We are pleased to announce the lineup of our Alternative Technique Classes season for 2012/13, featuring international artists and homegrown artists with international reputations. Please scroll down to find about the teachers and the workshops, or click on the links above.
More ATCs will be announced as the season unfolds, in particular a number of workshops in partnership with Harbourfront Centre, with fantastic artist from their World Stage series.
You can download our ATC brochure as a PDF file by clicking here.
Be sure to also take a look at our ATC Information page to find out about our loyalty discount plan, how to register and the scholarships that we offer.
For any questions contact the ATC Program Manager Cara Spooner at atc[at]series808.ca.
October 1st to 5th of 2012
10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (with lunch break)
10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. – At Dovehouse Dance Ballroom
2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. – In High Park (sites will change daily)
Dovehouse Dance Ballroom
Dovercourt House, 2nd floor, 805 Dovercourt Road
Full price $300 • Early bird $150 to $270
(with $25 non-refundable deposit by September 19th)
Photo by Joclyn Michel
This ATC is open to all levels of movers (dancers, artists, scholars etc). If needed, mornings can be attended without taking part in the afternoon workshops.
Using an interdisciplinary praxis based in site-specific dance, ecosomatics, improvisation and place based / environmental education, we will attempt an investigation into the experience, embodiment and performance of place.
How can we re-inhabit and reclaim the sensing, perceiving and imaginative body in order to make sense of place? How can we tune our senses to become more fully present, to participate in the interconnected web of the sentient world?
Each day will be structured around a specific theme:
Reflection and feedback will be part of our daily process. If participants agree, feedback will contribute to both Morgan's MES thesis work and to the writing of a (as-of yet untitled) field guide for the somatic investigation of "place".
Please be ready with pen/notebook, comfortable studio attire and weather appropriate clothing for the afternoons.
Sally Morgan has been working as an improviser, dancer, choreographer, director, filmmaker, teacher and producer for 14 years. She spent several years based in Toronto and lived/worked in Nova Scotia from 1999-2006. Her choreography has been performed across Canada and in the USA. She began training professionally in 1994 and has traveled internationally with studies and work in dance, improvisation, somatic movement, contact improvisation and film/video.
Her current work is focused on place/space, identity, environmental philosophy, and ecosomatics, exploring improvisation and the connections between landscape and the body through performance, research and teaching. The late Diane Moore and noted teachers/mentors, including Nancy Stark Smith, Simone Forti, and The BodyCartography Project have influenced Sally's artistic approach.
Recent projects include: the "here" score (2012); The Road Dances Project/ Handbook (in progress); The Fields and the Woods (in progress); the large scale site work Landmarked (2010), Intersections (2008) and The Far Field (2008) and 26 minute dance film (2006 with Canal Arte) and accompanying 1 hour BRAVO television documentary (2007) titled (decoding the) Undertow.
Sally holds a (Hons) BFA from York University in Dance, trained through The School of Toronto Dance Theatre's Professional Training Program and is a certified Pilates and Yoga Instructor. Under the company name Eastward Moving she has been teaching various classes/workshops since 2001. Sally is currently finishing her thesis, titled Dancing the Landscape, for completion of her Masters of Environmental Studies (2012).
October 27th and 28th of 2012
10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (with lunch break)
Lower Ossington Theatre, Studio A
100 Ossington Avenue (3 blocks North of Queen)
Full price $130 • Early bird $65 to $117
(with $25 non-refundable deposit by October 21st)
Photo by Sam Baardman
This workshop is open to professional advanced, emerging and mid-career dance artists.
This two day workshop with Sasha Ivanochko takes an in depth look at interpretive and performance tools for a wide ranging contemporary dance practice and artistic visioning. Each day begins with an extensive physical/creative preparation, opening the energetic channels of the body through simple cycles of breath driven movement and imaged based improvisations. Introducing increasingly complex directives, participants gather information pertaining to movement patterning and embodiment. Moving on to ways of doing, ways of seeing, Ivanochko leads participants through movement building exercises and tasks where participants begin looking at intention and specificity in the context of phrases they build. These phrases form the basis for a daily open forum among participants, discussing the function of movement, impulse, body mechanics, movement as metaphor, symbolism, abstraction, and musicality. Participants are required to bring a pen and paper, one or two specific needs and goals related to performing and/ or choreographic development, and an artistic statement to be shared with the other participants. Whether you are a interpreter, improviser, or are interested in developing your own choreographic practice, realizing the communicative potential of your body in movement will empower your practice and frame your artistic goals.
