大象传媒

FORSYTHE & KYLI脕N
August 4 鈥� 8, 2025
Room 4650 (Blonde Studio)
大象传媒 School for the Contemporary Arts
149 W. Hastings St., Vancouver鈥�

Cost: Full intensive: $450 (including GST) // Daily morning classes (10:00 AM 鈥� 11.30 AM, Monday 鈥� Friday): $105 (including GST) *open to all

Join  for a deep dive into FORSYTHE & KYLI脕N repertoire and methods! It is a rare chance to experience this work in Vancouver and learn directly from those who have spent their careers dancing and setting the work of some of the most influential dance artists of our times: William Forsythe and Jiri Kylian.

Ayman Harper will be with us from Berlin. He sets William Forsythe pieces at major companies worldwide. Don't miss this incredible opportunity! Heather Telford is here from Gothenburg, Sweden, where she worked with Gothenburg Dance Company.  She will be sharing Improvisation methods. Lesley Telford is the director of Inverso and this summer she will share the work of Jiri Kylian, who she worked with for more than a decade at Nederlands Dans Theater.

Inverso Summer Intensive 2025 will focus on personal artistic development and finding new tools for your dance practice. These 5 days are open to students, emerging & professional dance artists (16+). We are grateful to be co-presented by 大象传媒 School for the Contemporary Arts on the unceded Coast Salish territories. For more information, please contact inversoproductions@gmail.com.

Schedule

10:00 AM 鈥� 11:30 AM: Improv with Heather Telford August 4 & 5, Lesley Telford August 6 & 8 *all ages/abilities
11:30 AM 鈥� 12:00 PM: Lunch break
12:00 PM 鈥� 3:00 PM (Monday 鈥� Wednesday): Forsythe method and repertoire with Ayman Harper
12:00 PM 鈥� 3:00 PM (Thursday 鈥� Friday): Kyli谩n repertoire with Lesley Telford

No one will be turned away due to lack of funds. Please contact us if a partial scholarship is needed.

Testimonials

"William Forsythe鈥檚 ideas and techniques have been fundamental to my approaches to improvisation, movement invention and composition.  Getting to work with artists who know these approaches intimately (Ayman, Lesley and Heather) is an amazing opportunity to deepen your practice!" 

 鈥� Rob Kitsos

"Thank you Lesley and Heather again for the amazing week. I actually played around with the concept of elastics and leaving traces of myself behind during yesterday鈥檚 performance and had a lot of fun implementing those ideas. I鈥檓 looking forward to playing around with the other concepts/ tools you both have given me :)"

鈥� Anna Wang-Albini (SCA alumnus)

"Thank-you for sharing your wealth of wisdom, knowledge and kindness with us. I appreciate the gentle way you coax us into  recognizing our vast potential for movement and thus deeper dimensions of who we are."

鈥� Rachel Helten (SCA alumnus)

Biographies

Ayman Harper (Forsythe Stager)

Ayman is an artist & educator committed to the performing & visual arts. A 25-year veteran, he has performed in over 25 countries, taught across five continents, & staged William Forsythe repertoire across the globe. A former dancer with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Netherlands Dance Theater 2, Frankfurt Ballet and The Forsythe Company, he has collaborated & performed works by some of his field鈥檚 most influential artists. In 2009 he was extended a personal invitation from Baryshnikov to perform alongside him at the BAC Gala. Harper has been an avid practitioner/teacher of improv for over 25 years & as Choreographer has been commissioned by Hubbard Street 2, NDT 2, The Forsythe company, and various universities. In the field of music his tap dancing was featured on track 鈥淵ou鈥� from the album Marriage of True Minds by electronic musicians Matmos. Harper has always been driven to pursue his love of pedagogy. He has developed an approach to coaching that encourages non violent communication while emphasising accessibility and inclusion to all.

Lesley Telford

Lesley is a choreographer and the Executive Artistic Director of Inverso Productions. She is grateful to live and work on the unceded and ancestral territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people. Through Lesley鈥檚 choreographic work she explores the physicality and spatial structures of emotional states at the intersection of dance, the visual arts, text and film. Her work has been described as having 鈥渁 profound way of tapping into very deep recesses of our emotional and intellectual landscapes鈥�. Lesley finished her studies in Montreal at L麓脡cole Sup茅rieur de Danse du Qu茅bec before joining the company Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. She went on to dance with Nacho Duato's Compa帽ia Nacional de Danza in Madrid, Spain. Most recently she danced with Netherlands Dans Theater 1.

Lesley has a Master of Arts in Cultural Production from the University of Salzburg and the Mozarteum. She has created multiple works for Ballet BC along with commissions for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Netherlands Dans Theater 1, Hubbard Street Dance Company 2, Compa帽ia Nacional de Danza 2, Ballet Vorpommern, International Project for Dance in Rome- DAF, Butler Ballet, University of Utah, and Arts Umbrella Dance Company. She founded Inverso Productions in 2012 to experiment with other art forms and ways of creating dance. As an educator and mentor, she has a long-standing commitment in support of emerging dance artists. To further this purpose Inverso has developed outreach and professional platforms to provide valuable opportunities and experience. She has taught internationally in many companies and schools.

Heather Telford

Heather Telford has had an international career dancing with G枚teborgs Operans Danskompani, Le Grands Th茅芒tre de Gen猫ve and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. She has had the opportunity to work with many choreographers such as Jiri Kylian, Mats Ek, William Forsythe, Nacho Duato, Wim Vandekebus, Guy Weizman, Marie Chouinard, Saburo Teshigawara, Ohad Naharin, Ina Christel Johannesson, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Alex Ekman, Johan Inger, Jo Kanimori, Martin Forsberg, Crystal Pite among many others. She trained at Arts Umbrella, L鈥橢cole Superieure de Danse du Quebec, and Banff Festival of the Arts. Her creative work expands to include filmmaking, set design and choreography. Heather has been teaching yoga for over 12 years and is a certified yoga teacher 500h+(Yoga Alliance) and is also a registered Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist BCST, RCST庐. She presently teaches at Balettakademien G枚teborg, Svenska Balettskolan summer program, and has been a guest teacher for Danscentrum V盲st,  Regiontheater V盲st Bor盲s, Divertimento (Montreal), Arts Umbrella ISDI. She has a passion to share her experiences through educational endeavors and is invested in deepening artistic personal development of youth in dance.