A glimpse of Savannah Gillespie. By Kayla Sylte

Savannah Gillespie is a fourth year dance major at Simon Fraser University pursuing her BFA in Contemporary Arts and minoring in psychology.

Photo by: Brenda Kent

Who are you and what do you do?

“I am Savannah Gillespie. I am a dance and psychology student at SFU but at the moment I am primarily focusing on choreography. Although I am primarily a dancer and choreographer, I am extremely interested in film and music and I feel that these, along with my studies in psychology, heavily influence my artistic practice.”

What is your artistic background?

“I started dancing when I was three recreationally, but I was focused mainly on competitive gymnastics. When I turned nine I had to stop gymnastics due to injury so I started focusing all my energy towards dance. Even though I have been dancing for most of my life, when I graduated high school and came to SFU I realized how diverse the Vancouver dance scene was. I truly fell in love with contemporary dance.”

Photos by: Kayla Sylte

How has your practice changed over time?

“I came from a background in gymnastics and competitive dance, so when I first started choreographing my work was very physical and movement oriented. Recently, I have been focusing more on energies, emotions and what types of movements those inner workings produce. The types of choreography that I am interested in creating have become more and more different from the types of movement I enjoy on my own body.”

Photo by: Brenda Kent

What do you dislike in the art world?

“Something that really stands out to me as a problem is the judgement of validity between different mediums of art. Particularly in dance I’ve noticed a segregation between styles and an attitude of superiority which I don’t think has a place in art.”

What do you like about your work?

“At the moment, I am very interested in choreographing work on others. I love the process of watching something you create start evolving, changing and knowing that there are endless opportunities for your work to grow.”

If you weren’t a dancer or choreographer what would you be doing?

“I think if I wasn’t able to dance or choreograph I would still be involved in art in one way or another. Growing up I was very passionate about music and photography, and I continue to pursue these as hobbies so possibly something to do with those. If I wasn’t an artist of any kind I would most likely be putting all of my energy into my study of psychology.”

Photo by: Lynnelle Sura

Both Savannah’s choreography and dancing can be found in this upcoming show at the end of January. http://www.sfu.ca/sca/events---news/events/meraki--sca-student-choreographers.html