Please join us for the next Thinking Spaces Reading Group session on Thursday, April 17, 2014 from 7-9 pm at the Guelph Public Library, Main Branch (100 Norfolk Street). In this session, Kimber Sider discuss aspects of her doctoral research on inter-species improvisation. A short description of her session is provided below.

Inter-species Improv: Learning to Lead through Following

Working with horses makes the lessons of improvisation more tangible than working with humans alone, in that horses recognize the subtextual, intuitive, and resonating information over external posturing, analytical arguments, and ego-biased actions. At the foundation of the equestrian arts is a deep reliance on improvisational performance. It is through the improvisational exchange, between human and horse, that the language of equestrianism is created. This Thinking Spaces discussion will explore the implications of improvising with horses, and delve into the lessons that can be learned from working with these highly intuitive animals.

Kimber Sider is a filmmaker, theatre practitioner, and equestrian working on her PhD at the University of Guelph. Her doctoral research focuses on equine/human inter-species performance, and how this form of improvisational exchange has the potential to create a more interconnected awareness, by recognizing alternative modes of communication and embracing other ways of knowing, such as embodied knowledge and physical resonance.

As always, the session is free and open to all.

To receive the reading for this session, please contact Lauren Michelle Levesque at: levesqul@uoguelph.ca

We hope to see you next week!