Noon-Time Series

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 B

Friday, May 30th | Noon | Pay-what-you-can
St. George’s Square
Inclement weather location: Canada Company Hall, River Run Centre

VALERIE BUDDLE [Montréal]
Excerpt from The Uncertainty Project (Premiere)

Choreographer: Valerie Buddle

The Uncertainty Project explores the human response to profound insecurity and doubt, the feeling that we are suffering through a global pandemic of tragic events, the illusions we have of safety and secure morality, the depths of our fears and the vulnerability and resiliency of both the human character and society at large.

Valerie Buddle is a Montreal-based choreographer whose work critics have described as “feminist chic” as well as “funny and refreshing.” She has presented her work at the St. Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival (2004 & 2005), the fFIDA International Dance Festival (2003-2005) and at Series 808 in Toronto (2007). She has a strong technical background, having trained in Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal and having completed the Royal Academy of Dancing examination at the Intermediate level. She majored in contemporary dance, with a focus on choreography and the creative process, at Concordia University and graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts that includes a minor in theatre production. She is a member of the Regroupement Quebecoise de la Danse and the English Language Arts Network.

LAUREL KOOP [Montréal]
HELMET

Choreographer: Laurel Koop

Helmet is a continuation of a series of solos first begun with Hood, which was performed at the Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival in June 2007 and became an audience favourite. This series of dance choreographies uses a wearable prop as the catalyst for movement creation, and uses motifs of heroism, daredevilry and obstructed viewpoints.

Originally from the Guelph area, Laurel Koop currently lives in Montréal. She has her BFA in Contemporary Dance from Concordia University and currently works as a yoga instructor. She has studied various forms of movement in Canada as well as in New York, Italy and Cuba.

THE FLAT SCREEN SERIES [Vancouver]
Tiny Bubbles (2004)

Choreographer – Amanda Sheather

Tiny Bubbles is a movement investigation of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel The Informers. Its quirky and rhythmic movement vocabulary is drawn from specific words, phrases and scenarios found in the novel. Two dancers swap genders by exchanging a Velcro skirt and tie throughout the piece, bringing to life Ellis’ motif of sexual ambiguity. The dancers also juggle the roles of aggressor and victim as if these nouns are just various social roles we might inhabit.

Amanda Sheather is an emerging dancer, choreographer and teacher. A graduate of the Simon Fraser University dance program, her work has been performed at various venues in Vancouver, including Dances for a Small Stage, 12 Minutes Max and Press Play. She has had the privilege of working with Lee Sufee of Battery Opera.

MEREDITH KALAMAN [Vancouver]
Operok (2006)

Choreographer: Meredith Kalaman

Operok is a high-voltage, extremely physical solo that explores the realm between order and disorder.

Photo by Chris Randle
Photo of Meredith Kalaman

Meredith Kalaman is a Vancouver based dancer/choreographer. She received her pre-professional training from Burke Academy of Dance and the Ballet British Columbia Mentor Program. She has performed with Movent and been on tour with Cori Caulfield. Her work has been presented at Dances for a Small Stage 14, the In the House Festival and 12 Minutes Max in Vancouver as well as at Winterfest and 12 Minutes Max at On the Boards in Seattle. Performers: Meredith Kalaman

MARY CATHERINE JACK [Ottawa]
One by One (2007)

Choreographer: Mary Catherine Jack

The thematic structure and texture of this piece evolves through the interaction of the dancers and musicians as well as their interpretations of the choreography. The piece begins simply with dancers standing in a row upstage accompanied by sparse sound textures (stand-up bass). Minimal sound and solo movement develops into a layering of partner and group choreography, which is echoed in the music so that the soundscape becomes a groove filling in gaps and increasing the dynamic, building momentum and playing with tensions.

Mary Catherine Jack is a graduate of the University of Waterloo Fine Arts program as well as the School of Dance’s Modern Dance Training program. She has performed with Opera Lyra, with the Ottawa Impressions In Jazz Orchestra and has performed her own work at various Ottawa venues as well as at the Guelph Comtemporary Dance Festival. She teaches dance in Ontario public schools as an independent artist and in collaboration with Learning Through the Arts.

NACCARATO DANCE [Montréal]
Just Friends (2004)

Choreographers: Teoma Naccarato & Stéphane Gladyszewski

“Just Friends is a duet… that shows a relationship on the cusp of turning into something intensely romantic. Through eye-catching movement, a goodly portion made up of contact improv where they bear each other’s weight in interesting partnering, the two cleverly display the playful banter of friends, punctuated by those moments when desire bubbles up and plunges them into more intimate configurations. Because the couple begins with a long kiss, the romantic seems to overwhelm the friendly, but one is still acutely aware of their push-me/pull-me feelings, and the piece is engagingly performed by two charming and talented dancers.” ~Paula Citron, The Globe & Mail

Photo of Teoma Naccarato and Stéphane Gladyszewski

Teoma Naccarato is a Montreal-based contemporary dancer and choreographer with a passion for site-specific dance work and collaboration with artists from diverse media. Through Naccarato Dance, she aims to create work that is accessible and moving to a diverse audience. Her most recent creation is a self-solo entitled Gust, which she presented in June 2007 at the Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival in Ontario, as well as at the Hemispheric Institute Encuentro in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is currently collaborating with Director Desh Fernando to create a dance film entitled Surfacing, which has received funding from the Montreal Mayor’s Foundation. In August 2006, she attended the competitive Dance Omi Residency in upstate New York where she collaborated with ten choreographers from around the world. Teoma has performed and toured with several independent choreographers, including Ilona Dougherty, Marianne Desjardins and Catherine Castonguay. She graduated from the Contemporary Dance Program at Concordia University in 2004.

Stéphane Gladyszewski is a graduate of the interdisciplinary studies program at Concordia University. He is a dancer, sculptor, choreographer, and video artist who works in both dance and the visual arts, being particularly interested in the intersection of materials, bodies and light in interactive installations and multimedia performances. After dancing for numerous emerging choreographers in Montreal, he joined the Daniel Léveillé Dance Company with whom he tours internationally. His recent multimedia creations, In side and Aura, were a part of the Festival du Théâtre des Amériques (Montreal, 2005) and were presented at Espace Tangente (Montreal,2005), in Québec city (Mois Multi, 2006) and in Brussels (Théâtre140, Belgium, 2006). He is now working on the third part of this cycle, which will be presented at Tangente in November 2008.