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Artist Statement:

My work is interdisciplinary, merging artist mediums and social and emotional issues. With the use of dance, storytelling, theatre and visual art I explore issues of multiculturalism, nonverbal communication, socioeconomic divides, privilege, the search for place or home, disabilities, education and access. 

Words have holes.  Our words have spaces in them.  We often say what we think we should, what we think others want to hear.  Our bodies have these same holes, moving the way we should or shouldn’t to communicate.  Listening is hard and soft. In moments of listening beyond words, when we’re just listening to body feelings, it is from that space that we are more apt to tell and hear the truth.

Photo by Harold Roth

Biography:

Throughout my work I bring integrity to modern and improvisational dance, theater and visual art. As a dancer, choreographer and spoken word artist, my work provides tangible proof that truth is our most powerful and miraculous companion. 
 
“Lida’s presence on stage expresses her life so clearly that it brings us closer to our own.” Teal Scott, audience member.
 
I began performing at age fifteen as a member of Hannah Dennison’s multi-generational, improvisational dance theater company, Working Ground, in Burlington, Vermont. I continued to perform in the United States for several years, later studying improvisation abroad at The School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam, Netherlands. After returning to the US, I founded the Lida Winfield Performing Arts Studio in Massachusetts. In 2006, I moved back to Vermont and have become a community leader in promoting the use of expressive arts as a healing and transformational tool.
 
Since 2002 I have taught dance, theater and storytelling to adults and children in traditional and non-traditional settings. I have taught such diverse populations as youth at risk, refugees, homeless families, adults with physical and mental disabilities, college students, professional performers and rural and urban youth. Since 2007 I have taught educators how to use dance and theater in the classroom as an instructional tool for academics. This work as a teaching-artist through the Flynn Center’s Words Come Alive! program has brought me to scores of schools across Vermont.
 
Since 2006 I have created original solo and duet work, merging storytelling, dance and visual art to create captivating and poignant performances that invariably cause audiences to laugh and cry, sometimes simultaneously. This work has toured nationally and internationally.
 
I have danced with Heddy Maalem, Tiffany Rhynard’s company Big ACTION Performance Ensemble, Ellen Smith Ahern, Pauline Jennings and Sean Clute’s intermedia company Double Vision. In 2011 Ellen and I toured across twelve cites in Europe for six weeks with Double Vision showing our original duet work as well as being part of Double Visions installation work. In 2011, I graduated with a Masters of Fine Arts In Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College.

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