Community-engaged dance residencies at the Park Board bring together non-professional movers of all ages, sizes, dance abilities and cultural backgrounds to work alongside professional dance artists creating, practicing and performing dance. They are working collaborations between professional dance artists and community members who might not think of themselves as dancers and choreographers. Community-engaged dance recognizes all participants as important contributors to the collaborative process – together, artists and participants explore creative movement and develop work that is important to them.

Ageless Dancers at the Roundhouse

The Ageless Dancers are an inclusive community of older adults who create, practice and perform in ways that honour the aging body, affirming and celebrating the unique experiences of later life. In a series of weekly workshops, adults over the age of 55 explore the creative and interactive potential of their physical, mental and emotional selves through dance using movement and voice. Their work together is sourced in the knowledge, stories and experiences held in the mature body. Currently, the Ageless Dancers are working with artist Heather Myers.

Artist Biography

Heather Myers is a mother and dance artist living and working on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Heather danced with Alberta Ballet, Boston Ballet, and Netherlands Dance Theatre, and has worked as a teacher/maker/collaborator with Ballet BC, All Bodies Dance Project, Taipei National University of the Arts, Springboard Danse Montreal, Simon Fraser University, choreographer Rachel Meyer, Singapore School of the Arts, and Inverso Productions’ Performance Research Project.

Heather’s interests in creative process for every body, and in meaningful arts experiences that happen from the inside out, have led her to community work in Holland, a residency with HCMA Architecture and Design, and exchange opportunities in India and Indonesia. Heather is a recipient of The Banff Centre’s Clifford E. Lee Award for Choreography and is a graduate of the Tamalpa Institute’s Level 1 Professional Training Program.