Megan English is a dancer/choreographer and psychotherapist currently based in Hamilton. Megan’s choreography has been presented at Dance Matters (Toronto), St Andrews Performing Arts Festival (New Brunswick), Dusk Dances (Hamilton), Frost Bites (Hamilton), Hamilton Fringe Festival, Zula Presents Something Else Festival (Hamilton) and Aeris Körper’s PROSPECTS (Hamilton). Notable choreographies include The Nell Shipman Project (supported by the Toronto Arts Council) and This Dance is Mic’d, both developed in residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point. Megan has created numerous improvised performances with musician Dale Morningstar (The Dinner Is Ruined). Her piece ‘Second Wind’ was supported by the Hamilton City Enrichment Fund. Megan recently collaborated with Donna Akrey and Joe Sorbara on ‘Transistor’, a sound/bike performance, and developed an improvisation process for performance with dancer Jessica Houghton and musician Doug Tielli. Megan’s therapy practice focuses on the integration of dance movement psychotherapy and sensorimotor psychotherapy in the treatment of trauma, developmental injury, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Artistic Statement:

I work within the tradition of contemporary dance with an interest in how movement changes the context of situations and settings. My work reacts to this question and chronicles my discoveries within the realm of live performance. The choices each performer contributes, and the nuanced intersecting consequences are points of fascination in my work. Through the interaction of improvisation and choreography, I invite the audience into an atmosphere of play, experimentation, imagination, humour, and reconnection with the body self. 

My dance works are informed by improvisation, embodied practices, performance art, and my work with people as a psychotherapist/dance movement therapist. I approach both my dance work and my work as a therapist with the intent to enhance peoples’ agency and personal expression. I value the natural articulation and physical communication of the body over crafting movement from a technique or style. This is an ongoing process of unlearning imposed institutional movement patterns and reclaiming embodiment.

 In the past few years, my work as a psychotherapist/dance movement therapist has been informing my artistic practice more directly. I am currently redeveloping a dance piece titled Resilience (2018) in collaboration with dancer and medical ethicist Andrea Frolic for performance at the International Conference on Clinical Ethics and Consultation & Canadian Bioethics Society 2024. (Montreal)

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Photo by Olya Glotka