Kayla Jeanson is a Montréal-based artist from Winnipeg who creates interdisciplinary work rooted in a desire to navigate the line between artist and audience, seer and seen. In her practice as a dancer, Kayla finds inspiration in movement challenges, gesture, and found apparatuses. Through her own embodied experiences she find compelling theatrics and imagery, with which she aims to reveal movement as a cognitive process.
Working in all levels of film production, Kayla makes cinematic work that defies genre boundaries, traversing the fine line between documentary and fiction and incorporating dance choreography in unexpected ways. Her short films have been screened internationally, including her award-winning 2015 dance/poetry film Descrambled Eggs.
Her collaborations include work with artists such as Kyra Jean Green, Nicolas Montes de Oca, Luca “Lazylegz” Patuelli, Damian Siqueiros, Stephanie Ballard, Ess Hödlmoser, Abadi Al-Obaidi, Silvia Gertrudix Gonzalez, Danielle Sturk, Meghan Athavale, Zorya Arrow, Ming Hon, and Oriah Wiersma. Kayla has worked as cinematographer/editor for companies such as Les 7 Doigts de la Main, Q Dance/The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, and Cirque du Soleil.
✨ Artist CV ✨
Kayla studied modern dance at the School of Contemporary Dancers in Winnipeg and holds a B.A. (Adv.) in Film Studies from the University of Manitoba. She has deep roots in the Winnipeg contemporary dance community, and the film scene through her time with Winnipeg Film Group and Video Pool Media Arts Centre. She is co-chair of the board of Young Lungs Dance Exchange and co-founder of a new dance/circus collective called Go North, Land South.
Following her work in 2019-2020 as Video Documentalist for Cirque du Soleil, Kayla has become embedded into the international circus community, including participation in the 2022 Laboratoires de Cirque (TOHU, Montreal) and the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Lab through École Nationale de Cirque (CRITAC) and La Piscine.
Contact Kayla via email or though Instagram DM