As a poet and spoken word performer, she began to consider the word as sound and as a way of activating listening space different from the usual textual (written word) forms. This has a long tradition in Vancouver's Creative Writing Program at UBC, where she did her MFA and where the father of modern Canadian poetry, Earle Birney, established the program with a strong base in experimental and sound poetry. Earle Birney went on to form the Canadian experimental poetry group called The Four Horsemen, who first performed in Murray Schafer's Patria cycle -- in which Ms. Dancer has also participated specifically in the Wolf Project.
In the MFA program at the University of British Columbia's Creative Writing Program, Ms. Dancer majored in poetry under the poet laureate, George McWhirter, and in radio documentary feature production under the mentorship of Don Mowatt, features producer and librettist who, as a student of Peter Leonhard Braun (Sender Freies Berlin radio from 1974-1994), brought his seminal style of stereophonic radio documentary-feature to Canada's national broadcaster (CBC) during the 1970's - 1990's. This style of radio was distinct in its use of the sound environment in ways being articulated in Murray Schafer's World Soundscape Project, a major influence in current acoustic composition, soundscape study, and acoustic environmentalism. She continues to participate in acoustic events with Murray Schafer and Hildegard Westercamp, originators of this type of sound based work and study.

Work

Ms. Dancer's work both adheres to and diverges from these influences. She has produced radio documentaries and radio art for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Vancouver, Toronto) and National Public Radio (USA) as well as at events such as Toronto's Deep Wireless Festival and Radio without Boundaries. Currently, she creates and performs spoken word - soundscape compositions in spatialized (8 channel) concerts in Toronto, Mexico City, and Koli (Finland).
As a passionate soundscape activist, Ms Dancer remains a member of the Vancouver Soundwalk Collective and part of New Music Vancouver creating site-specific soundwalk compositions for artists, specific groups and the general public -- and more recently as a form of radio art. She is incoming president of the Canadian Association of Sound Ecology, and Chairperson for External Relations with the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology.

Academic
At the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Cross Faculty Inquiry, her doctoral research (all but dissertation) examines the acoustic environment as a social spatial phenomenon. As an artist-researcher, she practices and teaches about art-based forms of research. She lectures, teaches and leads workshops internationally as well at Charles University, Department of Art Education, and at Anglo American University in Prague.
As a radio art and feature producer, published poet, and soundscape composer working internationally (Canada, USA, Mexico, Finland, Czech Republic, Hungary), she considers herself a citizen of many worlds and practices. She is based in both Vancouver and Prague - places as divergent and associative as her work and life.
http://andreadancer.wordpress.com/