Sasha Ivanochko is a dancer, teacher, choreographer and artistic director of blackandblue dance projects. She graduated form the School of Toronto Dance Theatre is 1992, and since has graced the world stage for Toronto Dance Theatre, James Kudelka, Tedd Robinson, Peggy Baker, Denis Fujiwara, and many others. She made her choreographic debut in 1997, and has made works for Toronto Dance Theatre, Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers, TILT sound+motion, independent artists including Helen Husak (Calgary, Canada) and Naoko Murakoshi (Kobe, Japan), Julia Sasso and Michael Trent (Toronto, Canada). Her work toured across Canada, to the Dominican Republic and Japan. In a 2001 Globe and Mail article, Ivanochko was named one of Canada's leaders of the new millennium. Ivanochko's artistic contribution to the Canadian dance milieu has been acknowledged through a variety of awards and bursaries. She is a five time Dora Mavor Moore nominee for Outstanding Performance and Best Choreography, the recipient of the 2007 K.M. Hunter Award, a two-time recipient of the Chalmers Family Fellowship, and the first recipient of The Kathryn Ash Award For Excellence in Artistic Experimentation dispersed by the School of Toronto Dance Theatre. In 2006, Miss Ivanochko was profiled in the Bravo Channel Documentary Freedom Series, and she has recently been invited to take part in Canada's National Arts Centre's Associate Artist circle, an esteemed position representing the best of Contemporary Dance in Canada.
www.blackandbluedanceprojects.ca
November 10th and 11th of 2012
10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (Lunch: 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.)
Dovehouse Dance Ballroom
Dovercourt House, 2nd floor, 805 Dovercourt Road
Full price $156 • Early bird $78 to $140
(with $25 non-refundable deposit by October 21st)
Workshop is open to all professional, pre-professional dance artists and artists working in other disciplines/genres/post-genres.
The focus of this workshop will be the instant compositional side of improvisation and developing skills and viewpoints to help us navigate and make choices within improvisational scores.
Articulation and playfulness are the two main focuses. We will be dancing with and for each other while at the same time keeping an awareness of our own individual choices and directions while improvising.
This weekend long workshop will provide a playground for those interested in exploring territories of the here and now, and the present moment of improvisation.
In my work as a dance maker and improviser, I am interested in exploring the crossroads between dance and theatre through using the potential of the human body to tell stories through movement in a non-literal way. In this workshop we will play with different scores to create dances in which we use our imagination and creative potential. We will spend time tuning our bodies through movement, develop a sense for "being in the moment", and from there we will dive into the realm of improvisation.
Benno Voorham is an international performer, choreographer and teacher from Holland, living in Stockholm since 1995. Since his graduation in 1986 from the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam he has worked internationally as an independent dance-artist, directing his own work as well as collaborating with others in both set and improvised pieces. Together with Sybrig Dokter, he started LAVA-Dansproduktion, an international operating association for dance, based in Stockholm. He was a member of the Greek dance-theatre company "Wrong Movement" (1993-2007) and has worked as a dancer/actor at the City Theatre of Stockholm (2005-2007). In recent years, he has choreographed several works for children and youth. He is an acclaimed international teacher of Contact Improvisation and Compositional Improvisation. In both his teaching and performance work, he is interested in exploring the creative and narrative potentials of the human body. Currently he is working on the project "Miscellaneous Misunderstanding" with Andrew Harwood and Paula Zacharias and preparing the project "Home", a project with dancers from Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus that will include children from orphanages and their stories.
November 23rd to 25th of 2012
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. – Technique class
12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. – Improvisation
3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. – Coaching
Dovehouse Dance Ballroom
Dovercourt House, 2nd floor, 805 Dovercourt Road
Full price $235 • Early bird $118 to $212
(with $25 non-refundable deposit by November 7nd)
Photo by Chris Randle
This workshop is open to all professional and pre-professional dance artists.
Marc Boivin offers a comprehensive contemporary dance class composed from the pedagogical material of the Limón technique and some principals of ballet. Using the traditional progression of a center class, the dancer is challenged to develop an equilibrium between strength and the free released weight of momentum; the clarity of impulse within, and the outward relationship to space through form and focus. In the process, technique is defined as the appropriation of tools in order to physically articulate the artistic contribution of the dancer through her/his choices.
