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ABOUT
I believe in the rainbows of dust. I believe in the music of ancient tides. And I believe in a dance so archaic it bleeds life from momentum.
MIRANDA CHANTELOIS, Seattle WA, has performed in the works of nationally renowned artists Kyle Abraham, Sidra Bell, and Amy O’Neal as well as dances by Bennyroyce Royon, Jason Ohlberg, Deborah Wolf, Marlo Martin, Walter Kennedy, Rachel Winchester, and others. A graduate of Cornish College of the Arts (BFA, dance), Miranda proudly culminated her undergraduate studies in 2016 by developing, implementing, and assessing a twelve-week outreach program for low income older adults, presenting a 200 page thesis/portfolio and lecture demonstration for the community. A major advocate of arts accessibility and intersectional education, Miranda has served as a Teaching Artist for Seattle Theater Group's Dance for PD® program since 2015, is Certified in Autism Movement Therapy® (Los Angeles, CA) and has training in physically adaptive dance education from Full Radius Dance (Atlanta, GA). In 2019, she presented alongside her mentor, Shawn Roberts at the Dance Educator’s Association of Washington conference on the Dance for PD® program, which has impacted hundreds of Seattle-area adults with Parkinson’s Disease. Miranda is Pilates mat and Progressing Ballet Technique® certified, trained in the STG Anne Green Gilbert method of Brain Compatible Dance Education, and has additional experience as an arts administrator, preschool associate, preschool enrichment teacher, and baby/infant movement development instructor (New York, NY). She currently teaches dancers of all ages at eXit SPACE School of Dance and Evergreen City Ballet, while working as a teaching artist for STG Dance for PD®, writing freelance for SeattleDances and The Mighty, and dancing for Marlo Martin's project-based company take3 dance project.
Photo by WINIFRED WESTERGARD // 2015
Artist Statement
ARTIST STATEMENT
Artist, mover, educator, critic, writer, I seek to cultivate awareness through dance, place value in the ordinary, advocate for the unusual, and blur the social line between that which is “intellectual” and that which is artistic. As a dancer I am inspired most by imperfection. In the inherent humanity of movement as an art form, as an ever pervasive, ever evasive, ever in-concrete and inconclusive embodiment of the drive for interpersonal connectivity. It is imperfection I believe, that draws a thoughtful eye as opposed to a passive one and that captivates audiences by reminding them of their collective fallibility.
Choreographically, I believe in: coincidence as an artistic tool, art as the deepest catalyst for change, sensation as a capstone of embodiment and intention, the intrinsic power of language.
Sexuality. Repetition. Silence. Vulnerability. Repetition. Mouths. Subtlety. Nudity. Experience. Philosophy. Soil. Repetition. Vocalization. Serendipity. The ephemeral. Abstraction. Stillness. Poetry. Rain. Rain. Rain inside of bodies.
I believe there are no absolutes in movement, as there is no objectivity in words.
The scholar in me is interested in dance as a philosophical conception of both self-awareness and global responsibility, especially in the context of existentialist thought, Nietzschean philosophy, and modern dance as a non-conformist development. Nietzsche, who spoke of the polarity between the Apollonian and Dionysian drives, argued that true art is thebalance between individuality and self-loss – that rationality and emotion are equally valid just as instinct and logic, structure and chaos are equally valid. Thus, I am drawn to the idea that dance is not a constant, but a constant play between various dichotomies. That it is as analytical as it is embodied. That finding dissonance is often more interesting that cultivating physical harmonies. And that the constructed notion of “traditional beauty” undermines the possibility of diversity.
I believe in the diversity and validity of all bodies.
Minds.
Egos.
Words.
Spirits.
…
Strip photo by MARGARET JOHNSON // 2015, Slideshow photo "Dancer" by MYRAY REAMES // 2016, Slideshow photo "Educator" by MYRAY REAMES // 2016, Slideshow photo "Writer" courtesy of Wix.com
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