2023 McKnight International Choreographer
Photo by Jules DeNiverville
Sandy Silva is an award-winning performer, choreographer, composer, producer, and internationally acclaimed pioneer of percussive dance. She draws from global percussive dance practices infusing themes with movement, voice, theater, and impeccable musicality. The result is a unique and powerful form of performance and storytelling. After 35 years of performing and teaching around the world, Silva started the Migration Dance Film Project (MDFP) with award-winning director Marlene Millar. Their films have been screened internationally and won numerous awards. Sandy is also a teacher/mentor, artistic curator, and co-founder of the International percussive dance lab based in Montreal.
In her artistic practice, compositions and body percussion draw upon traditional art practices of Turkish Usul rhythms, African-American juba, Québécois gigue, Celtic mouth music, Andalusian palmas, and Hungarian legends. Through 35 years of study and deconstruction of these vocabularies, Silva’s new vocalized choreographies integrate rooted sounds and gestures to evoke a sense of travel, journey, and migration.
Silva’s teaching sequences and her public choreographies are designed around themes that explore the human condition. She explores and combines vocal melodies that support a narrative to her percussive movement, which ultimately becomes an orchestral body of work. In her teaching, whether with pedestrian beginners or experienced professionals, she grounds the group experience through a common pulse. based on sonic gestures, which can also move into more complex polyrhythmic explorations. The intent is to build a personal practice suited to each person’s skill, capacity, and genre. The requirement and commitment for each participant is to take the time to go deeper in their listening and to embody the elements of the work in a way that is meaningful to them so that this touches the human experience in each of us.
For more information about the residency activities, visit our International Choreographer page.