Sam Penner

Sam Penner is an independent contemporary dance artist of mixed settler heritage living and working in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. After graduating from the School of Contemporary Dancers in 2013, she performed and worked extensively in Manitoba for many years, with Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, and Gearshifting Performance Works, working with choreographers such as Peggy Baker, Johanna Riley, Brent Lott, and Jolene Bailie. Her choreographic practice explores collaborative projects and partnerships for stage and screen, including a trio for the stage Nothing Doing (2019), and co-producing Manitoba Yellow Pages: A Scorebook for Movement and Sound (2021), presented by Young Lungs Dance Exchange and Cluster Festival.

Sam is also passionate about community-based dance work, co-directing West Broadway Dance Days (2021), produced in partnership with the Broadway Neighbourhood Centre, and leading dance classes in her local community through Mocean Dance. Recent creative highlights include performing in the full length improvised work Where Dance and Music Meet (2023) by Susanne Chui; Dancing Kmɨtkinu (in development) by shalan joudry and Sarah Prosper; and premiering her first short dance film Cumulus (2023), presented in Shifting Tides: Dance Films from Atlantic Canada, as well as Skylines Dance and Film.

Photo Credit: I'thandi Munro