Featured Artists
Kathryn Hood ·
Kathryn Hood (she/her) is a passionate advocate of the great joy and fullness that dance can bring both for the individual and the community. Kathryn began her formal dance training at Edmonton Dance Centre and Crossings Dance, and later obtained her BFA in Dance at Belhaven University in Jackson, MS. She has since forged a dynamic career as a freelance and company artist, choreographer, educator, and arts leader.
Kathryn has presented and performed her choreography throughout Canada, the United States, Spain, and Germany, and has performed with companies including Corps Bara Dance Theatre, Calgary Core Contemporaries, Ballet Bodies, CIC Dance Theatre, and Inlet Dance Theatre. Further opportunities include performing in Fluid Fest 2022; contract work with Project InTandem (Karissa Berry) and UK-based choreographer Lewis Wilkins; training with Vim Vigor and Rubberband Dance; and participating in the B12 Festival in Berlin.
Her current artistic curiosity lives at the meeting place of contemporary movement, acrobatic pathways, and imagery-rich storytelling — exploring how physical rigour, vulnerability, and nuance can invite audiences into reflection and shared experience. She draws inspiration from diverse movement practices while continually returning to questions of humanity, spirituality, and connection.
Now in her 8th season with Corps Bara, Kathryn has stepped into the role of Artistic Director, driven by her love for dance and its ability to forge deep human & spiritual connections.
Corps Bara ·
Based in Calgary (Moh’kinsstsis), Corps Bara is a contemporary dance company exploring life’s meaningful questions through movement. Guided by values of inspiration, creativity, connection, reflection, spirituality, and collaboration, we create work that invites audiences into thoughtful, embodied experience. Through holistic body–mind–spirit engagement, and partnerships within our community, we create space for artists and audiences to pause, reflect, and encounter resonance, curiosity, and shared humanity.
Into the Wilderness
Into the Wilderness is a 55-minute contemporary dance work choreographed by Kathryn Hood and presented by Corps Bara Dance Theatre. It premiered in March 2025 in Calgary and is now available for touring and re-mounting. The work invites audiences into a reflective journey of their own personal wilderness, shaped by rugged landscapes, evocative imagery, and compelling physicality.
Performed by six professional contemporary dancers, the piece unfolds through interconnected movement environments that oscillate between intimacy and expansiveness, tenderness and resolve. Athletic yet nuanced physicality is paired with imagery-rich choreography, creating space for quiet reflection alongside visceral momentum. Into the Wilderness invites audiences to locate their own meaning, memory, and resonance within the work.
The choreography is grounded in contemporary technique, supporting a shared language of trust, adaptation, and responsiveness. These physical ideas mirror the thematic heart of the piece: navigating the unknown, learning when to move forward, when to listen, and when to stand still. Subtle references to the natural world emerge throughout the work, offering space to consider our relationship to the earth and the embodied wisdom found in cycles of rest, resilience, and transformation.
Designed with adaptability in mind, Into the Wilderness is a full-length, theatre-ready work that can also be reimagined as shorter excerpts for festivals, shared programs, and site-responsive contexts. Adapted versions may suit galleries and alternative performance spaces, with optional artist talks or community engagement.
At its core, Into the Wilderness offers an embodied inquiry, inviting audiences into complexity with curiosity, presence, and openness.