Here is the continuation of our interview with Tanya Crowder about the Fringe show The ascension/The Chronicles of descent. Here is a little insight about the inspiration for Tanya's creation Charlie, performed in this rehearsal by Alana Elmer. Dance has such a wonderful way of fleshing out character through subtle and the exaggerated embodiment. There needn't be a linear storyline or plot. We can empathize, appreciate and relate to the character's impulses and attitudes, on a journey that explores the topography of an inner landscape. Meet Charlie!
For more info about the show, check out their Event Listing.
SHOW TALK by MERGE
The Millennial Generation Embrace Their Twenties
by Brittany Duggan
The term “twentysomething” describes a person of this age-specific decade. Today, people aged 20 to 29 are more tellingly part of Generation Y; a categorization revealing, not what these young adults are experiencing, but rather how they are choosing to express these experiences. Kate Nankervis – as part of this generation – explores, through her choreography, a broad range of emotions that young adults currently sort through on a daily basis.
What is refreshing in this particular danced quartet is the keen awareness each dancer has of one another. Even during solo moments, this piece clearly speaks about the individual within the collective. This necessity for constant communication might reflect the group’s coming of age during the Digital Revolution. These four certainly appear very peer oriented, smiling at one another throughout to initiate the next playful phrase. Near the end of the piece a movement idea is repeated; in the beginning, one dancer is nearly launched from the end of a carousel configuration; she later learns to harness that momentum and take the ride. This is an example of perspective within any given situation, and is but one idea these intelligent dancers tackle, with an unmistakable twenties flare, in their collective’s – AX-S Dance – latest work, twentysomethings.
We snapped up an interview with Tanya Crowder about the Fringe show The ascension/The Chronicles of descent, which continues to run this week through to Saturday. Thistle Dance Works and HOWDARESHE Productions have collaborated to present three contemporary dance works, which also includes a solo from Random Acts of Dance. Here she describes an overview of the show, with more details about her own creative process and rehearsal footage to follow. Stay tuned for Part 2.
For more info about the show, check out their Event Listing.
SHOW TALK by MERGE
The Ascension/The Chronicles of Descent
by Amelia Ehrhardt
An anomaly of the Fringe Dance Initiative, The Ascension/The Chronicles of Descent is presented not as one large work but instead by two separate entities. The first, Thistle Dance Works under the Artistic Direction of Emma-Kate Millar, presented a piece by Millar entitled Birds, a short choreography described as being about ‘two wayward birds that did not survive the trip south’, While the gestures of dancers Julie Grant and Hannah-Greyson-Gaito were very birdlike and focused, the idea that these birds had been lost in flight could have been more clear. The second piece, an excerpt from [shift], choreographed by Laura Bolender, Liisa Murray and Julie Grant of rad and performed again by Grant, did not quite stand alone as a solo but made sense as an excerpt. Grant possesses beautiful lines and uses them much to her advantage, indeed evoking beautiful imagery in a silent section at the beginning. The final piece, Charlie, choreographed and performed by Tanya Crowder of HowDareShe Productions, was a very complete solo. Crowder has a very finely honed stage presence that was at full strength in this solo, and while the depth of the choreography dipped slightly in the middle, her energy did not and it picked back up compositionally and ended on an extremely poignant and moving note.
Belinda McGuire's The Desert Island Project ran in New York earlier this month and will hit Toronto next week. Along with her own choreography, three solo commissions include works from Kate Alton (Toronto), Andrea Miller (NYC) and Idan Sharabi (The Hague/Israel). Here she discussed a bit more of her project's vision. It will be great to see a beautifully strong, expressive and articulate emerging artist take on the work of various contemporary choreographers, demonstrating her depth and range as an artist.
Back in mid-September, Judge Jean-Marc Généreux from So You Think You Can Dance Canada sat down with Jian Ghomeshi of QTV to talk about dance in Canada and his humble and romantic beginnings into the dance world.
And on that note, ballroom dancing also made a great impression of the show last night, adding contemporary flare to classic form in Cha-Cha, Rumba and Quickstep. Overall, the choreography has much improved, and the dancers anted up to meet the challenge! Show highlights from the Top 16 should be up later today on CTV's official So You Think You Think You Can Dance Canada website.
"Since bursting on the scene in 1975 with her first solo performance in Vancouver, Margie Gillis has been compared to Isadora Duncan for her weighty, cathartic dances that stem from her deep response to music and her political and social activism." - Linde Howe-Beck (The Canadian Encyclopedia)
Wild, brave and bold... Margie Gillis is among Canada's most esteemed modern dance choreographers and an acclaimed international soloist. She feels that Quebec embraces art as a part of life, and is a fertile creative ground for the will of authenticity. She was named Canadian Cultural Ambassador in 1981, Québec Cultural Ambassador in 1986, and was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada in 1988.
Artistic Director Roberto Campanella discusses ProArteDanza's Summer Intensive Training program, which runs August 4th to 23rd, 2008. The final day will also feature a public performance at 6pm at the Enwave Theatre.
