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Virginia Kennard has taught across a range of disciplines and genres since the age of 14. She recently taught AJDA senior level jazz dance syllabus at Impact Dance and Stage School, Ōtautahi, and jazz dance and improvisation techniques for NASDA.

Her first role was assisting Paula Hunt in teaching Pre-Primary ballet students, aged 4-6. She was a mathematics tutor to Year 11 students during her final year at high school. Virginia taught mathematics and social studies on and off for the Victoria University of Wellington Centre for Continuing Education between 2001 and 2009.

Virginia is a contemporary dance, jazztastic aerobics, improvisation, and Muscle and Bone tutor for Movement Art Practice from 2019 to the present where she also manages a community workshop program. Virginia taught contemporary dance technique and contact improvisation in Glasgow through Dance House between 2010 and 2011, contemporary dance and improvisation as part of the Wellington Freelance Dance Collective between 2011 and 2013, and dance at Standouts Drama, Dance, and Singing in Te Whanganui-a-Tara between 2013 and 2016.

A particular teaching highlight was Jazztastic Dance Aerobics during the 2020 and 2021 NZ Lockdown via Zoom (see featured image).

Other classes and genres taught include Contact Improvisation, Improvisation, Burlesque, Stretching for Dancers, Classical Ballet, Choreography for Actors, Pilates, Yoga, plus How to do your Taxes as a self-employed NZ-based arts contractor.

if you cut out your eyes with scissors
do you think you would still dream?
…the politics of being seen
naked
i am lying in wait
i am laying out the bait
…Salome would just chop of Herod’s dick to add to her holy head collection

Headless Women is an in-process performance research project that began at the Arts Village Rotorua Open Studios Project during Summer 2019/20 and will tour Aotearoa in 2023.

A development workshop was held at Impact Dance Studio in Ōtautahi, Summer 2021 with Chloe Summerhayes, Georgia Giesen, Denesa Chan, Hannah Blumhardt, Natalie Carroll, and Jess Quaid.

Writing that came from the residency here

Response to the workshop showing by Dr Erin Harrington here

Short film from the 2021 workshop by Natalie Kittow here

Music composed by Madison van Staden of Moody V and the Menstrual Cycle

Images taken by Natalie Kittow, Fern King, and Natalie Carroll

Scruffy or Dapper?

Big Spoon or Little Spoon?

Who would you turn straight for?

Have you found your virginity  yet?

Watch Hot Girl On Girl Action dissected reassembled and resurrected by Two Hot Femmes!

In Feminine Hygiene, Two Babes Virginia (The Lady Garden) and Marika (A Symphony of Sloths) go beyond the unicorn to smash the male gaze and find what it means to be Hot Queer Femmes!

Taking the form of a performance art essay, Feminine Hygiene is a new collaboration between performance artists Marika Pratley (Wellington) and Virginia Kennard (Christchurch), exploring concepts behind cisgender woman femme queer identity, and the tensions between having autonomy over conventional feminine/femme identity/behaviours under capitalist-patriarchal social relations.

Created in collaboration with composer,
sonic artist, and sloth appreciator
Marika Pratley/Class War on the Dance Floor/Babe of Babylon

Marika is an award winning multidisciplinary composer, improviser and performance artist from Wellington, New Zealand. Marika is currently producing her first documentary, The Healing Power of The Sloth, which investigates the role that her own music composition practice has had within her own journey of trauma recovery.

This work has been made possible through funding from Creative New Zealand Creative Communities scheme via Christchurch City Council and Creative Waikato,
Dunedin Fringe Trust Fringe Artist grant, and the University of Otago
Division of Humanities Performing Arts fund

World premiere, Hamilton Fringe
7.15pm, Wednesday 30th – Thursday 31th October 2019
The Meteor, Hamilton, NZ

Ōtautahi Tiny Performance Festival
8pm, Saturday 30th November 2019
Centre of Contemporary Art (CoCA), Christchurch, NZ

Dunedin Fringe
7.30pm, Wednesday 25th – Saturday 28th March 2020
Dog with Two Tails, Dunedin, NZ

“The stage is set like a messy girl’s bedroom…from the onset it is mind-blowing…It’s refreshing and lovely…Bravo to this dynamic duo, who are in their way arguing, explaining or examining cis/hetero-normativity, queerness, femme power, familial congeniality and power in dark corners…Kennard and Prately very charmingly empower minority” – Jan-Maree Franicevic, Theatreview

“This narrative is my jam and I’m having to work hard at challenging myself wrt naked bodies in art, use of “menstrual fluid” for body paint…Thank you Marika and Virginia. That was awesome. Wish I had the chance to really absorb more. So many great ideas breaking down taboos between femme bodies and academic theory” – AJ Fitzwater, Twitter

“Upon completion of this festival I muse I have become more at ease with these nipples, genitals, curves, bumps, hues, hair and muscles…Virginia and Marika later talk about sex positivity as an antidote to rape culture.” – Emily Mowbray-Marks, Theatreview

How do you construct a sexuality?
Maybe at IKEA 😉

Images taken by Petra Mingneau for Movement Art Practice

We are not interested in your cis-heteronormative, patriarchal, mono-amorous, state-sanctioned, government-regulated, court-conferred notions of forever love.