Through the technical work participants focus on understanding and articulating the mechanics of movement within their own physical systems, as well, in relation to the science of this chosen traditional and contemporary work. The work has many purposes among which:
How are the body and the mind of the dancer prepared for the creative process and set on stage? How best can perspective and sensitivity be translated into a kinaesthetic experience? What are the performance tools of the interpreter/improviser?
Through a series of improvisation exercises drawn from various sources the dancer is called upon to investigate his/her performing choices and the possibilities that present themselves more and more. As these options are investigated, the process of artistic contribution of the performer in the creative process is examined, either for improvisational or choreographic contexts.
Using repertory from previous works by Boivin and a document originally written for the EDAM summer intensive the participants will be led through an analysis of concepts and ideas relating to both the technical and the interpretative work of the dancer. This coaching session will be used to generate an exchange between dancers on both concrete, physical notions as well as conceptual and imagery based ideas, all leading to articulating the art that is specific to the role of the dancer, in class, in the studio, on stage.
Dancers are welcomed to participate in one or all three daily sessions. It is possible to attend one session without having done the preceding however continuity during the week is encouraged as links are drawn between each of the three sessions.
Dancer, improviser, teacher and choreographer, Marc Boivin began his dance career at Le Groupe de la Place Royale in Ottawa under the directorship of Peter Boneham and in 1985 joined Ginette Laurin and her newly formed company O Vertigo Danse. Since 1991 he has worked as an independent dancer, performing mainly for Louise Bédard, Sylvain Emard, Jean-Pierre Perreault, Catherine Tardif, Tedd Robinson and most recently in some of his own works, R.A.F.T. 70 and Impact. Affiliated with L'école de danse contemporaine de Montréal since 1987 Boivin regularly guest teaches and choreographs in schools and professional organizations across Canada. He has been president of the Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault since 2006, president of the RQD (Regroupement québécois de la danse) since October 2010 and sat on the board of the Montreal Arts Council from 2005 to 2010.
February 16th and 17th of 2013
10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Lunch 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.)
Dovehouse Dance Ballroom
Dovercourt House, 2nd floor, 805 Dovercourt Road
Full price $168 • Early bird $84 to $151
(with $25 non-refundable deposit by January 25th)
Photo by Ian Douglas
This workshop is open to Professional dancers, pre-professional AND artists working in other disciplines/genres/postgenres.
Improvisation in live performance. Presence, trance, quotidian task. The dramaturgy of endurance, struggle, and failure. Queering norms, tracking sensations. Debating the merits of spontaneity versus scheming. Entertaining the possibility of working on politics and theory via improvised dancing and performance. In the form of a weekend laboratory in bodybased improvisation I propose a study group in contemporary anarchism, i.e., experimenting and queering the libertarian/socialist dilemma (everyone do what they want, or do what's best for the group). We'll focus on deep listening as integral to building consensus through movement, touch, and direct engagement. Yes this is a dance class open to all.
Keith Hennessy is a performer, choreographer, teacher and organizer. He was born in Canada, lives in San Francisco and tours internationally. His interdisciplinary research engages improvisation, ritual and public action as tools for investigating political realities and social movement. Recent awards include a Bilinski Fellowship (2011), a NY Bessie (2009), two Isadora Duncan Awards (2009), and the SF Bay Guardian's Goldie (2007). Hennessy directs CIRCO ZERO and was a member of the collaborative performance companies: Contraband (85-94), CORE (95-98), and Cahin-caha, cirque bâtard (98-02). Recent works include Negotiate, created in Dakar with dancers from Senegal, Togo and RDCongo, Turbulence (a dance about the economy) funded by the National Dance Project (US), Auf den Tisch! with Meg Stuart, Almost an open improvisation with Paris-based sound artist Jassem Hindi, and Crotch, a solo performance developed at L'Arsenic in Lausanne, and presented across the US and in six European countries. Keith's recent teaching includes Impulstanz (Vienna), University of California (Davis), Touch & Play Festival (Berlin), Ponderosa (Stolzenhagen), Tanzfabrik (Berlin), Kiev Festival of Improvisation, University of Dance & Circus (Stockholm), and Movement Research (NYC). He has an MFA in Choreography and is a PhD candidate in Performance Studies at UC Davis.
