Retracing Her Steps / Georgie Goater

Dancecast

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Georgie Goater, a dance artist and pedagogue based in Helsinki, Finland where she moved from Aotearoa (New Zealand). Georgie describes her early attraction to dance as a place of nonverbal communication where she discovered through improvisation that there is no right or wrong. She reflects on her introduction to integrated dance through Touch Compass Dance Company in New Zealand. Later, her path led her to Helsinki, Finland, where she concentrated on pedagogy and immersed herself in the Finnish dance community. Silva and Georgie contemplate the importance and impossibility of acknowledging one’s dance lineage and who shaped them along the way. Finally, Georgie reflects on her experience performing in choreographer Kat Rampackova’s recent work and her hopes for the future.

Text by Emmaly Wiederholt.

Georgie Goater is a white, non-disabled dance artist and pedagogue from Aotearoa (NZ) based in Helsinki. She gained her MA in Dance Pedagogy from the Helsinki Theatre Academy in 2019, and her BA in contemporary dance from Unitec NZ in 2006. Her dance, choreographies and writing stem from collaboration and betweenness, as well as bodily interests in materiality, dreaming, and process-oriented creation. She has had the privilege of working with choreographers in NZ, Finland and the UK, as well as inclusive dance companies Touch Compass and Kaaos Company. She values dialogical practices and the body as a site for shared learning and making.

This episode was orginally recorded as part of the X Dance Festival .

Learn more about Georgie’s work, visit www.georgiegoater.com

This episode is also published at Stance on Dance.