HM: Who is Gemma Crowe in a sentence?
GC: I am a contemporary dance artist and independent filmmaker creating under G Project Works; an initiative focused on authentic movement creation connecting the mediums of dance and film.
HM: You work in film and dance, tell us how your two practices intersect.
GC: Creating for the camera is a lot like choreography: making decisions about what occurs within a specific framework. When I shoot, I am improvising while moving my body to get new perspectives and to interact with the subject. Everything else in between is the same creative process I apply to everything I do.
HM: What inspires the work you create?
GC: I’m inspired by process, discussion, new perspectives, and collaboration. I’m learning that a big part of why I create is to bring people together. A finished piece of work can affect an audience momentarily, but the creation process changes the lives of everyone involved, by working together, for the length of the project.
HM: Do you have a ritual that you carry out each day?
GC: I try to make every day significant in some way, which is not a ritual as much as a mild compulsion, but I need to feel like I have “gone somewhere” (to be completely ambiguous). I don’t define it at the outset of each day, but I know it when I get there.
HM: How would describe your dance/art philosophy in three words?
GC: Gather. Discern. Refine.
HM: I am a Dance Centre member because
GC: I require a sense of community to feel supported and inspired. For me, dance is a communal experience, but I feel the need to define myself to belong, which creates separation. The Dance Centre, reminds me that we share what we do and love, and it is valid, important, and worth working for.