February 18th
11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (with artist talk to follow)
Toronto Dance Theatre's Studio Theatre
80 Winchester Street
Full price $20 • Early bird $10
(with $10 non-refundable deposit by January 28th)
Photo by José Luiz Pederneiras
This workshop is offered in partnership with Harbourfront Centre and features artists from the World Stage 2013 performance Sem Mim & Ímã.
With registration to this ATC, your show ticket is only $15 (regular show ticket price is $50). Call Harbourfront Centre's box office at 416.973.4000 and quote the promo code we will give you to take advantage of this exclusive offer, just for you.
Performance dates: Feb 19 - 23, 2013
For full season lineup, visit www.harboufrontcentre.ca/worldstage.
This class is suitable for professional dancers and pre-professional dancers.
Dancers from Brazilian company Grupo Corpo have designed a master class to introduce repertoire from their show, Sem Mim & Ímã to audiences and dancers. Following a warm up where participants learn traditional movements of Rodrigo Pederneiras' choreographic style and aesthetic. Sequences from Sem Mim & Ímã will be taught where rhythms of the sea merge with music of medieval Portuguese - Galician chants. The workshop will also include repertoire from their show PARABELO with fast footwork and dynamic Brazilian beats which examines the attraction and repulsion of opposites.
Join Albert, Edson and Janaina in an artist talk after the workshop.
Albert Venceslau began his dance studies in September 2001. Before joining Grupo Corpo in January 2004, he danced with Companhia dos Homens, Cisne Negro, Companhia de Dança and DeAnima Ballet Company.
Edson Hayzer before joining Grupo Corpo in 2001 worked with Ballet do Teatro Guaira and began his dance studies in 1997.
Janaina Castro began her dance studies in 1981 and danced with Companhia de Dança de Minas Gerais before joining Grupo Corpo in 2000.
Grupo Corpo was created in Belo Horizonte, in 1975, by Paulo Pederneiras, who brought along with him his brothers, sisters and some friends. It is a contemporary dance company, which is typically Brazilian in its creations. During Corpo's history, it went through several metamorphosis but it has been guided by three main concerns: the definition of an identity linked to the idea of a national culture (with all the subtlety it implies); the continuity of the work, thinking in terms of future; the integrity in maintaining the self-imposed elaboration standards. As of 1992, composers were invited to write sound tracks especially for each ballet. So, music, stage setting, costumes and choreography are created simultaneously. Each ballet is the result of this interaction. Paulo Pederneiras is the artistic director, and later he became responsible for the scenography and lighting of the pieces, as well. Rodrigo Pederneiras started as a dancer and, as of 1981, he became the choreographer of practically all of Grupo Corpo's work.
As one of the largest multidisciplinary art centres in Canada, Harbourfront Centre is dedicated to the development of contemporary performance in Toronto, in Canada and around the world. Devoted to professional artists, and all who participate in the current performance ecology, Harbourfront Centre's World Stage is committed to maintaining and developing the exceptional calibre of talent creating work in the city.
Through this partnership with Series 8:08's ATC program, Harbourfront Centre's World Stage is proud to offer this series of labworks to the professional dance community, as well as a subsidized ticket to the performance.
March 9th
1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. (with artist talk to follow)
Toronto Dance Theatre - Studio C
80 Winchester Street
Full price $20 • Early bird $10
(with $10 non-refundable deposit by March 1st)
Photo by Jeremy Mimnagh
This workshop is offered in partnership with Harbourfront Centre and features artists from the World Stage 2013 performance Everyday Anthems.
With registration to this ATC, your show ticket is only $15 (regular show ticket price is $40). Call Harbourfront Centre's box office at 416.973.4000 and quote the promo code we will give you to take advantage of this exclusive offer, just for you.
Performance dates: March 6 - 9, 2013
For full season lineup, visit www.harboufrontcentre.ca/worldstage.
Workshop is open to professional dancers, dancers in their final years of professional training (or an equivalent), physical theatre artists with affinity and facility for movement.
Entering a studio to create with others means entering into an agreement to move forward into the unknown together. Belief is why it happens; trusting other people is pivotal to how we find new ways into and out of ourselves. This is what we will do: move into the unknown together. Building on some of the improvisations that were used to form the new work Everyday Anthems currently in development for Toronto Dance Theatre, this short workshop offers glimpses into different ways in which we connect, ways in which we innately react together. It explores how we listen to one another, push limits together, how we (sometimes invisibly) support and in doing so strengthen possible realities for ourselves, and each other. A variety of physical challenges relating to time and connection are the foundation we will start with.
