About

Good Women Dance Collective (GWDC) is a creation-based company committed to supporting a vibrant, sustainable and inclusive dance community in Edmonton. The collective’s artistic focus is on creating, commissioning and producing innovative new contemporary works that simultaneously challenge and expand our audience. GWDC also dedicates a large part of its season toward partnering with local organisations to offer performance, educational, and professional development opportunities to artists working in Edmonton.

Current artistic members include; Deviani Andrea, Alida Kendell, Alison Kause, and Molly McDermott. They have trained across Canada, the U.S. and Europe, and continue to work towards making contemporary dance more accessible to the general public. GWDC strives to provide consistent training, performance, professional development and community-building opportunities to the Edmonton dance community, fostering the continued growth and development of its artists, while offering opportunities for dialogue and engagement between artists and the public.

The collective is proudly supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Alberta Lotteries, the Edmonton Arts Council and Edmonton Community Foundation.

Vision

Good Women Dance Collective (GWDC) envisions a vibrant, sustainable, inclusive and diverse dance community in Edmonton.

Mission Statements

To cultivate its vision of a vibrant, sustainable, inclusive and diverse dance community in Edmonton, Good Women Dance Collective combines the artistic pursuits of its Collective Artists with support for dance artists and audience development.

The Collective’s artistic focus is on creating, commissioning, performing, and producing dance works, as well as cross-disciplinary co-productions, with physical depth and social relevance that challenge its artists and audiences.

The Collective works to encourage artistic growth, provide training, and support the careers and practice of emerging and established dance artists.

The Collective aims to enrich the public’s experience and understanding of contemporary dance.

The Collective prioritizes artists from equity-owed groups and works to support people with barriers to access.

While GWDC strives to foster the continued growth and development of Edmonton artists, it is also committed to offering opportunities for dialogue and engagement between artists and the public regionally and nationally.

Mandate

Good Women Dance Collective is a not-for-profit society and charitable organization based in Edmonton.

GWDC operates as an artist-run collective supported by a volunteer Board of Directors and members of the registered society.

GWDC artists’ approach to truly collective creation and shared administration of the company challenges both hierarchical choreographic approaches and traditional top-down company structures.

Values

The guiding values of Good Women Dance Collective include the importance of:

• Diversity in dance and the arts

• Inclusivity in dance and the arts

• Gender equity in dance and the arts

• Artistic quality, integrity, conviction, and risk-taking

• A collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach to dance

• A responsibility to stimulate, lead and support artistic growth throughout our local community as well as being an active presence regionally and nationally

• Collective guidance and leadership in dance and the arts

• Strong, interactive relationships between audiences and artists

Board Members

GWDC has performed in numerous festivals and events across Alberta and Canada, including:

• dance: made in canada
• Festival Quartiers Danses
• Fluid Festival
• Dancefest @ Nextfest
• Edmonton Fringe Festival
• Expanse Movement Arts Festival
• Prairie Dance Circuit
• Mayors Celebration of the Arts Gala
• A.I.R (presented by Dancers’ Studio West)
• Feats Festival of Dance
• Winnipeg Fringe Festival
• Canada Dance Festival
• Toronto Fringe Festival
• Dancing On The Edge

“The Good Women aren’t good. They are wild and free and fierce and full of wants and needs and ambitions. I always admired the way they braided together their personalities and individualities with an immense desire to be together. To do things together without ever sacrificing their singularities.
We should always count on the Good Women to be scary ass b******. The world needs more of them!”Mélanie Demers (Artistic Director, MAYDAY Danse)

“The Good Women Dance Collective is a quartet of physically powerful, electric talents.”Colin MacLean (gigcity.ca)