Contributor
Rachel Silver is an independent dance artist, teacher, and writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. She has a BA in Visual Culture and Performance Studies from Simon Fraser University’s School for Contemporary Arts. Her professional dance training in commercial and contemporary styles led her to England where she obtained a Diploma in Dance Studies from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in 2014. In the UK, she apprenticed and toured with both Springs Dance Company and urban-contemporary fusion the REbirth Network. In 2015, she co-choreographed This Thin Place, a collaborative dance show that performed in both Vancouver and Campbell River. Most recently, she performed with Vancouver’s plastic orchid factory in their performance/installation Digital Folk.
Rachel was an intern with The Dance Current between May 2016 through August 2016.
Rachel Silver Maddock's Work
Theatre Reimagined
Ismailova Theatre of Dance embraces the digital in Seeking Everyday Magicians By Rachel Silver Maddock Seeking Everyday MagiciansToronto-based dance-theatre company finds creative ways to connect with a virtual audience.
Posted July 30, 2020Celebrating Merce
By Erin Joelle McCurdy, Jia Yi (Judy) Luo, Rachel Silver Maddock, Selma Odom Volume 23, Issue 2To celebrate Merce Cunningham’s 100th birthday in 2019, the Merce Cunningham Trust organized the Cunningham Centennial celebrations.
Expanding Their Reach
All Bodies Dance Project investigates sightless dance By Rachel Silver MaddockHow do we experience dance through our non-visual senses? This is one of the questions asked by All Bodies Dance Project in their new work Translations.
Posted January 2, 2020
Reclaiming Narrative for a Contemporary Audience
Josh Beamish’s @giselle By Rachel Silver MaddockIn @giselle, Josh Beamish takes the tragic romance of Giselle, which dates back to 1841, and inserts a third player, social media, to expose its role in modern-day relationships.
Posted September 19, 2019
That Sweet Spot Between Gallery and Stage
Alexa Mardon and Erika Mitsuhashi’s Tender Engine By Rachel Silver MaddockAcross four evenings this June, VIVO presented Tender Engine, a performance-installation piece co-choreographed by Alexa Mardon and Erika Mitsuhashi. The artists have been in research for over a year through residencies in Vancouver and Halifax, during which they investigated four areas: technology, language, storytelling and “performative expertise.”
Posted July 23, 2019
On the Ground
Nurturing Impulse
By Rachel Silver MaddockJennifer Mascall talks about the role of improvisation in her career as both a performer and choreographer and reflects on her recent two-week improvisation workshop.
Posted May 9, 2019
Skin, Pain, Plastic and Paper
Kelly McInnes’s SHINY at the Vancouver International Dance Festival By Rachel Silver MaddockJust how deep does the damage go? In SHINY Kelly McInnes gets to the guts of this question in a persistent and stealthy topic: the effects of the beauty standards inflicted on women through media.
Posted April 16, 2019
Alien Rituals
10 Gates Dancing’s TRUST at the Vancouver International Dance Festival By Rachel Silver MaddockThe program describes the duet as a “requiem for wood and stone” – a “primitive mystery of vulnerability and transformation.” With or without these descriptions, the setup places us immediately inside some kind of ritual or spiritual journey, though its parameters and significance are unclear.
Posted April 15, 2019Loud and Clear
By Rachel Silver Maddock Volume 22, Issue 1With his dance company, Radical System Art, lined up for multiple tours in the coming months, Artistic Director Shay Kuebler sits down with Rachel Maddock to talk about his life in dance.
Curating Time
Plastic orchid factory’s i miss doing nothing By Rachel Silver MaddockIn a large white studio, an immersive dance installation is going on, drawing audience members (or participants) into a space distinct from yet porous with the street below. To mark the ten-year anniversary of plastic orchid factory, performers and directors Natalie LeFebvre Gnam and James Gnam designed a unique movement retrospective framed by the present – i miss doing nothing.
Posted July 30, 2018
