EVADNE KELLY

Evadne Kelly (nee Fulton) is an independent artist-scholar with a PhD in Dance Studies from York University. 

Evadne was born in Birtle, Manitoba and grew up in Victoria, British Columbia where she first met and became inspired by David Earle. In pursuit of developing a deeper understanding of Earle’s work, Evadne attended the School of the Toronto Dance Theatre. After graduating from the programme in 1997, she had the honour of working with Dancetheatre David Earle as one of their core dancers for fourteen years. Since 2011, Evadne has been returning to dance with the company as a guest artist. As an independent dance artist Evadne has also performed works by choreographers D.A. Hoskins, Allen Kaeja, Learie McNicolls, Sharon Moore, Carly Wong, Graham McKelvie, Patricia Beatty and Julia Sasso (including 2004 Dora award winning Variété directed by Ross Manson).

Evadne carries forth her years of inspiration and mentorship from Daivd Earle through her scholarly research. Evadne has written, presented, and published internationally on topics relevant to the fields of anthropology and dance studies with a particular focus on danced experience and expression. Her current research centers on the political and social dimensions of trans-locally performed Fijian dance traditions. Her research investigates danced expression as a source of social change and social response-ability (and indeed responsibility) and puts dance studies as a discipline into conversation with indigenous practices as well as with other fields interested in global migrations and relations. This summer she will be attending the Mellon-Funded Dance Studies in/and the Humanities Summer Seminar at Northwestern University.