Join Heidi in an artist talk after the workshop.
Since 1994 Toronto-based Heidi Strauss has worked as an independent dancer and choreographer. She has danced for project-based companies including Fujiwara Dance Inventions, Tribal Crackling Wind/Peter Chin and Sylvain Émard Danse. In theatre & opera, she has choreographed for the Frankfurt Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, Good Hair Day, Volcano Theatre, The Tarragon and Necessary Angel, and worked as rehearsal director for Tribal Crackling Wind, Chartier Danse & O Vertigo. In 2007 Strauss founded adelheid and from 2008-2012 she was dance-artist-in-residence at the Factory Theatre where she created 3 full evening works including the multi-Dora Award winning this time. She teaches open classes in Toronto, has given workshops across Canada, in the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy and Singapore. Strauss is a 2012 co-recipient of the KM Hunter Award for Dance.
Toronto Dance Theatre is one of Canada's leading dance companies, recognized for the intelligent, provocative vision of its choreography and the exceptional artistry of its dancers.
Founded in 1968 by Peter Randazzo, Patricia Beatty and David Earle, and under the artistic direction of Christopher House since 1994, Toronto Dance Theatre has produced a remarkable body of original Canadian choreography. The company has had – and continues to have – a profound influence on the development of dance in Canada.
Christopher House is one of Canada's "most enduringly inventive choreographers" (National Post). His works are acclaimed for their rich movement inven-tion, subversive wit and deft handling of multiple layers of meaning. TDT's dancers are remarkable artists who play an essen-tial role in the creative process: they are celebrated for their powerful physicality, imaginative daring and sensitive, playful ensemble work.
Under House's direction, the company has opened its doors to collaborations with international artists including the iconic American choreographer Deborah Hay. Initiatives such as the Berlin/Toronto Project (2009) and the Paris/Toronto Project (2011) bring stimulating new perspectives to the Toronto dance scene. The choreographic showcase Four at the Winch and the discussion series The Process Revealed are designed to facilitate an exchange of ideas between artists and the audience, and TDT's Education program offers a wide variety of dance experiences for young audiences.
Toronto Dance Theatre performs annually at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre and at the company's own Winchester St Theatre in Cabbagetown, where it shares a home with the affiliated School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Patricia Fraser Artistic Director. The company maintains a regular presence from coast to coast in Canada, and has toured extensively in the USA, Europe and Asia.
As one of the largest multidisciplinary art centres in Canada, Harbourfront Centre is dedicated to the development of contemporary performance in Toronto, in Canada and around the world. Devoted to professional artists, and all who participate in the current performance ecology, Harbourfront Centre's World Stage is committed to maintaining and developing the exceptional calibre of talent creating work in the city.
Through this partnership with Series 8:08's ATC program, Harbourfront Centre's World Stage is proud to offer this series of labworks to the professional dance community, as well as a subsidized ticket to the performance.
March 19th
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (with artist talk to follow)
Pia Bouman School
6 Noble Street
Full price $20 • Early bird $10
(with $10 non-refundable deposit by February 25th)
Photo by Lars Ake-Stomfelt
This workshop is offered in partnership with Harbourfront Centre and features artists from the World Stage 2013 performance Weight x3 & 2.
With registration to this ATC, your show ticket is only $15 (regular show ticket price is $40). Call Harbourfront Centre's box office at 416.973.4000 and quote the promo code we will give you to take advantage of this exclusive offer, just for you.
Performance dates: Mar 20 - 23, 2013
For full season lineup, visit www.harboufrontcentre.ca/worldstage.
This workshop is open to all advanced professional and pre-professional dance artists.
Artistic Director Tao Ye has been developing his own way of training so that dancers are able to execute his unique physical vocabulary and reach greater potential in their own movement styles. Join Tao Ye and his company TAO Dance Theater will teach an intensive two hours of physical exploration and discovery. Through games to relax the body as well as exercises to open the mind, participants will experience first-hand Tao Ye's new movement techniques that he has been invited to teach in Singapore, Sweden and Holland. TAO will also demonstrate and teach excerpts of the company's physically demanding repertory. Tao Ye states that, in this class, we will challenge the ability of our own body and sharpen the clarity of our responsiveness so that the mind becomes more conscious of the body's every detailed nuance. This extends our awareness beyond the limits of our body out into the space around us."
