Artistic Statement

I believe that dance has the power to heal, transform, and elicit change in both 

our bodies and communities. The body, with all the information it holds and conveys through movement, remains at the heart of my research as a choreographer, performer and teacher. I consider myself a contemporary dance artist specializing in performance, improvisation, and interdisciplinary collaboration. 

I am interested in multiplicity in authorship and creating work that also has the possibility of multiplicity in meaning making. My work is deeply informed by the idea of influence from the internal body, the people around me, and the larger cultural landscape. Listening equally to the impulses of my “conceptual mind” and  “knowing body”, I create work that is visually engaging, viscerally potent, and loaded with import from multiple influences. My questions, doubts, fears, and desires about the complex times we live in are brought into the studio and explored through an inclusive process with my fellow dancers and finally through a communion of the senses with the audience. Improvisation and often times text are utilized in my creative process and usually finds its way into the performance. The creative process and final performance of a work have equal value. Preferring to work with others, I am drawn to creating in collaboration with other artists, and often with artists of different disciplines. My past collaborations have included composers, live musicians, visual artists and set designers, film/video artists, and poets.

Choreography

From 2003-2010, Ritchie directed her own repertory company LABCO Dance in Pittsburgh. Her company performed her choreography along with original works commissioned from Kyle Abraham, Lisa Race, Miguel Gutierrez, Pavel Zustiak, Teena Marie Custer, Jennifer Keller, Jeanine Durning, Ursula Payne, Sarah Skaggs, Donna Uchizono, and Mark Taylor. Gwen has received the Independent Choreographers Grant from City Moves! Foundation in San Diego(1996), the Choreographers' Continuum Grant in Pittsburgh(1999), the Harry Schwalb Excellence in the Arts Award (1999), and Distinguished Alumna Dean's Award for Excellence for Emerging Artistic Leadership from University of South Florida (2000).  Her company had the honor of receiving several grants including the Heinz Endowments Small Arts Initiative, The Pittsburgh Foundation, Allegheny Regional Asset District, and The Mellon Audience Development Fund and was also on the touring roster of PennPAT. Her work has been commissioned by University of Pittsburgh, James Madison University, and Dance Alloy Theatre and has been presented in festival settings, main stage theaters, black box spaces, informal studio spaces, school cafeterias/ auditoriums, and art galleries. Gwen is a recent M.F.A. graduate in dance with a secondary emphasis in somatics from The University of Colorado Boulder.