Few things are more rewarding for a musician than to witness bodies moving to the rhythms of our music. I have been thrilled to have had experiences of both playing live and composing and recording for dancers. I enjoy collaborating with experts in other creative fields to see what is born of the alchemy of our teamwork.

My first contribution to dance was creating a sound track for a piece called Myrmidons for Montreal-based dancer Lucy Mongrain. She asked that the music be composed entirely for bass guitar but rented for me a Boss Bass Synth effects pedal to enable my sonic tapestry to encompass all sorts of wild spacey sounds in keeping with the sci-fi theme of her piece. I relished the challenge then of composing to a very strictly structured framework of time which she outlined for me in detail. The final production was mounted for Bravo television in 1996.

My second effort was workshopping in more of a performance capacity a piece called Superglue with dancer and York University dance instructor Sara Porter. Along with Jessica Runge of Toronto Dance Theatre, we mounted the piece as part of the Fringe Festival week-long presentation of Dusk Dances in Toronto's Withrow Park in July of 1999.

In March 2011 I composed and recorded music for Under These Cloaks by choreographer Genevieve Nolet performed at York University.

Since 2007 I have been a regular live music contributor to Kathleen Rea's longstanding Wednesday evening Contact Dance Jam which takes place at Dovercourt House in Toronto. I love the experience of play WITH and not FOR the dancers. Occasionally my friend William Pipher joins me on didjeridoo. We have christened this duo Dreamfire and do hope to record an album together in the near future.

Throughout 2001-2002 I contributed music and sounds for the incredible interactive 3-D cyber galleries created by Josh Melamed of Swerve.com.In the spring of 2002 I composed and recorded music for a 50-minute movement-based performance piece entitled Flight by Michelle Horacek.


THEATRE

I had the good fortune to have the opportunity to create music and sound design for Nightwood Theatre's production of Wild Dogs in the fall of 2008. Having been an actor and theatre major, this represented a delightful full circle for me back to the theatre world I left behind in the late '80s as music took my focus. It was a rich and rewarding experience and I do hope to find further opportunities in sound design for theatre.

Wild Dogs got many rave reviews. David Bateman at Xtra Magazine had this to say: "Jennifer Gillmor's music and sound design is beautifully wrought but there simply is not enough of it."

Hear samples of my compositions for Wild Dogs on the Sound Samples page.

To download director Kelly Thornton's very kind letter of recommendation, click here.

In June of 2009 I collaborated with director Evalyn Parry and actor-writer Tawiah M'Carthy on a workshop production of the one-man play Obaaberima. It was presented at Buddies In Bad Times Theatre.