We are interested in lasagne love, dogging in car parks, lesbian banter, vegan whipped cream, child-bearing hips, and our own kind of queer wedded bliss.

Blood, blood, blood ran down her legs
And i just couldn’t be more happy for her

BIG QUEER ANTI-WEDDING
Devised, designed, written, composed, installed, constructed,
performed, created and choreographed by
Alexis Lilly Denman, Alice Boulton-Breeze, Amy Mauvan, Chlöe Hall, Cieran Reed, Florence Simms, Jessica Mae Ivison, Kate Stonestreet, Nicole Murmann, and Virginia Kennard
Tech’d, managed, baked and dressed by
Jaye Kearney, Jazmine Webb, Adam Sas-Skowronski,
and Abby Morley
Featuring an original soundscore by
Marika Pratley and Chris Wratt (New Zealand

MA Performance, Artist Project Major module
Leeds Beckett University
12noon, Wednesday 6th September 2017
Leeds Music Hub, Leeds, UK

MY  MATRIMONIAL BODY BELONGS TO ME
Performed by Virginia Kennard and Amy Mauvan
WOMAN SRSLY, curated by Grace Nicol Dance
7.30pm, Friday 27th October 2017
The CentrE17, London, UK

Performed by Virginia Kennard, Alice Boulton-Breeze, Florence Simms, and Cieran Reed
Queering Ritual, organised by School of the Art Institute of Chicago and York St John University
Saturday 4th November 2017
York St John, York, UK

WHAT’S YOUR BRIDE PRICE
Performed by Virginia Kennard
S.A.M.P.L.E. curated by Alana Yee
8.30pm, Wednesday 19th July 2017
Paper Dress Vintage, London, UK

Performed by Virginia Kennard
Mother’s Bloomers, curated by Mother’s Ruin
7.30pm, Thursday 16th November 2017
ARC: Stockton, County Durham, UK

THE BLOODY BRIDE
Performed by Virginia Kennard
Tease, directed by Jeremy Haxton/Lost Cow Performances
Friday 21st November 2014
In Good Company, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand

Widening the Cycle exhibition
Curated by Jen Lewis/Society for Menstrual Cycle Research
4-6 June 2015
Suffolk University Law School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Photography by Filippo Gasparini

Performed by Virginia Kennard, Marika Pratley, and Chris Wratt
you occupy my body by looking
Saturday 20th June 2015
Toi Pōneke Gallery, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand

#notyourgoodqueer
#RedShoesNoKnickers
#yearoftheho2017
#againstequality

_____________________________________________________________

Photography credits

MA Performance, Leeds Beckett University, 2016-2017

  • Artist Project Minor: Were you smitten?
  • Choreography in Wider Contexts: and i breathe and it goes
  • Festival Project: Self Love is a Revolutionary Act
  • Artist Mentor: am i ever gonna be enough?
  • Artist Project Major: Big Queer Anti-Wedding

Watch the short film and i breath and it goes
Please contact Virginia for the password

Featured imaged taken by Virginia Kennard, edited by Stephen Daniels

Photography by

  • Kiran Mehti
  • Daisy Petley
  • Stephen Daniels
  • Jaye Kearney
  • Bella Murray-Nag

In times of social upheaval and societal change, women’s bodies become the target for pearl-clutching and knicker-twisting. I have no time for your Moral Panic, women’s bodies and women’s sexual agency is not a platform across which you must enact your politics.

Please visit Virginia’s MORAL PANIC website for more information.

A Pesky Upstart

Bludging all your CNZ money

Were you smitten?

Taking up space

I’m sorry about your fragile masculinity

Feminising space

Won’t fucking shut up

Look at what you’re wearing

That damn chair

Yes those are my undies. Would you like some gin? [Working title: The gin and undies dance]

Get the fuck away from me

Fuck your femme shaming

But whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?

Stop stomping on my body for your revolution

Capitalism and sex

Millenials can’t have nice things if they want to buy a house

Minimalism will not solve capitalism

There is not such thing as ethical consumption

My body is not anyone’s property

Sex work and commodity fetishism

Sex work IS work

#sorrynotsorry

You don’t own me

I am allowed to own objects

My frivolity will not hurt the Cause


Photo Credits:

  • Featured image: Daisy Petley, am i ever gonna be enough, Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds Beckett University, MA Performance assessment, Artist Mentor module, 2017
  • Gillian Dyson-Moss, Were you smitten?Leeds Beckett University, MA Performance assessment, Artist Project Minor module, December 2016
  • Stephen Daniels, Self Love is a Revolutionary Act, NEWK, Live Art Bistro, 2017
  • Lachlan Forsyth, Don’t Look, TV3 Story, September 2016
  • Virginia Kennard, am i ever gonna be enough [in rehearsal], Leeds Beckett University, MA Performance, Artist Mentor module, 2017
  • Daisy Petley, am i ever gonna be enough, Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds Beckett University, MA Performance assessment, Artist Mentor module, 2017

