NEW WORK IN PROGRESS
Hyper Portrait
Hyper Portrait is a choreography made of felt rhythms and filled with gestures that crystallize and dissolve weaving unexpected intersections. In this live drums, movement and spoken word duo, Katie Ward and Laura Jeffery embody archetypal presences that attract and repel.
In August 2025, Katie travelled with drummer Laura Jeffery, to present an in-progress version of Hyper Portrait at SappyFest in Sackville New Brunswick.
Katie and Laura will be touring as a music duo and playing in music venues as a way to develop the work – we will be traveling as a touring band, using method-based immersion to research and develop Hyper Portrait.
Tour dates:
Dec 10th Venue TBC – Sète, FR
Dec 11th Spazio – Marseille, FR
Dec 13th Diamon D’OR – Strasbourg, FR
Dec 14th Container City – Stuttgart, DE
Dec 15th Nouveaux Sauvages – Paris, FR
Dec 16th Venue TBC – Brussels, BE
Past residencies:
Parbleux, February 24-24, 2025
Studio 303, December 2024
Maison de la culture Janine-Sutto, July 2024
CCOV, April 1-5, 2024
TINY SCHOOL
The Tiny School pilot project was successfully launched in June 2025! We, (Nien Tzu Weng and Katie Ward) dreamed of Tiny School being for artists from a variety of practices who are engaged in movement! We imagined that Tiny School could be a kind of empty vessel, a process for enabling learning to happen – focussed on movement research.
Tiny School was hosted by Nien Tzu at her studio Anti Space and coordinated by CKW. In the first meeting, we began to build a structure for learning and mutual support.
Check back for updates about upcoming activities!
ANYTHING WHATSOEVER
In Katie’s dance performance, Anything Whatsoever, Katie seeks to activate both the audience’s imagination and her own as a performer. Her movement score uncovers states, identities and forms housed in her own body archive. For their part, the spectators are invited to speak at different moments of the performance, guided by a score: after the performer has revealed a fact about herself to the microphone, the boom operator approaches each spectator with a microphone and invites them to do the same. The scores of movements and the words of the audience evolve in parallel, intertwining, creating a constantly changing composite – a kind of dream bath.
Past events:
Left of Main (Vancouver, Left of Push Festival): February 1 2025
La Rotonde (Québec): Feb 28 – Mar 3 2023
Festival of New Dance (St John’s): October 5 2022
Festival TransAmériques – La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines (Montréal):
May 27-Jun 2nd 2021
SCORE TO DANCE INFINITE REALITIES
With Montreal artist, choreographer and researcher Marie Claire Forté, Katie initiated a research project called the Score to Dance Infinite Realities. With this project, Marie Claire and Katie explore dance, teaching, and training, modalities focusing on practices of autonomy and self-determination.
Upcoming:
Studio 303 (Montréal): Jan 19 to 22 2025
Past events:
Collège St Laurent: March 4 2025 3pm-16:45pm
Montreal at La Poêle: March 21 2025 10am-1pm
Festival TransAmériques (Montréal): Rencontres internationales & Conversations on Performance May 27 2024 & June 2 2024
Concordia University Dance department (Montréal): April 11 – 12 2024
Studio 303 (Montréal): Feb 19 to 23 2024
The School of Dance (Ottawa): January 17, 2024
UQO (Gatineau): invited by Sophie Bélair Clément /Performance art students January 15 2024
Concordia University Dance department (Montréal): October 16-20 2023
Studio 303 (Montréal): October 13 2023
Studio 303 (Montréal): May 1 – 5 2023
École de danse Quatre Temps (Rimouski): March 7 & 8 2023
Maison pour la danse (Québec): Visual arts students University of Laval March 1 2023
Collège de Montréal (Montréal): January 25 2023
EMBODIED ANATOMY WORKSHOPS
Katie offers workshops in embodied anatomy and pilates intended for the general public, movement practitioners, athletes and artists including dancers, performing artists, opera singers. These workshops support many physical practices and promote sustainability and promote sustainability for being the owner/operator/inhabitant of a human body. By working from the idea that our brains are plastic and able to transform, embodied anatomy uses mental imagery to transform the body and improve its function.
Ongoing imagery and pilates classes
Nyata Nyata: Fridays from 17:30-18:30
Past events:
Pilates Space Ottawa: November 30 2024
Collège St Laurent: November 13 2024
The Citadel: (Toronto) Franklin Method April 28 2024
Pilates Space Ottawa: March 23 2024
Toronto Dance Theatre Studios (Toronto): Franklin Method January 20 2024
UQAM dance department: Guest teacher January 12 2024
ICAV (Institut Canadien d’Art Vocal) Montréal July 10-14 & 17-21 2023
ICAV (Institut Canadien d’Art Vocal) Montréal July 4-22 2022
PRACTICE SHARING / OPEN STUDIO SHARING
Katie shares her artistic practice in a variety of contexts, most recently as a guest teacher in Concordia’s dance program and as a guest artist at the Montreal Danse 2024 choreographic workshop.
REFLECTION AND DEVELOPMENT
CKW strives to remain aware of differences within working communities and work with these differences to maintain and nurture a healthy working environment for all.
Compagnie Katie Ward est soutenu par la Cellule d’accompagnement de la
Machinerie