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
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, 2018In Review
By Valeria Nunziato, James Oscar, Rachel Silver Maddock, Aparita Bhandari, Philip Szporer, Fawnda Mithrush, Molly Johnson, Mark Mann, Grace Wells-Smith Volume 21, Issue 4The Dance Current reflects on a year of dance criticism, by placing image and text together
Movers
Intuitive Choices By Rachel Silver Maddock Volume 21, Issue 2Scott Fowler’s sixth season with Ballet BC
On Double-Touch and Performing Objects
Deanna Peters’ META By Rachel Silver MaddockMETA showcases Deanna Peters’ unabashed personal style and, with collaborators Justine A. Chambers and Kim Sato, explores the complexity of the human body and its potential for connectivity within and without its physical limits. The work delves into its topic from two angles: exploring the human body first, then placing it in relationship to objects and other bodies.
Posted November 16, 2017