Curated by Amelia Hitchcock as part of her Curatorial internship, this project was a weaving of multiple narratives, discordant and harmonious, without predetermined outcomes, An exploration of potential, of shifting frameworks and pushing boundaries, over six weeks 11 performance artists participated in a series of rolling residencies on site.

to and fro
Artspace, Karangahape Road, Auckland
July 11 – August 23 2014

As part of this residency, Virginia created and performed several explorative works:

  • speaking as a bodily act [working title], with soundscore by Emi Pogoni
  • it’s my period party and i’ll bleed if i want to
  • Diary
  • Team Management Workplace Personality Profiling
  • How do i look? [in process]

Photo credits:

 

Since graduating from the Wellington Performing Arts Centre (now Whitireia Performance Centre) with a Diploma in Commercial Dance: Distinction, Virginia has performed in various choreographies and works, in Auckland, Wellington, Glasgow, and Melbourne. She continued her dance training at UNITEC pursuing a Bachelor in Performing Screen Arts majoring in Contemporary Dance, honing her choreographic skills and creating work for Tempo Dance Festival.

Choreographic works include:

  • and i breathe and it goes, dance film, performed by Alice Boulton-Breeze, soundtrack by Emi Pogoni, May 2017
  • and i breathe and it goes, performed by Alice Boulton-Breeze, part of Choreography in Wider Contexts module, MA Performance, Leeds Beckett University, May 2017
  • Self Love is a Revolutionary Act, part of the MORAL PANIC series, premiering at SIBIU INTERNATIONAL THEATRE FESTIVAL, June 2017
  • Moral Panic 1.0, Autumn Variety Show, Newtown Community Centre, Wellington 2016
  • Big Juicy HeartQueerlesque, Ivy Bar, Wellington 2013
  • i’m a get your heart racing in your skintight jeans, for S.A.M.P.L.E., Thistle Hall, Wellington 2013
  • i am standing on the threshold of a decent conversation, for Wellington Freelance Dance Festival, Matchbox Studios, Wellington 2012
  • Who is this person, solo for Sarah Iwaskow, UNITEC, Auckland 2008
  • Don’t forget the buttons, Fresh Cuts, Tempo Dance Festival, Auckland 2008
  • An Alternative Version of Your Own Life, Dance Your Socks Off! Festival, BATS Theatre, Wellington 2007
  • I’m just sorting my shit out, Dance Your Socks Off! Festival, NZ Film Archive, Wellington 2006
  • Inertia Creeps, debut solo choreography, WPAC, Wellington 2003

Photo credits:

  • Jaye Kearney, Leeds Beckett University, 2017
  • Stephen Daniels, LAB, 2017
  • Tim Hackett, 2007
  • Alana Yee, 2013
  • DeTune, 2006
  • Rachel Ruckstuhl-Mann, UNITEC, 2008
  • Alana Yee, 2013
  • Tempo Festival, 2008
  • Virginia Kennard, 2012
  • Rachel Ruckstuhl-Mann, UNITEC, 2008
  • Tempo Festival, 2008
  • Detune, 2006

Exhibition and performance season over 17 days

Looking in to look out. Looking back.
Performance trace, collected materials, lipstick lists, naked drawings, invented instruments, and selfies; all part of this performance installation delving into how we look – at bodies, at women, at ourselves.
 
Thursday 4 – Saturday 20 June 2015
Toi Pōneke Gallery, Abel Smith Street
Te Aro, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand

Photo credits:
  • Fern King, Noisy Femmes and their Sexist Microphone [featured image]
  • Kristy McCormick Art and Imagery, The Bloody Bride
  • Kowhai Montgomery, Drumming and Dancing
  • Virginia Kennard, workshop session
  • Virginia Kennard, Hannah paints me
  • Virginia Kennard, Spinster Ladies Party with Colour in a Cunt
  • Pipi Ayesha-Evans, Please Ask First
  • Virginia Kennard, The Awakening by Natalie J. Cheetham
  • Erica Sklenars, I’m not your toy
  • Aurynn Shaw, Notes on Looking 2.0
  • Kowhai Montgomery, i’m selling shoes obviously

Virginia Kennard has trained in the art of pole dance on and off since 2009 in Oxford and Edinburgh, but became serious after starting classes at Body Electric Pole Studio, Wellington.

Performances include

  • The Pole Room, Sci-Fi Fantasy, 2015
  • Show Some Love, Fundraiser Cabaret for Wellington Women’s Refuge, 2015
  • The Pole Room, Elements of Pole, Fringe Bar, 2015
  • NZ Amateur Pole Performance competition, 2015

Photo credits:

  • Maggie Bloom, 2015 [featured image]
  • Rex Ostil Bustria, 2015
  • Rex Ostil Bustria, 2015
  • Maggie Bloom, 2015
  • Alex Angileri, 2014
  • Maggie Bloom, 2015
  • Rex Ostil Bustria, 2015
  • Rex Ostil Bustria, 2015

CONTACT

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© Copyright Virginia Kennard 2016