Performances by emerging choreographers in Guelph’s historic St. George’s Square, where ideas and bodies bounce off old stone and new concrete to create community-engaging spectacle.
Program A
Thursday, May 29th | Noon | Pay-what-you-can
St. George’s Square, Downtown Guelph
Inclement weather location: Canada Company Hall, River Run Centre
AX-S DANCE [Toronto] Heaven’s Waiting Room (2007)
Choreographer: Ashley Burton
Heaven’s Waiting Room follows three women who find themselves caught in a transitional space between life and death. The idea of purgatory is explored throughout the piece as the final purification of the elect, and this theme recurs throughout the dancers’ search for acceptance and understanding. Three separate stories unravel through three unique solos, as each dancer finds herself in a very different position. While all three women seek a place of enlightenment, they each share the fear that they may end up in a much darker, colder and unknown place. Performers: AX-S Dance
Photo by David Stein
Photo of AX-S Dance
A fresh graduate of York University’s Dance Honours program, with a strong emphasis on contemporary dance, Ashley Burton’s early education was in Graham and Horton techniques as well as classical ballet. She graduated from Sudbury’s high school for the performing arts and during her summers, she studied at the Quinte Ballet School. She has had the pleasure of working with prominent teachers and choreographers including Allen Kaeja, Majtash Mrozewski, and Carol Anderson. Recently, her choreographic work has been performed at various venues throughout Toronto including The Artist’s Play Theatre and TIDF (Toronto International Dance Festival). Ashley has just released her first dance film, Ready! Set! Go!
SPectra: creations in dance [Cambridge] Elements (2007)
Choreographer: Michele Hopkins
Elements is an exploration of the relationship between humanity and the natural environment. The original choreography was developed as an artist-in-residence initiative for the Cambridge Centre for the Arts. Each dancer represents one of the four elements—earth, air, fire and water. The choreographed movements, music and costuming colour schemes all reflect the unique qualities of each element as well as their interactions. Humanity, represented by a fifth dancer, sits at the centre of this interaction, manipulating change in the natural elements and being subject to their powerful volatility.
Michele Hopkins has been a dance performer, choreographer, teacher and director for the past 25 years.
She directed and produced six dance performances involving the community at the Cambridge Centre for the
Arts and recently performed original choreography at the Mayor's Celebration of the Arts (in 2003 and 2004); she also presented Frank Augustyn to the community in 2007. She was the 2007 Artist in Residence at the Cambridge Centre for the Arts where she created a Large-scale outdoor performance entitled Elements. This unique project involved 5 professional dancers who were accompanied by 50 local performers, aged 5 – 57. Elements was captured in film and photography at an art exhibition Hopkins curated entitled The Dance Record.
EVENT HORIZON DANCE [Toronto] Ryoan-Ji To Osaka
Choreographer: Miranda Abbott
Ryoan-Ji to Osaka explores the extremes of modern Japan, from the solitude and simplicity of the famous rock garden at the Ryoan-ji Temple in Kyoto to the complex and vibrant city of Osaka. At the beginning, the dancers move together in a subtle, earthy way, creating forms that melt into one another as they impersonate the rocks slowly changing shape over the centuries. Gradually, the piece transforms: the music steadily moves from the beautiful temple music, traditional poetry and sounds of nature to the intensity and rhythm of tyko drumming, city sounds and voices. The piece concludes with vibrant, loud music, as the dancers’ movements become quick, sharp, intricate and bold, reflecting the influence of contemporary urban life.
Miranda Abbot teaches for The Royal Conservatory’s Learning through the Arts Program at the York School and Greenwood College, and has taught at the George Brown Theatre School. She is associated with the Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre, an acclaimed children’s dance company, where she teaches workshops and classes. She has trained at several of Canada’s most reputable schools: the National Ballet of Canada, L’École Supérieur de Danse du Québec, Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre (where she was a company member) and the School of Toronto Dance Theatre, where she graduated. She is a choreographer and founder of Event Horizon Dance, a Toronto-based company that mixes ballet, modern and break dance. She explores science and mathematics in her work as well as social and political themes, making the work fun and accessible for all audiences. Her first work for EHD, Fell premiered at the Art Gallery of Ontario in H.Y.P.E., and her most recent work, Souls of Rhythm and Something Within That Never Was were performed in the In White Room dance series. EHD has performed at Harbourfront, The Guelph Contemporary Dance festival and At the Wrecking Ball. She recently created a piece for The Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre, which was performed at the Unionville School of the Arts in the fall of 2007. Miranda has danced independently for Tina Fushell, Jasmin Inns and Sharon Moore. She is also a Hip-Hop and break dancer, touring with the So-Be-It Union. She has appeared in Owl Magazine, CBC Kid’s the X, City T.V. and CPR 24. She has been the lead dancer of the Toronto Blue Jays’ dance team, J Force, and currently dances for Errol Lee.ternational Dance Festival and From Under the Umbrella for the Montreal Fringe Festival 2006.
THÉÂTRE DES DEUX MARIES [Montréal] Lily
Choreographer: Marianne Desjardins
Lily is on her cheerleading solo tour! Mixing dance, acrobatics, text, humour and self-derision in a cartoonish yet somewhat tragic performance, Lily abandons herself entirely to an intense physical performance. Throughout the piece, she orchestrates the audience’s cheering and clapping, creating a soundtrack for her dancing. This new solo by choreographer/director Marianne Desjardins is based on performer Teoma Naccarato’s role as head cheerleader in Desjardins’ The Green, an hour-long physical-theatre show presented at Place des Arts in Montreal in May 2005.
Marianne Desjardins graduated from Concordia University in 2003 with an interdisciplinary degree in dance, theatre and visual arts. With her company Le Théâtre des Deux Maries, she has written, directed and staged numerous physical theater shows. Her most recent production, The Green, was presented in May 2005 at Cinquième Salle of Montreal’s Place des Arts and was chosen as a Coup de Coeur 2005 by Voir Magazine. Marianne is best known for her physical theatre show, La Traversee de L’Atlantique, which has been shown several times in Quebec and abroad since 2003, winning festival awards and media attention. She also created a one-woman show, Pipoca Verde, that mixes circus, bike acrobatics and theater and which was presented on the roof of the Am Stram Gram Theatre in Geneva, Switzerland in October 2006. She is currently working on a new puppet theater show that will debut in the Spring of 2009.
Heaven’s Waiting Room follows three women who find themselves caught in a transitional space between life and death. The idea of purgatory is explored throughout the piece as the final purification of the elect, and this theme recurs throughout the dancers’ search for acceptance and understanding. Three separate stories unravel through three unique solos, as each dancer finds herself in a very different position. While all three women seek a place of enlightenment, they each share the fear that they may end up in a much darker, colder and unknown place. Performers: AX-S Dance