MARY-DORA BLOCH-HANSEN

MD is a neurodiverse, non-binary multi-disciplinary artist, careworker, community-based researcher, somatic educator and student living and working primarily on Turtle Island, in Tkaronto (Treaty 13). Their work centres on the body as a queer political landscape and explores the intersections of individual and collective resistance, through healing, radical careworker, non-conformity, gender liminality, hedonism, grief and decolonization. As a dance artist, MD is currently working towards a solo ritual work-in-progress that explores gender liminality through deconstructing forms and gestures imprinted in the body through cis-heteropatriarchal narratives. MD has studied dance and movement for over 20 years. In 2013 they received their BFA in Performance Dance from Toronto Metropolitan University. MD has worked as a company dancer with award-winning choreographer Alyssa Martin (Rock Bottom Movement) for over 10 years, performing both locally and abroad. Moreover, MD has collaborated with and performed for Amanda Acorn, Amanda Smith (Fawn Chamber Creative), Dance Theatre David Earle, Ismael Ivo (ImPulsTanz Vienna), The Toronto Love-In, Nicole Negro (Berlin) and The Box (NYC), just to name a few. MD is currently working towards becoming a Somatic Movement Educator of Body-Mind Centering® and will be beginning a Masters of Social Work at the University of Toronto this fall. 

You can find out more about MD at www.somaticpractice.ca 

or follow them on IG @crystalwhispurr (creative) & @somaticpractice (carework).