include all that I am in what I do. Because of this, I am a mover, a teacher, a researcher, a dance maker who is continuously curious about how I can offer an environment where participants can feel free to be themselves.
I have been officially facilitating movement contexts for 18 years. Weekly open dance classes, intensive workshops, creative processes for the stage and beyond and cultural mediation in schools, seniors residencies and more.
My goal of offering dance experiences which foster intuitive knowing--puts the experience of the material/proposition/idea at the forefront. This knowing in relationship to the instinctual and intellectual knowing of the body, creates a holistic focus for the learner, and allows for new information to be integrated in a way that is meaningful and sticks.
Certified to teach the Axis Syllabus, I have been allied with its International Research Network (ASRM) for 10 years. The archives of the AS, as well as the pedagogical philosophy practiced by many in its community has influenced my life/practice profoundly, cultivating passion about exploring new ways of understanding the body in movement. Along the way, this alliance has brought me to travel to Massachusetts, Vermont and California in the U.S., to Berlin and Italy in Europe and to Benin, Africa to study and sometimes teach the Axis Syllabus in immersive/intensive learning contexts.
Most recently, I spent 4 years preparing a Master's degree in dance at UQAM, researching the expression "To Learn by Heart" by studying the possible relationships between the heart and meaningful, embodied learning through dance experience. This research has brought warmth to every encounter and meaning to every discovery along the way.
In this new chapter of my life/practice I am keenly interested in how tradition, ancestry, territory and music, live inside my dance and the dance I share with others. In this beginning research I have been studying the Square dances from the Chateauguay Valley guided by holders of the knowledge-- Janice Barr, Bruce Barr, Pierre-Paul Savaria and Angela Neal. The dream is to bring this research to a choreographic project which can also act as cultural mediation.
