Getting To Know Paige McConnell

    I was so lucky to sit down and chat with dancer and artist Paige McConnell this past week. Paige was born and raised in Guelph, Ontario then moved to Vancouver for post secondary in 2017 where she began her Bachelor of Fine Arts majoring in Contemporary Dance at Simon Fraser University. For the year prior Paige trained and performed with Guelph Academy of Dance and One Movement. Below I asked Paige about her work and her creative process!

Q: Who are you and what do you do?

A: My name is Paige McConnell and I am a dance artist/performer who also practices yoga. I am soon going to officially be certified as a yoga instructor, also! I’m very passionate about the environment and I find myself outdoors very often! These three passions of mine grow more intersectional with time, as well.

Q: What superpower would you have and why?

A: If I could have any superpower it would definitely be Teleportation! To see the world and save so much precious time.. that would be amazing! 

Q: What work do you most enjoying doing?

A: The work I most enjoy is either playful improv I do completely by myself, or it’s having the chance to pick up challenging choreography from a new artist I’ve never worked with before

Q: What is your creative process like?

A: My creative process usually involves a lot of free improvisational movement, meditation and sometimes journaling to help get ideas flowing. i like to trust the process and never put too much pressure on a final product as that can really negatively affect me.

Q: How has your practice change over time?

A: When I was younger, I would say my practice was more surface level and far less emotionally intimate than it is now. Over the past four years at SFU my practice has become far more personal and I am now a lot less interested in performance. It’s all about exploration and sensation for me now!

Q: What is your dream project?

A: My dream project would be one created by myself and some close friends/peers that is born from a collection of ideas.. it has many different movement qualities.. it has original music.. and it is finished in the form of a film

Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

A: I will never forget when my dance mentor/teacher of 15 years told me that ‘Life is short and every lesson you learn can change your life if you’re truly willing to let it in and let it take you where it’s meant to’ it was very impactful to me and was what I needed to hear from such a monumental person in my life