Photo: Daniel Paquet

Prairie House

is an interdisciplinary performance company founded by Ashley Johnson and Nicole Schafenacker in 2014 and is committed to exploring authentic intersections between dance, theatre and somatic practice.

This exploration informs a process of inquiry and play that leads to performance. Curious about nature, wilderness, femininity, identity, the body, and presence; wondering about the relationship and tension that plays between and through these themes, provides fuel for creation. Prairie House has it’s roots in both Alberta and Saskatchewan and has performed and facilitated workshops in Regina, Saskatoon, North Battleford, Los Angeles and Edmonton.

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Nicole Schafenacker

is a writer/performer, yoga teacher and medical humanities researcher. She is currently a student in the Interdisciplinary Masters program at the University of Northern British Columbia where she explores the inherent connection between art-making and health. Nicole has honed her skills as a playwright and performer/creator with theatre companies across Canada and the US. She is currently writing her fifth play to date with support from the Citadel Theatre Playwright’sForum in Edmonton, AB.

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Ashley Johnson

is a dancer, dance educator and Somatic Practitioner currently living in Regina, SK Canada. She holds a BA and diploma in Dance and is a certified Mitzvah Technique and Itcush Method Teacher as well as a Continuum Movement Teacher. Her work as a dance artist focuses on site-specific somatic creation in a variety of unusual settings. She believes dance happens everywhere and has created work in trees, parking lots, banks, abandoned buildings and private residences.

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Repertoire

Sisters in the Wild

created 2014-2015

We carry our stories in our bodies.

We carry our history, our family and our secrets. In this story of friendship, history and identity, Sisters in the Wild explores through movement and text what occurs in moments of intersection and connection.

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Body of Water

created 2016

Prairie House brings their characteristic blend of poetic text, somatic movement, dance and glimmers of clown to Body of Water and investigates the resonances of this substance on the human body and the world at large. A limestone cave imprinted by age-old meetings with the sea. Childhood summers spent at the lake. Your MacBook destroyed by that poorly placed cup of coffee.  Body of Water approaches the one substance every being on earth has in common with (ir)reverence, curiosity and the question of what it means to be a resilient organism today.

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Workshops

Prairie House has offered workshops and residencies in interdisciplinary creation for Dance Saskatchewan, New Dance Horizons, Living Sky School Division, Youth Ballet School of Saskatchewan, and SOMAfest Somatic Movement Arts Festival.

As a new company we are committed to fostering relationships with organizations that focus on community engagement in the arts, integration of somatic/health and wellness-based practices and interdisciplinary/cross pollination between art forms.

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Past Workshops

At the Edge of Community Engagement Residency (2015)

Location: Dance Saskatchewan (Saskatoon)

At the Edge: Intersections between Dance and Theatre

This workshop is geared towards anyone interested in incorporating elements of theatre and writing into the creation and performance of dance based work, with special interest to theatre performers, dancers, performance art and writers.

Participants will come away with tools for creating interdisciplinary work and a knowledge of creative process. For artists with previous experience in this will be an opportunity to hone your unique voice and take previous work to a new level.

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Grade 1 – 12 teachers Professional Development

Location: Living Sky School Division (North Battleford,SK)

Co-Creating the Creative Process

Where do we get ideas? 
Dance and drama team up to as a way to explore storytelling, making meaning and connecting ideas through movement and text. This process can be used as a cross-curricular, Arts focused approach to ELA, Health and Social Studies. No experience necessary but come prepared to move, share stories and ideas with your colleagues. Creating process can be applied to outcomes at all grades.

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Video

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