Gemma Crowe is an emerging contemporary dance artist based out of Vancouver, British Columbia. Graduating with distinction from The University of Calgary’s Program of Dance with a Bachelor’s Degree in 2013, Crowe actively began her pursuit of a career in the Arts, fueled by her passion for contemporary dance and her love for creation. Crowe had the opportunity to choreograph for the Annual Alberta Dance Festival’s Prelude series and the Fluid Movement Arts Festival’s SPARK 2012 programme in her last year living in Calgary. Co-founding the Strange Change Dance Collective in 2012 has enabled Crowe to stay connected to the community in Calgary while exploring opportunities around the world. The collective received a Calgary 2012 Grassroots Grant for Strange Change’s first ever Strange Change Dance Exchange showcase. The collective has recently begun preparations for another showcase planned for this fall.

 

For Gemma Crowe, creation is a practice that spans the entirety of her life and work. Her creative lifestyle is built on a foundation of curiosities and inspiration. With her love for imagery and composition, Crowe began to pursue filmmaking, a passion realized through dance. Crowe was offered an internship with the Think/Feel reel film production company in Brooklyn, New York and went on to complete the Digital Film Production Program at Langara College in Vancouver, British Columbia. At the very core of what she does, Gemma Crowe strives to make connections, drawing inspirations and abstracting them across all mediums. Crowe is observant and diligent with her findings, begging the question; “what can be learned by interpreting other perspectives?” As an amateur film maker Crowe’s attention to detail and understanding of the visual framework enable her to create specific environments for work to be received. It is in guiding the eye, and moving with the subject that she finds dance in her film work. Crowe pursues the study of movement as a practice, as an art form and through the medium of film.

 

With keen observations, critical thinking and open-minded exploration, Gemma Crowe values, above all, the commitment to fulfilling an idea. It is in careful editing, the refining of the medium and rendering the mode of expression to the purest and most succinct state, that one can fulfill an idea. Applying this approach to dance and film allows the two mediums to continuously enhance each other. Her love of creation comes from movement and, as such, Crowe has had some very important opportunities for growth. Training with Surge Co. pre professional company, the Training Society of Vancouver’s Working Class Scholarship and with the EDAM Dance Scholarship, Crowe has been able to deepen her movement practice while making meaningful connections within the community. Most recent works involve creating in the 2013 & 2015 BLOOM choreographic residencies with Mascall Dance, choreographing for the RAW Artists Showcase “Spectrum”, the 2013 & 2014 Lab Art Show events, The Fluid Movement Arts Festival’s Physical Therapy Cabaret, To. Be. Announced Showcase and The Lovers Cabaret Presents: Six Word Stories.

 

Crowe’s most recent development has been in training overseas at P.A.R.T.S. Summer School In Brussels and attending Impuls Tanz, Vienna’s International Dance Festival. Gemma Crowe has acquired a greater understanding for the context of her work and global significance for art. The value of Dance as art remains of paramount importance to Crowe as she continues to explore, create and work in dance and film. Movement is a passion that fuels her engagement with the world around her.