Join Tao Ye in an artist talk after the workshop.
Tao Ye is a graduate of the Chongqing Dance School in Chongqing, China. After dancing with the Shanghai Army Song & Dance Ensemble, he joined Jin Xing Dance Theater in 2003 where he stayed until 2006. In 2004 he began choreographing his own works and together with five independent artists co-founded the Shanghai-based physical performance company, Zuhe Niao and performed in their first production Tongue's Memory of Home. In 2005, Tao's duet One Person was performed in the Shanghai Art Center. Tao joined the Beijing Modern Dance Company (BMDC) in 2006 and toured internationally as well as in China. As a member of BMDC, he choreographed the male duet In•In in 2006 and the company work Fantasy in 2007. In March 2008, he founded TAO Dance Theater. Main works include: Weight x 3; Sketch; moment; left & right; 2; 4. In 2011 he was invited to co-star in the film The Blue Bone by cinematographer Christopher Doyle (Du Kefeng) and directed by rock legend Cui Jian. In 2012 leading Asian style magazine Men's UNO awarded Tao Ye the 2012 Elegance Award and Sadler's Wells named him one of their "New Wave Associates" artists.
TAO Dance Theater has taken China's dance world by storm. The company has collaborated with leading Chinese artists across genres including theatre, experimental music, film, visual arts and installation. TAO has been featured in performances as well as choreography and teaching residencies worldwide, including Sadler's Wells (UK), Europalia (BE), M.A.D.E. Festival (SE), Singapore Arts Festival, Fall for Dance (US), American Dance Festival (US), Lincoln Center Festival (US), and Spring Dance Festival at the Sydney Opera House (AU).
As one of the largest multidisciplinary art centres in Canada, Harbourfront Centre is dedicated to the development of contemporary performance in Toronto, in Canada and around the world. Devoted to professional artists, and all who participate in the current performance ecology, Harbourfront Centre's World Stage is committed to maintaining and developing the exceptional calibre of talent creating work in the city.
Through this partnership with Series 8:08's ATC program, Harbourfront Centre's World Stage is proud to offer this series of labworks to the professional dance community, as well as a subsidized ticket to the performance.
April 9th
10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (with artist talk to follow)
Dovercourt House, 1st floor, 805 Dovercourt Road
Full price $20 • Early bird $10
(with $10 non-refundable deposit by March 22nd)
Photo by Knut Bry
This workshop is offered in partnership with Harbourfront Centre and features artists from the World Stage 2013 performance A Dance Tribute to the Art of Football.
With registration to this ATC, your show ticket is only $15 (regular show ticket price is $35). Call Harbourfront Centre's box office at 416.973.4000 and quote the promo code we will give you to take advantage of this exclusive offer, just for you.
Performance dates: Apr 10 - 13, 2013
For full season lineup, visit www.harboufrontcentre.ca/worldstage.
Workshop is open to all professional and pre-professional dance artists.
Learn and rehearse repertoire from the performance, A Dance Tribute to the Art of Football and experience a new logic. A Dance Tribute to the Art of Football delves into the physical routine of the greatest game on earth and elevates the aesthetic aspects of its insanity. It comments on the artificial conflict between the "common sport" and the "eloquent arts" as well as the pride and prejudice surrounding the concept of working-class football and upper-class ballet. This workshop offers a unique introduction to the work and artistic world of Jo Strømgren Kompani (JSK). The workshop will be given by two of JSK's experienced dancers, Mikkel Are Olsenlund and Jan Nicolai Wesnes.
Join Mikkel and Jan in an artist talk after the workshop.
Mikkel Are Olsenlund was educated at the Faculty for Performing Arts at the Oslo National Academy of Art from 2001-2004. Since 2009, Mikkel has worked with Jo Strømgren Kompani. In addition, Mikkel was also in productions like Singin in the rain (Oslo Nye Teater), Lille Eyolf and Hunting for Nora (Teater Ibsen) and Unge Hamsun, Baller and The Fairyqueen.
