Candice Pike, Hilary Knee and Josh Murphy are three Newfoundland and Labrador dance artists who create and perform Ruralesque – a show at the intersection of contemporary dance, burlesque, traditional Newfoundland culture and community concert! After knowing each other for over a decade, the group finally found themselves together in Corner Brook, NL in 2020 and began working on this show. With a shared rigorous-yet-generous working style and a similar sense of humour, these artists melded their unique dance, theatre, and improv practices into their version of the perfect NL variety show. They were supported in this process by 7th generation Newfoundlander, Lois Brown, whose first-hand experience of the NL Cultural Renaissance and the development of “new dance” in the province helped shape the performance as a whole. As choreographers, performers, and dance teachers, this group is interested in exploring ideas of belonging, self-reliance, queering, and stretching the limits of everything they’ve learned to date about what both dance performance and Newfoundland art should be! As one reviewer said, “They take their work seriously, but not themselves.”

Candice was the 2021 winner of Live Art Dance’s Diane Moore Creation Award for “Ruralesque” and various phases of creation and presentation have been supported by ArtsNL, The Canada Council for the Arts, The Arts and Culture Centre, Gros Morne Summer Music, and Neighbourhood Dance Works.

Website