Discover the art of choreographed dance at the Movement Research Festival
By Abbas Hussain, January 10 2025—
The second annual Movement Research Festival, known by its clever acronym, MoRF took place from this past December. It was an all-things dance festival, focusing on choreographed performances to research to dance. This was the second edition of this festival, and though it may not be established, it certainly packed a punch, especially with three collaborations. The festival’s director, Melanie Kloetzel, shared her enthusiasm over getting to host this festival for a second time, along with the community collaborations, which was easily the highlight of the festival.
Kloetzel explained that the first iteration of this festival went very well, to the point that some organizations in the community reached out and wanted to be a part of next year’s festival. Three different organizations reached out to be part of the festival, each bringing their own angle to the festival, which really enriched the whole festival.
The first was the Calgary Hip-Hop and Street Dance Festival, which brought hip-hop and street dance to the festival. Bringing in the Calgary Hip-Hop and Street Dance Festival goes along with the ethical principles that trying to be achieved as the division of dance goes through a big curriculum renewal process.
“We’re really trying to think about what Equity, Diversity and Inclusion means in a dance context and so it was really exciting to work with the hip and street dance festival to bring in forms that are from the African Diaspora,” Kloetzel said.
The second partner was Dancer Studio West (DSW). DSW is an organization that supports independent, contemporary choreographers in town. Their participation included supporting a choreographer, who was chosen through DSW, to then come to Campus, and support the University of Calgary students in their performances.
The third and final partner was Healthy Dancer Canada. They contributed by hosting their conference at this festival. This included lectures, panels, workshops and performances on the research of dance, in addition to the Thomas Poulsen Symposium on Dance and Disability.
When asked about what it was like to collaborate with these partners, Kloetzel said, “It was an amazing experience. It was a challenge of course, in a lot of ways, in terms of administration and organization, but it was also incredibly exciting for the faculty and students to interact with all these other partners who were also trying to bring dance into the community and consider what dance can do to our culture.”
Kloetzel also expanded on the purpose of the festival.
“Theatre, music and visual arts have a place in the school curriculum, but dance is incredibly relevant,” she said. “[I’m] always interested in thinking about it from that research perspective as well, and sharing the research that goes into both the creation side of it as well as the scholarly side of it right, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to make sure people on campus understand the dance research is an actual research arena, that is often kind of sidelined.”
TransForm was an event that featured six choreographed dances, including two hip-hop dances which were by Princess Lockeroo and Jacksun Fryer, as part of the collaboration with the Calgary Hip-Hop and Street Dance Festival. It was absolutely riveting to witness, especially Lockeroo’s piece, with a disco ball and funky lights. It was amazing to see all the hard work that must have gone into each of the choreographed pieces, as each of the dancers in each of the pieces were perfectly in sync with one another.
MorFlix was an event taking place as part of the festival, featuring dance films from many different people, including one film that was from the Calgary Hip-Hop and Street Dance Festival. One of the most interesting films was called DiSPLACED, which really captured the idea of not being welcome in a place.
The Movement Research Festival was an amazing festival that featured both stunning choreographed dances as well as research about dance. More about the Festival can be found on their website.