Katherine Semchuck is a dance-based collaborator, performer and instructor currently based in Tkaronto (Treaty 13 Territory). She is a graduate of Victoria School of the Arts and The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, where she was the recipient of the Kathryn Ash Leadership Award. Katherine has spent the last few years connecting with movement and artistic communities across the country, and has had the pleasure of making art with Good Women Dance Collective (GWDC), Kaeja d’Dance, Kylie Thompson, Mateo Galindo Torres, Meghann Michalsky, Mile Zero Dance, Nostos Collectives, Peggy Baker Dance Projects, Sasha Ivanochko, and Naishi Wang. She feels liberated when she is able to act as a physical portal for her own and other collaborators’ stories, ideas and sketches.
She is fascinated by the use of spirals, momentum and opposition/conflict in the body, and integrates these functions into her ever-evolving movement practice. Her past work has been presented by Expanse Festival, Feats Festival of Dance, Mile Zero Dance, New Dance Horizons, and Nestfest. In the fall of 2021, Katherine’s new solo work “In pieces” was presented by Mile Zero Dance and Springboard Dance’s Fluid Fest, which includes live music by composer Julian Anderson-Bowes. She is grateful to be supported by Edmonton Arts Council, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and Canada Council for the Arts.
Katherine is a co-artistic director of Nostos Collectives, a program coordinator for Kaeja d’Dance, and is the organizer for Westside Movement Sessions (a platform for emerging instructors in Tkaronto). Her curiosity for movement has brought her to intensives and companies such as PARTS (Brussels), Company 605 and Radical System Art (Vancouver), and to David Zombrano (Flying Low), Elke Schroeder (Fighting Monkey), and Bonar McCallum (Ido Portal’s methods). Katherine has had the pleasure of sharing her movement and dance practices at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Canada’s National Ballet School, Canadian Ice Academy, Ballet Edmonton, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, The University of Alberta, Edmonton Public School Board, and YYC Contemporary Training.