Skip to Content

Graduate Research Assistant

University of Guelph

Kimber Sider is a PhD candidate in Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph. Sider’s doctoral research focuses on equine/human inter-species performance, and how symbiotic inter-species improv engages alternative modes of communication (such as physical resonance and body language), and how further understanding these manners of communication may inform notions of performance-based exchange. Sider completed her MA in Theatre Studies also at the University of Guelph in 2012. Sider’s MA thesis titled, “The Ride: Equine Influence and Inter-species Performance” delved into questions of human/equine exchange and communication through the lens of performance based methodologies in order to explore the inter-species collaboration of The Ride, the performance of Sider’s 2008 horseback ride across Canada. Sider is also a story-practitioner in both theatre and film; most notable is her 2010 feature documentary Chasing Canada.

Improvisation is, simply put, being and living this very moment. No one can hide in music, and improvising in music is to be truly in this very moment and being completely yourself, with all your qualities and faults. It is probably the most honest state for a human being to be in.

– John McLaughlin in an interview with Daniel Fischlin.