Jan Nicolai Wesnes was educated at the Faculty of Performing Arts at the Oslo National Acadamy of the Arts from 2001-2004. Jan Nicolai has worked with Jo Strømgren Kompani since 2009. He is also a freelance dancer and choreographer for dance companies and musical productions, as well as for TV and film. He has also been assistant director and choreographer for Katrine Bølstad Kompani.
Jo Strømgren Kompani was founded in 1998 and is based in Norway. It has grown to become one of the most successful independent groups in Scandinavia. To date, the company has toured almost 50 countries, and has annually had more than 150 performances presented both in large national theatres and small alternative venues all over the world.
As one of the largest multidisciplinary art centres in Canada, Harbourfront Centre is dedicated to the development of contemporary performance in Toronto, in Canada and around the world. Devoted to professional artists, and all who participate in the current performance ecology, Harbourfront Centre's World Stage is committed to maintaining and developing the exceptional calibre of talent creating work in the city.
Through this partnership with Series 8:08's ATC program, Harbourfront Centre's World Stage is proud to offer this series of labworks to the professional dance community, as well as a subsidized ticket to the performance.
April 12th and 13th of 2013
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. or 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
(there are two sets of the same workshop)
Dancemakers
Distillery District, 9 Trinity Street
Full price $55 • Early bird $28 to $50
(with $25 non-refundable deposit by March 22nd)
Photo by André Cornellier
This workshop is open to professional dance artists and dance students in a professional dance training program.
The first part of the workshop will be a training session based not on usual dance techniques, but on elements taken from boxing, as well as simple, dynamic, natural movements aimed at developing intensity and pushing stamina to its limits. In the second part, participants will perform a choreographic excerpt that – although it may seem simple at first glance – will demand the speed of execution, precision, and coordination of original movements characteristic of Édouard Lock's style.
Born in Montreal, Louise Lecavalier joined La La La Human Steps in 1981 in Oranges and went on to perform in every one of the company's productions until Salt in 1999. The company's symbol and luminary for nearly two decades, giving her heart and soul to her art, Louise embodied dance on the outer edge with passion and unrestrained generosity, dazzling audiences everywhere. She also participated in all the major collaborations of La La La Human Steps, including the David Bowie Sound and Vision tour in 1990, The Yellow Shark concert by Frank Zappa and the Ensemble Modern of Germany in autumn, 1992, and Michael Apted's film, Inspirations, in 1996. In May 1999, she received the Jean A. Chalmers National Award, Canada's most distinguished dance prize, and in February 2003, she received a Career Grant from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. In December 2008, Louise Lecavalier was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition of her illustrious contribution to contemporary dance. In June, 2011, she was named "Dance Personality of the Year 2010-2011" by the French Critics' Union, in Paris. In November 2011, she became the very first winner of the Prix de la danse de Montréal. Louise occasionally gives workshops and master classes in Canada and in Europe, while mounting creation projects both as an independent dancer and for her production company, Fou glorieux, a flexible working structure founded in 2006.
April 24th
1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. (with artist talk to follow)
Dovercourt House, 1st floor, 805 Dovercourt Road
Full price $52 • Early bird $25
(with $25 non-refundable deposit by Apr 22nd)
Photo by Phile Deprez
This workshop is offered in partnership with Harbourfront Centre and features artists from the World Stage 2013 performance Still Standing You.
With registration to this ATC, your show ticket is only $15 (regular show ticket price is $35). Call Harbourfront Centre's box office at 416.973.4000 and quote the promo code we will give you to take advantage of this exclusive offer, just for you.
Performance dates: Apr 23 - 24, 26 - 27, 2013
For full season lineup, visit www.harboufrontcentre.ca/worldstage.
This workshop is open to all dancers and participants across other artistic disciplines.
In this workshop we aim to find the meaning of "togetherness". How does a group come together and why? When are we really a group? We aim to find and feel "collective effervescence". This energy can cause people to act differently in their everyday lives. Through this we are able to achieve the state of being close to each other so that we can portray heroic deeds and adventures. For this to happen, we have to organize ourselves and become a group or a structure. We will use, reuse and subvert the terms and meaning found in architecture to create and recreate an action. This will construct a choreography and develop a body language and a movement vocabulary through the various relations among us.
