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Showing posts from 2014

Do you know?....Andrya Duff

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Another artist in the upcoming Dance Matters Series 1: A Woman's Work is the incomparable Andrya Duff. I had the pleasure of working with Andrya for the first time last year in Theatre Rusticle's Dinner at Seven Thirty,  but I have known Andrya for years and felt like I've worked with her many times.  Andrya Duff and WIlliam Yong in Dinner at Seven-Thirty (Theatre Rusticle 2013). photo by Dahlia Katz If you know Andrya, you know she eludes definition as an artist, challenges herself and her views at every turn. She is adventurous and relentless on her own path. Here are my questions to Andrya, a collection of curiosities that we never got to cover during our pre-rehearsal chats last year. What is your favourite childhood memory? I have so many! I'm extremely fortunate.  I grew up outside of St.John's, next to a farm so my days were primarily spent playing with neighborhood kids in the woods. I wasn't allowed much tv or to be inside if it was

Do you know?....Sharon Harvey

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Here's the latest "Do you know?...." installation, this time covering one of the dynamic women involved in Dance Matters' first show of the 2014-15 season. Since I did not know much about Sharon myself when I started out to create this interview, below are my questions to get to know more about this unique and powerful performer. You have a varied experience as a performer/artist/mover -- can you tell me a bit about your history in dance — where you trained, where you work, what kinds of things you work on? I started my professional dance performance career while doing my under graduate studies at York university where I met my mentor Dr. Zelma Badu-Younge-Badu Dance Theatre an African-modern dance company. Performing and travelling with her open my eyes to a deeper understanding of black contemporary dance and style that were not available to me at the time of in my training, styles such as Horton, Dunham technique, few styles of South Asian, African dance

Do you know?....Jeremy Mimnagh, collaborator in Adelheid's elsewhere

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Choreographer Heidi Strauss' new work elsewhere is described as a world in which people are  simultaneously  together and alone, which is a fitting metaphor for the collaborative process at times. So much of it happens purely inside one's head, in the midst of many, the ideas may struggle to find effective language that relays the ideas to others. But the collaborative process can also be joyful, synergistic, communal, instinctual. I am happy to begin a series of interviews that celebrates the collaborative process. By covering viewpoints of artists involved in dance creations, but not necessarily the primary choreographers, I hope to learn more about the magic of collaboration and to offer  different  perspectives on  what  it is to create dance. photo by Jeremy Mimnagh First up is Jeremy Mimnagh.  Jeremy Mimnagh is a multi-talented visual, photographic, sonic and multi-media artist collaborating on Adelheid's upcoming premiere of elsewhere. He is skillful a

More 10th anniversary recollections: Collaborators Malgorzata Nowacka and Jenn Goodwin

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I was very lucky to work with Malgorzata Nowacka in 2004-2005 and 2006 on two separate projects. Malgorzata danced in my unfortunately titled work "that corpse you planted last year". Despite it's title it was a non-stop sextet that mirrored the imagery of T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" (hence the title  of the work) and I.G. Kovacic's "The Pit", with the dynamism of the six dancers. Malgorzata brought power to the choreography and humour to the rehearsal hall. I think on several occasions, she also brought chocolate. The next year, I asked Malgorzata to make a solo piece for me on Blue Ceiling dance's first program exploring what I could do as a soloist. The resulting solo was kind of a terrifying experience -- Malgorzata's work demands strength and punch and grittiness that I don't usually associate with myself, personally or artistically; I was not sure if I could carry it off.  I was very pleased and relieved when dancers from M

Do you know? ...Paulina Derbez

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I recently had the immense pleasure of experiencing Paulina Derbez's performance Shika. It was coming full circle for me in a way: a few years ago I heard this incredible woman rehearsing with voice and violin in the studio next door to where I was working with Fujiwara Dance Inventions (on EUNOIA, which recently premiered in Harbourfront's World Stage 2014, and is nominated for 3 Dora awards!). I knew something really different and intriguing was going on in there. Fast forward a little, my son Pablo began daycare with a fiesty young girl named Isabella whose mother was a violinist. Guess who?  Paulina Derbez of the haunting voice and violin permeating the rehearsal studio walls at Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre. She had been creating Shika. As a performer who often straddles disciplines not only over my career but within individual performances, I feel compelled to know more about Paulina's process. She moves, vocalizes, plays, shapeshifts and channels sim

10th anniversary Reminiscence -- the mysterious and wonderful Bee Pallomina

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Bee Pallomina collaborated with Blue Ceiling dance on "that corpse you planted last year" in 2005, photo of Bee Pallomina leaving the theatre from "that corpse you planted last year" when a freak fire alarm went off in the midst of the performance. Crazy times. "Days of Mad Rabbits" in 2005 (see last blog post for lots of photos!) and "11xforgetting" in 2007. Jennifer Bolt and Bee Pallomina in 11xforgetting photo by Jeremy Brace She was an outside eye on 2013's "Half Life" and in 2009 Bee and I co-created "watermud/airsmoke" under the moniker Sunnyside Collective. We were both living in apartments in a house at Sunnyside and Constance Ave -- it was a charmed corner, at least name-wise. photos of Lucy Rupert and Bee Pallomina by John Lauener Our co-creation was the 2009 commission from Dance Ontario for DanceWeekend and it went on to be performed at Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival and for the A

Blue Ceiling dance's 10th anniversary!!!! Nova Bhattacharya weighs in...

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photo of Lucy Rupert in Nova Bhattacharya's Alaap by Walter Lai In order to celebrate our 10th anniversary in 2014, perhaps ironically not a production year for the company, we are gathering anecdotes, impressions and other words from as many of our collaborators as we can. We're including designers, multi-disciplinary or cross-disciplinary artists, dancers, co-creators, composers, outside eyes and members of our advisory committee -- those who offer the company artistic guidance and perspective as well as invaluable practical advice. First up, the commissioned choreographer for Blue Ceiling dance's program Half Life (2013) which was presented as a coproduction with Flightworks as part of DanceWorks CoWorks Series, produced at Dancemakers Centre for Creation. The incomparable Nova Bhattacharya created Alaap for me as a soloist delving into the creation of the universe and uniting with two interwoven works I choreographed  on a theme of parallels between the cellu