Marie France Forcier/ STAGE WORKS
Marie France Forcier
(she/her) is a Canadian artist. Through the lens of a trained dancer, Forcier researches at the intersection of somatic practices, trauma studies and choreography/direction, via studio work, public performance and community initiative. No longe encompassing the scope of her activities but out of desire for continuity in an otherwise rapidly changing world, Forcier Stage Works remains the banner under which she presents her work since 2005.
An Associate Professor of Dance at the University of Calgary’s School of Creative and Performing Arts, her body of live creative work has been presented on platforms spanning little-known urban sites to dance-dedicated proscenium spaces to galleries across North America, Europe and Asia. In collaborative artistic capacities, she has performed live and on film in disciplines ranging from family theatre to contemporary dance, to performance art to aerial circus, touring extensively on four continents.
She received her conservatory training from the School of Toronto Dance Theatre in 2005, her Master of Fine Arts in Choreography from York University (Toronto, Canada) in 2014, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Creative Practice at Liverpool John Moores University through the Transart Institute (New York/Berlin).
Forcier routinely serves on local, national and international academic and public funding agencies’ committees. She was the Chair of the Dance Service Organization Dancers Studio West (Alberta) from 2018 to 2021, and as the co-Artistic Director of the research hub Hub 14 (Toronto) from 2013 to 2015.
Her personal and collaborative work has been supported over the years by Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canada Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Toronto Arts Council, Calgary Arts Development, and the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Arts. She is a SSHRC doctoral fellow.
Forcier proudly raises her two sons at the intersection of her francophone heritage and the anglophone culture within which they live on the traditional territories of the people of the Treaty 7.