 Me Samantha Pienaar
Samantha received her BA (Hons) in Directing from the University of Cape Town, and a MA in Choreography from Rhodes University. Samantha performed and choreographed extensively for Gary Gordon and the First Physical Theatre Company from 1994-1996; after which she co-founded and was the Artistic Director of several physical theatre companies, the most recent being MBody - a non-profit research and performance collaborative functioning in association with the US Drama Department. Samantha received the De Kat Slurpie Award for Most Original Production at the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees in 1999 for a collaborative work titled Grafwater: There is life after jumping (a true story). She also received the MEC Gauteng Award for Most Original Presentation of a New Work in Contemporary Style in 2006 for a collaborative work titled I of Heart inspired by the life of Dr Christiaan Barnard. Samantha has presented conference papers, refereed and published articles, and researched extensively on the subjects of dance, theatre and performance, with a specific emphasis on physical theatre, contemporary dance, contact improvisation, site specific performance, collaboration and theatre as a tool for transformation. She is currently working on her PhD which uses the methodologies of Action Research and Art as Research to express ideas on embodiment, improvisation and creative intelligence. Samantha has been a Senior Lecturer and curriculum developer in Movement and Physical Theatre at the US Drama Department since 2006.
|
