About

Creative Momentum invites people together to co-create movement and shared belonging. We are active in cross-disability dance and intersectional screendance. Since 2020 we are focused on online collaboration and sharing skills.

Before the pandemic, Creative Momentum facilitated local dance groups, mainly with cross-disability communities. Jo Cuffe has been honoured to facilitate dance with 100 communities and groups, in the homelands of the lək̓ʷəŋən, Xwsepsum, and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples. Dance groups have been in collaboration with people ages 4 to 103, with more than 2700 unique participants.

Creative Momentum is focused on creative access, equity, and shared belonging, in partnership with communities and collaborators. Over the past decade, initiatives have been in collaboration with people with myriad ways of moving, perceiving and interacting; with people who are Indigenous Elders; with people who are seniors and older adults; with people who are newcomers; and with people who self-identify as gender-expansive and 2SLGBTQA+ (two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, asexual, plus).

We are happy to share our facilitation practice with people who are focused on peer-based dance group facilitation. Peer-based means that facilitators and participants are coming together around a shared aspect of identity, community, or experience.

Art of eight people's purple silhouettes in a semicircle with their arms out. Three people dance seated, using a manual wheelchair, chair and power wheelchair, and five people dance standing. Behind the dancers there is a colourful rainbow sunset, with green under their feet, then blue, purple, red, orange and a wider semicircle of pastel yellow. Below the dancers there is a heart in the middle, surrounded by wavy lines of music notes, and a silhouette of a small hummingbird.
Art by Naomi Kennedy in 2013. Image description of the drawing: Eight people’s silhouettes are purple in front of a rainbow sunset. They are in a semi-circle, smiling and dancing with varied arm moves. Some dancers are seated and some are standing. At the centre of the image is a heart with waves of music notes curving out, and a hummingbird.

Our main movement form is dance improvisation: where we each choose how we want to move and interact. There is no “wrong” way to dance here. Sessions have various guided activities and suggestions; however these are invitations – each participant is encouraged to interpret it however works for their own body, brain, and senses and to be creative in the moment. In our practice, dance emerges from the shared creativity of the people present; choreography does not pre-exist.

The following reflections were written here in 2013, and are very much relevant a decade later:

We are living in an uncertain time on this planet. To become comfortable with improvising is an incredibly useful skill for responding to the big changes we face in our lives and communities. Dance improvisation provides wonderful ways to help us feel embodied, lessen stress levels, shift emotions, let go, celebrate, and connect. Creative Momentum’s goal is to provide space to renew how we want to be with ourselves, each other, and the world.

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