Hi there! My name is Gabrielle Samuel. I am a dancer and choreographer whose work deals with themes of nature, the divine, morality, responsibility, home, and place. In my newest choreographic work, I am building a dance influenced by the stars, and I’m asking for your help to bring it to fruition. I would be deeply grateful if you'd consider supporting this project by contributing towards the costs of dancers' compensation, the rehearsal space, recording services, and costumes.

What will your contribution help cover?

Dancers’ Compensation - Your contribution will allow each dancer to commit to the project without worrying about logistical costs, so that we can focus on the art and build an environment where creativity flourishes. Rather than being paid for performance, dancers will be paid an honorarium for rehearsals. This is to help cover their costs for transport, but also to honour the skill, effort, risk and vulnerability they will bring to this project, and the immense amount of time and money they have invested in their craft.

Intensive format - Your contribution will allow us to meet consistently in a safe, spacious facility conducive to hard work and creativity! Similar to a Summer Intensive or a Choreographic Residency, this is an intense, concentrated choreographic endeavour. From July 20th to 31st, we will meet for four hours each day. Each day will consist of an Intermediate Fagan Technique warmup/class to sharpen our minds and strengthen our bodies, followed by two hours of creation and rehearsal. This approach presents an opportunity to immerse ourselves in a collective effort to invest in our practice and then to make something beautiful.

Recording services - Your contribution will allow us to afford recording services to include film in the work, and to document the process of making it. Videography will be done for a film component of the work. Additionally, small-scale documentary photography and videography will allow us to record not just the product of our work, but the process. As this method is a relatively new approach for most of us, I’d like to keep record of the events, developments, challenges and mistakes involved, and track the evolution of the dance over the short period.

Costumes - Your contribution will allow us to use costumes to create stunning visuals onstage. This work calls for costumes that interact with light in a specific way. Materials and construction will cost.

Even seeds are made from stardust. Give to this stellar seed! Help me create a moment for the stars, as I keep you updated throughout the development of the work!