Amelia Ehrhardt
Curator
a. portia ehrhardt (amelia) is a dancer, astrologer, and multidisciplinary artist from and living in Toronto. Their work manifests as solo dance improvisation, group choreography, drawing, painting, and writing, all of which deal with dance as subject matter, drive, and devotion. Their work has been supported across Canada and internationally, including OFFTA (Montréal), SEAD (Austria), Mile Zero Dance (Edmonton), and local residencies at Harbourfront Centre and Toronto Dance Theatre. A dancer with two decades of performance experience, Amelia has appeared in works by Susie Burpee, Willi Dorner, Syrus Marcus Ware, Julia Sasso, Menaka Thakkar, and Suzy Lake among others.
Amelia was the Curator of Dancemakers Centre for Creation from 2015-2019. At Dancemakers they founded the Dance Wrtiers in Residence program, a collaboration with The Dance Current; the Peer Learning Network support program for emerging artists; taught highly sought-after adult beginner contemporary dance class; was recognized for driving the programming towards a more multisciplinary and inclusive lens; and at best guess, worked with close to 200 different artists.
Amelia is also the founder of Flowchart: a Series of performance, and of Queer Ballet Club. They were a 2017 danceWEB recipient and a 2016 Toronto Arts Council Leadership Lab fellow. Amelia holds a Masters in Visual Studies from the University of Toronto where they were an SSHRC recipient.
Curatorial Statement
My artistic vision is rooted in acting as a site for a multiplicity of aesthetics and ways of understanding dance, and artists who are deeply curious, working through dance to investigate essential questions of the form. I program artists who do not hold a prescriptive view of how they choreograph or what dance is, who challenge the formal boundaries of dance (or refine them), and who engage in research-based forms of practice. I work predominantly with artists in contemporary dance or contemporary expressions of a diversity of forms.
I am committed to risk. I believe that by creating space and time for artists to safely question and clarify their practices, the field and audiences for contemporary dance will benefit. By creating a culture of more confident, more literate, more practiced artists in this form, and programming to connect these artists with interested publics, I aim to connect these artists with publics who are equally confident, literate, and curious about the potentialities of dance in all its expressions.
Diana Ross Dream
DIANA ROSS DREAM: A tribute to Black belonging.
Soulpepper Theatre
Jun 4, 2022 – Jun 4, 2022
Them Voices
This solo performance explores the inter-relationality between land, the artist’s body and her memory and future memory.
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
May 27, 2021 – May 29, 2021
The Territory Between Us
In 2018, I approached Bracken Hanuse Corlett (Wuikinuxv/Klahoose) to ask if he would carve me a mask.
Feb 1, 2021 – Feb 28, 2021
The Aisha Of Is
A revised version of her first full-length solo performance “the aisha of is”
Dancemakers Centre for Creation
Mar 26, 2020 – Mar 28, 2020
Eating bones and Licking Bread
Eating bones and Licking bread works with the body, texture and sound.
Dancemakers Centre for Creation
Jan 30, 2020 – Feb 1, 2020
Flow Chart – 2019
Flowchart is a series of multidisciplinary performance presenting short works.
Dancemakers Centre for Creation
May 9, 2019 – May 9, 2019
The Things I Carry
Story-telling, song, movement and our electronic devices in part ceremony, part conference, part confessional.
Scadding Court Community Centre
Apr 27, 2019 – Apr 28, 2019
The Right Eye of Clint
This solo tracks the perception of pressure.
Dancemakers Centre for Creation
Apr 11, 2019 – Apr 13, 2019
Miijin Ki
made in collaboration with Aria Evans, Ana Groppler, Patti Shaughnessy + Brian Solomon
Dancemakers Centre for Creation
Jan 23, 2019 – Jan 24, 2019
Dance Machine
a kinetic sculpture that is transformable into multiple configurations.
Dancemakers Centre for Creation
Jun 19, 2018 – Jun 23, 2018
Silver Venus
SILVER VENUS is an ensemble reconstruction of the feminine persona VENUS.
Dancemakers Centre for Creation
Apr 26, 2018 – Apr 28, 2018
Multiform(s)
A vibrant, moving tableau inspired by the vivid pigments of Mark Rothko’s paintings.
The Music Gallery
Mar 9, 2018 – Mar 10, 2018
Natural Orders
The work attempts to expose the duality of the ‘natural’ and the ‘artificial’ as a fiction.
Dancemakers Centre for Creation
Jun 22, 2017 – Jun 24, 2017
This Desiring Pony
This Desiring Pony is performed by the alter ego SCHPANDO.
Dancemakers Centre for Creation
Dec 15, 2016 – Dec 16, 2016
Leisure Palace
A site responsive, immersive installation that floats between pulsing party and minimalist dreamscape.
Ontario Place – West Island
Sep 15, 2016 – Sep 25, 2016
The Talking, Thinking, Dancing Body
A facilitated conversation about aesthetics, context and artistic process.
Dancemakers Centre for Creation
Sep 10, 2016 – Sep 17, 2016
Secret Garden
A work for one performer and one audience visitor & using an architectural structure.
Dancemakers Centre for Creation
Jun 1, 2016 – Jun 1, 2016