We aim to shift between these roles, so that we may use the notion of group and group effort to construct scenes. In these scenes, we will take advantage of being in a "group action" that will take place when individuals realize that they are more likely able to achieve a common goal when acting together, rather than individually. We aim to find the arrangement of and relations between the elements present to create something more complex. We propose to become storytellers of our own conquests, of our dreams, hopes and desires. We will work as an ensemble, where equal amount of importance is assigned in order to create the dramaturgy of the scene. We want to portray the epic nature in us and be reminded that we are able to be the ones that accomplished great things together, "One for all and all for one".
Join Guilherme in an artist talk after the workshop.
Guilherme Garrido was born in 1983, Portugal. His artistic work and education are connected to dance, choreography and fine arts. Gui is interested in performance as a way of story telling by becoming a showman disguised in contemporary dance. His artistic work always contains warm and subversive humour and is occupied with how the body and movement can also give associations to films, hero figures, shows or rock concerts. At the same time, he is interested in interweaving the fragility and intimacy of relationships on stage.
CAMPO, which brought That Night Follows Day to World Stage audiences in 2009, is a Ghent-based art centre that creates and presents work at all stages of development on a national and international scale.
As one of the largest multidisciplinary art centres in Canada, Harbourfront Centre is dedicated to the development of contemporary performance in Toronto, in Canada and around the world. Devoted to professional artists, and all who participate in the current performance ecology, Harbourfront Centre's World Stage is committed to maintaining and developing the exceptional calibre of talent creating work in the city.
Through this partnership with Series 8:08's ATC program, Harbourfront Centre's World Stage is proud to offer this series of labworks to the professional dance community, as well as a subsidized ticket to the performance.
May 5th
1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. (with artist talk to follow)
Toronto Dance Theatre, Studio B
80 Winchester Street
Full price $20 • Early bird $10
(with $10 non-refundable deposit by April 22nd)
Photo by Liam Maloney
This workshop is offered in partnership with Harbourfront Centre and features artists from the World Stage 2013 performance what we are saying.
With registration to this ATC, your show ticket is only $15 (regular show ticket price is $25). Call Harbourfront Centre's box office at 416.973.4000 and quote the promo code we will give you to take advantage of this exclusive offer, just for you.
Performance dates: May 22 - 25, 2013
For full season lineup, visit www.harboufrontcentre.ca/worldstage.
Workshop is open to all professional and pre-professional dance artists.
Participants will be invited into an immersive performance environment where Public Recordings' collaborating artists will introduce the working principles and performance strategies from their newest work what we are saying.
A field of chairs facing multi-directions spans the entire floor space. We are all in the space together. A performance that explores the performative potential of spontaneous choral speech, the project confronts the need to speak and to express meaning using bodies as instruments for communication in concert with others. Collapsing the distance between audience and performer, the work creates the conditions for an emerging multi-voiced conversation, asking how we might be together and how that togetherness is voiced.
This project situates choreography as expanded practice – a flexible set of tools for time-based and relational interdisciplinary practice. It brings together a group of artists who work collaboratively – drawing on choreographic strategies, embodied action, language and speech as well as on experimental sound, the arrangement and function of objects and a consideration of architectural space drawn from visual practices – to create a shared language for live performance. This two-hour performance encounter includes an interactive set up of the design of the space, an excerpt of the performance, and facilitated conversation on the themes and concerns of the work.
Join Public Recording Performance Projects in an artist talk after the workshop.
Public Recordings is an atelier that explores and shares choreographic experimentation through artistic research, performance creation, publication and education.
We believe in the potential of performance to provoke and expand how we see, hear and feel each other. Through our projects we maintain a critical dedication to the form and tradition of dance as we seek to facilitate participation and exchange – collaborations between audiences and artists from different backgrounds and disciplines.
Our "public recordings" are forums for inquiry where choreography and performance are understood as a social investigation. They are time-based, experiential events that insist on liveness, and in the potential for what can happen in a shared space. In the temporary communities we create, the performer and spectator must work together to establish meaning and resonance. The results are often funny, tragic, absurd, and undeniably human.
As one of the largest multidisciplinary art centres in Canada, Harbourfront Centre is dedicated to the development of contemporary performance in Toronto, in Canada and around the world. Devoted to professional artists, and all who participate in the current performance ecology, Harbourfront Centre's World Stage is committed to maintaining and developing the exceptional calibre of talent creating work in the city.
Through this partnership with Series 8:08's ATC program, Harbourfront Centre's World Stage is proud to offer this series of labworks to the professional dance community, as well as a subsidized ticket to the performance.