Improvisation is at the heart of Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way.

Currently on view at the AGO, Feeling Her Way is presented in partnership with the Toronto Biennial of Art. The installation centres on the vocals and improvisation of four female Black musicians: Jacqui Dankworth, Poppy Ajudha, Sofia Jernberg, and Tanita Tikaram. For Feeling Her Way, artist Sonia Boyce challenged the vocalists to step out of their comfort zones and try something many were doing for the first time – improvise in a group setting and replace industry standards of perfection with play and possibility. Guided with prompts from composer Errollyn Wallen, the vocalists created a multi-textured and thought-provoking performance centred in the exhibition's main room.  

Improvisation is also central to the practices of Jennifer Dahl, dancer/interpreter, and Andrea Nann, dance artist. On February 5 at 7 pm, the pair will perform together as part of the programming series Feeling Her Way: Dancer Responses, which is in conjunction with the 2024 Toronto Biennial of Art’s program Your Timing is Perfect: Moments and Movements of Inquiry, curated by Jenn Goodwin. In this performance, the artists will improvise together in response to the auditory and visual elements of the installation.  

Jennifer Dahl. Photo by D.A. Hoskins.

Both artists have previously performed individually in Feeling Her Way. With a background in physiology and post-rehabilitation movement, Dahl approached her previous performance through the lens of vocal physiological responses. Being familiar with many of the vocalists, Dahl was surprised at how approaching the installation with this view brought a deeper understanding of the performers.  

“That was a really great way for me to get more insight into those individuals,” she recalled. “It became an unexpected thing for me in terms of how much I got into their voices, rather than just watching and going, ‘wow, that sounds amazing.’ That was a really great entry point for me to get deeper.” 

Nann’s performance happened on November 6, the day after the U.S. election. She found this external political event heavily influencing how she responded to Feeling Her Way. 

“It was so charged. It was a profound experience for me to be immersed in this keening and wailing of voices. I was very much drawn into and taken into the political,” she remembered. “I was crying in the middle of my performance because it’s so shocking to me that we could be where we are right now after decades and centuries of oppression. To hear these Black women sing ‘I am queen,’ and ‘run, run, run’ and then feel how impacted everyone in the crowd was emotionally and spiritually, it was quite an honour [to perform].” 

Andrea Nann. Photo by Michelle Silagy.

Entering Feeling Her Way can be quite a sonic experience, with a polyphony of voices emerging from different rooms in the installation to greet you. In a previous interview, Boyce shared that Feeling Her Way is not an easy initial experience and requires time from viewers. Practicing and performing in the space over the past few months, both Nann and Dahl began to pick out distinct patterns and layers, specifically noticing changes in energy within different sections of the installation. 

“There’s such a potency in the contrast of rooms,” Nann said. “The performative pieces [by the vocalists] are celebratory, such as Jacqui’s where she goes into a pulsing, enduring vocalization at the end of her performance which is so powerful and arousing. There’s a rawness in the improvised room. As we enter the exhibition we witness Errollyn carefully prompting and guiding Poppy, Jacqui and Tanita into self-expression.  I sense their initial hesitancy and feel into my own discomfort because, as a person of colour, female-identifying dance artist of a certain generation, I’ve been conditioned to be silent — to suppress any raw, guttural expression — and not be offensive.  I feel deeply into their vulnerability as individuals and the power they collectively feel and find.”

“And the humour too,” Dahl added. “There’s lots of tentativeness as Andrea said, and then there is potency in figuring out how to come together. That is a very natural trajectory for acceptance and community. It starts tentatively, becomes cohesive, and then you can be funny and play. But you can’t do that from the beginning coming from a marginalized space since there are rules about what is appropriate, and stereotypes already being considered.” 

Jennifer Dahl. Photo by Jeremy Mimnagh.

It wasn’t only the auditory aspects of Feeling Her Way that Dahl and Nann found themselves responding to. The kaleidoscopic wallpaper, the gold, geometric sculptures that double as stools for viewers, and the music memorabilia from Sonia Boyce’s project Devotional Collection (1999 - ongoing) all had a part in informing their performances.  

“I was struck by the plurality of images brought into harmony through tessellations and reflections, and how as a marginalized body in that space, I felt permission to be unique and distinct,” Nann expressed. “I didn’t feel like I was intruding on something finished. There is an invitation to be folded into harmony with the architecture and textures. I loved the use of gold as something to be treasured and celebrated.” 

“The amazing [gold] stools! I really vibed on those stools because I was able to get higher and I felt like a queen being on them,” Dahl continued. “The reflections [off the gold sculptures] bring together people wherever they are in the space. The sculptures are not uniform - they have a lot of different edges, so it allows you to catch a glimpse of different angles. Because of the reflective property, you do get a sense of everyone being brought into the exhibition, or as Andrea said, folded inward into it.” 

This isn’t the first time Dahl and Nann have performed together. The pair performed together in a similar nature for years as part of Volcano Theatre’s The Four Horsemen Project, responding to and interpreting sound poetry and improvisational performance scores of poets Rafael Barreto-Rivera, Paul Dutton, Steve McCaffery and bpNichol. 

More recently, the pair have collaborated responding to sounds generated from Saturn. Performed in conjunction with the 2024 Venice Biennale, Saturn Walk: Embodying Listening features Nann and Dahl alongside fellow dancer Laura Colomban performing in a hexagonal labyrinth mimicking the cloud pattern over Saturn’s North Pole. The work is conceived by sound visual artist China Blue and the audio is a composition inspired by the sonics of Saturn’s rings that China Blue and space scientist Dr. Seth Horowitz discovered for NASA.  

Through Saturn Walk, Nann and Dahl began developing and practicing Embodying Listening, an improvisational movement exploration that helped inform their approach to their performances in Feeling Her Way.  

“The combination of the words ‘Embodying Listening’ brings forward that multiple senses are involved – our entire physical, emotional, spiritual and mental wholeness is listening,” Nann explained. “In that way, we make ourselves more receptive and available to what we are perceiving inside ourselves, from others in the space and in relationship with the greater environment. Through Embodying Listening, we are bringing our whole self into this receptive state and from there creating and generating our response.” 

Andrea Nann. Photo by China Blue.

Practicing together over Zoom, Dahl and Nann are excited to reunite in person for their February 5 performance. The pair hope to further build upon their practice of listening to each other’s movements. 

“The surprises that come from that energy exchange, you can’t beat that, especially in the flesh,” Dahl said. “To be invited to do a response to [art in a gallery setting], especially as visual and bodied creatures who are performers, it’s icing on the cake.” 

Catch Nann and Dahl in conversation with each other and Feeling Her Way on Wednesday, February 5 at 7 pm. Feeling Her Way: Dancer Responses is programmed on every first free Wednesday night until April 2.  

Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way is on view now at the AGO on Level 1 in the Edmond G. Odette Family and Robert & Cheryl McEwen Galleries (galleries 128 and 129). This installation is presented at the AGO in partnership with the Toronto Biennial of Art 2024. The 2024 Toronto Biennial of Art took place from September 21 - December 1, 2024. For more information, visit torontobiennial.org or @torontobiennial.  

The Canadian presentation of Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way is initiated and organized by the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art.  

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