.the_archive / Justine A. Chambers

The anchors of Justine A. Chambers movement based practice are found in collaborative creation, close observation, and the idea of choreography as living archive. She is concerned with a choreography of the everyday; with the unintentional dances, as she describes them “that are already there.” She emerges from the Black American Diaspora, bi-racial and a dual citizen. Her practice extends from this continuum, and its entanglements with western contemporary dance and visual art practices.

Her recent choreographic projects include: Zephyrs, Heirloom, Steady, And then this also, One hundred more, tailfeatherfor all of us, it could have been like this, ten thousand times and one hundred more,  Family Dinner, Family Dinner: The Lexicon, Semi-precious: the faceting of a gemstone only appears complete and critical; Enters and Exits and COPY.

Chambers’ work has been hosted at: Libby Leshgold Gallery at ECUAD, Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery at Concordia, Tek Gallery at SFU Galleries, Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver), Sophiensaele (Berlin), Hong Kong Arts Festival, Burrard Arts Foundation, Nanaimo Art GalleryArt Museum at University of TorontoMorris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery at Haverford College, Mile Zero Dance Society, Festival of New DanceAgora de la danseCanada Dance FestivalDance in VancouverDancing on the Edge FestivalNew Dance Horizons, The Roundhouse Community Arts Centre, Vancouver Art Gallery and the Western Front.

Chambers is a founding member of project bk, was artist in residence at artist run centre 221A (2017), a selected artist for the  Visiting Dance Artist Program at the National Arts Centre (2019-2020), one of three choreographer’s in the Yulanda Faris Choreographer’s Program (2017-2018),  associate artist and artist in residence to The Dance Centre (2015-2017) and recipient of the Lola Award in 2018. She was longlisted for the Sobey Art Award in 2023.

Justine has collaborated on projects with:

Digital video artist Josh Hite: COPY: a movement based installation, Incoming, Green Boot Print (The Roundhouse Community Arts Centre, Code Lab and 350.org), Choreography Walk (2015: Vancouver, 2019: Hong Kong, 2019: Vancouver).

Choreographer and dancer Laurie Young: One hundred more

Visual artist Natalie Purschwitz and sound artist Anju Singh: Co-facilitation of Trackings and Trappings – Summer Institute at Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art

Sound artist Elisa Ferrari: EMF Movement Studies.

Visual artist Mike BourscheidIdealverein

Dance Artist Alexa Solveig Mardon and scholar Peter Dickinson: Our Present Dance Histories

Visual artist Evann Siebens:  Homemade Again.

Dance artist Claudia Fancello: Light Was The Night: Night Shifting.

Musician Ben Brown:  We’re Making a Band

Visual Artist Brendan FernandesThe Working Move (The Western Front, The Stedelijk Museum)

Contemporary Gamelan Composer Michael Tenzer: Sphinx (Bali 2013)

Visual artist Jen Weih: Stack of Moves (Wrong Waves Festival 2013)

Visual artists Marilou Lemmens and Richard IbghyIs there anything at all left to do be done at all (Trinity Square Video)

Chambers, Sadira Rodrigues and battery opera’s Su Feh Lee co-facilitate the monthly forum The Talking Thinking Dancing Body; a conversation about aesthetics, ethics, context and artistic processes.

As a dancer, she has worked with a number of choreographers both nationally and abroad. Including: Kate Franklin, ame henderson, sasha ivanochko, battery operaadelheid dance projectsCompany 605Tara Cheyenne Performance, Oded Graf and Yossi Berg, Wen Wei Dance, Mascall Dance, Julia Sasso and Robert Desrosiers.

Chambers teaches at The School for Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University, Working ClassToronto Community Love-InModus Operandi Training Program and Ballet BC. Justine is currently engaged as an artistic monitor for the work of Mardon + Mitsuhashi, and Amanda Acorn.

Chambers is Max Tyler-Hite’s mother.

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