The Restless Choreographer Who Rewrote the Rules of Dance Cinema

Friday March 27, 7pm
Art Gallery of Peterborough

Laura Taler didn’t just cross borders—she obliterated them entirely.

From the dance studios of Romania to the experimental film circuits of Canada, this boundary-smashing artist has spent three decades proving that movement is memory, and memory is revolution. Back in ’95, when grunge was king and indie film was just finding its voice, Taler dropped the village trilogy like a creative bomb that Dance International Magazine couldn’t ignore—calling it the catalyst for Canada’s entire dancefilm explosion.

But this wasn’t your typical arthouse moment.

The village trilogy cuts deep, channeling the displacement of millions torn from their roots by the brutal machinery of the 20th century. It’s a haunting meditation on places we’ll never touch again but can never forget—the kind of work that makes you feel homesick for somewhere you’ve never been.

Now, thirty years later, Taler’s celebrating with a killer double bill that pairs her breakthrough masterpiece with her latest mind-bender, Matryoshka Crush—a wickedly twisted cocktail of poison, exorcism, gender chaos, and show tunes that’ll leave you laughing and deeply disturbed in equal measure.

The hardware speaks for itself: Gold Hugo from Chicago International, experimental film gold from Toronto, and Canada’s top dancefilm honors. But awards are just the beginning of Taler’s story.

This is an artist who treats creative residencies like a rock star treats world tours—from Buenos Aires to Berlin, Banff to Havana—constantly seeking new ways to explore how our bodies become living archives of everything we’ve survived. Her latest triumph? The 2024 Public Art Legacy Award for MONAHAN, proving she’s still rewriting the rules.

The 2025/26 season promises to be vintage Taler—masterclasses and screenings rolling across Canada like a greatest hits tour, but for the art world’s most fearless boundary-pusher. Because when Laura Taler moves, entire art forms follow.