Ainsley Hillyard
Edmonton
Ainsley Hillyard started her professional training in Edmonton, Alberta obtaining her diploma in dance from Grant MacEwan College under the instruction of Brian Webb and Heidi Bunting. She furthered her studies obtaining her Bachelor of Arts Honors Degree at the school of contemporary dancers in affiliation with the University of Winnipeg. Upon returning to Edmonton Ainsley has been taking regular classes with Heidi Bunting and participating in community co-op classes as both student and teacher. Ainsley is a driving force of ‘Good Women Dance Collective’, and devotes her time and energy towards propelling the group forward. Ainsley has danced in projects for Mile Zero and has been their Education Coordinator for their Artist in Residency Programs in Edmonton public schools since 2009. Ainsley has also worked for Heidi Bunting Dance, Linda Turnbull, Tania Alvarado and Raena Waddell on various creative processes. Recently, Ainsley has enjoyed crossing disciplines, directing the Samuel Beckett movement based play “Quad” for Surreal SoReal Theatre in November 2010 as well as choreographing for “Night Time” by Cowardly Kiss Theatre November 2011. In June 2010, Ainsley received the Enbridge Emerging Artist Award at Nextfest and she is thrilled to have the opportunity to work in an expanding and intensifying dance community like Edmonton.
Artistic Statement
As a creative artist I am committed to discovering and representing honest human experiences in my work. I want these expressions to resonate in my choreography and connect with my audience on a personal level. I am interested in exploring the fusion of physical theatre and dance, I find the blending of them to be an interesting and rewarding process. My artistic process usually relies heavily on input from my interpreters. When conducting a movement study, I am constantly asking my interpreters to access the narrative and psychology portrayed in the images I am sourcing and the process can be very task oriented. Although I am an advocate for collaboration and democratic research the limitations of time and money usually find my processes being explored alone. I rely heavily on intellectual understanding of the material I am exploring, immersing myself in documents, video footage, images and any academic source material I can find.