Erika Batdorf is from Nova Scotia and has been creating absolutely unique performance work for a LONG time. She loves to go for long hikes in the desert, she used to go dancing a lot and misses that.
She teaches at York in the theatre department and would not give that up even if she got rich and could make art all the time. She works REALLY hard and makes a mean sage sweet potato soup.
vKate Digby the director, and Zoe Sweet… yes we are this tired.
What ‘hood are you in?
Well I live down by Park lawn and Lakeshore, where I can watch the ducks, but my studio is Queen West right at Shaw
What do you do?
I make performance work in Toronto and tour internationally. I teach performance/theatre/movement work up at York in the Theatre Department with some amazing colleagues. I sing in Germany from time to time, I am a Baha’i and love my bike. I have a 17 year old son and we play cards sometimes.
What are you currently working on?
The Red Horse is Leaving- a duet dealing with madness and creativity that integrates biosensors. I am working with a team of artists:
A choreographer Kate Digby, who is also the director of The Red Horse is Leaving, from Kansas/NYC and a team of performers I have trained over the years in The Batdorf Technique- a technique that teaches performers to access emotion through the body. We have learned that this technique works really well with biosensors, so we are also working with a team of art/scientists to integrate biosensors into performance work. We are working on a larger piece ‘The Simurgh Project’ for 2019-2020 and I just finished a very fun interactive performance installation with Mark-David Hosale called Burnish.
Where can we find your work?
Summerwork 2018! And Rendezvous with Madness festival through Workman Arts in October. Go to www.batdorf.org for more info and well, NY, Santa Barbara, Kansas…
