Kayla Jeanson
Hailing from the Canadian prairies, Kayla Jeanson creates interdisciplinary work rooted in a desire to navigate the line between artist and audience, aiming to reveal movement as a cognitive process. She works within the worlds of documentary cinema, contemporary dance, and circus arts, collaborating with numerous artists including Kyra Jean Green, Luca “Lazylegz” Patuelli, Damian Siqueiros, Cristina Planas, Nicolas Montes de Oca, Stephanie Ballard, Ess Hödlmoser, and Oriah Wiersma. Kayla’s work as film director, cinematographer, and video editor has screened at festivals internationally, and she has worked as a videographer for companies such as Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, and Cirque du Soleil. Kayla is currently the president of the board of Young Lungs Dance Exchange, and through her arts community work, she strives to foster innovation through research across disciplines, cultures, and abilities.
The Beholder is a hybrid camera / human persona;
a human with a camera instead of eyes.
They witness movement and hold that image in their body.
Their mind captures these echoes, but strains to recall them. “Do not make me remember,” they plead. They only want to see, and follow their sight.
When the lights are off, they remember their body. The tips of their fingers buzz with potential, their toes shift along the ground with excitement. Their lens forgets to seek the light.
They know that they once had a purpose; that they are a part of the story the way that a book’s pages are part of the story. They are the one that cups the insect in their hands and reaches over to let you peer at it. But with no insect around, they become the insect, the subject of their own film. They are at once beholder and beheld.