Katherine Duncanson

Katherine Duncanson is an interdisciplinary artist, music educator, creative facilitator, vocal director and Yoga instructor. Paula Citron in Toronto's Globe and Mail referred to her as "one of this city's great performance artists". As well as creating her own work, Katherine has performed and collaborated with many Toronto-based choreographers, musicians and performance artists including: Bill James, Marie-Josee Chartier, Holly Small, John Oswald, Claudia Moore, Yvonne Ng, Hari Krishnan, Gerry Trentham, Denise Fujiwara, Suzanna Hood, Vera Frenkel, R Murray Schafer, Sashar Zarif, Erin Donovan, Sara Angelucci, The Toronto Chamber Choir, Arraymusic, The Glass Orchestra and Gamelan Toronto. She and Peter Chin have had a creative and performance history since 1985.

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As a member of the interdisciplinary trio, Cliq, Katherine performed what has been described as "music for the eye", across Canada; appearing at such festivals as Women in View (Vancouver), the du Maurier New Music Festival (Winnipeg), and the Sound Symposium (St. John’ s). In 1995 she became a member of the interdisciplinary performance collective, Urge. A one hour documentary on their creative process entitled The Women of Urge was made for the CBC's Adrienne Clarkson Presents. Urge's most recent work, And By The Way, Miss was commissioned by Theatre Direct Canada; played at Harbourfront's Studio Theatre to hundreds of teenage girls with rave reviews; and was the recipient of two Dora Awards: best production and best performance in Theatre for Young Audiences category. The script for And By the Way Miss has just been published and is available through Playwrights Canada Press. Katherine has created and performed her own solo performance work at notable festivals across Canada.

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Katherine was born and raised in Nova Scotia and holds a BA in Music from Acadia University. Upon moving to Toronto, she continued music studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music , and dance at York University and with various teachers in Toronto. She has extensively trained in Clown with Ian Wallace, Sue Morrison and Phillippe Gaulier; Voice with Helga Tucker, Wendy Humphreys, Richard Armstrong and Fides Krucker; Movement Improvisation with Lisa Nelson, K.J. Holmes and Simone Forti; and Music Improvisation and Deep Listening with Pauline Oliveros.

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Katherine herself, is in demand as a voice and sound/movement improvisation teacher and Yoga instructor. She offers classes to a growing roster of nation-wide artists. Katherine taught Music For Dancers at York University and The School of Toronto Dance Theatre for many years. She has also given workshops for the Music and Dance departments of York University, the National Ballet of Canada's choreographic workshop, Dancemakers, Moonhorse Dance Theatre, the Banff Centre of Fine Arts (as assistant to Richard Armstrong), Victoria's KidCo, Halifax Dance, Volcano Theatre, and Sol Express Toronto, among many others.

As a creative facilitator (Outside Eye) and vocal director, Katherine guides a process which reveals itself through the integration of performance disciplines through text, movement and music exploration; ultimately leading to creation of new work and development of existing work. Recent projects with Toronto - based artists / companies: Denise Fujiwara, Eve Egoyan, Esmeralda Enrique, Fides Krucker, Sara Porter, Gerry Trentham, Sashar Zarif, and Hear Here Productions and Mocean Dance in Nova Scotia.