Toronto, ON (July 11, 2017) – Yvonne Ng, the Artistic Director of the dance: made in canada/fait au canada Festival (d:mic/fac), was awarded the Toronto Arts Foundation’s prestigious 2017 Muriel Sherrin Award for contributing to the cultural life of Toronto through outstanding achievement just this past May.
Ng, along with Co-Festival Directors Janelle Rainville and Jeff Morris, is pleased to announce the details for the What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) and Arts Encounters programmes in addition to expanding on the MainStage offerings.
The 2017 d:mic/fac Festival (d:mic/fac) runs Thursday August 17 through Sunday August 20 at Toronto’s Betty Oliphant Theatre. Presented by princess productions, tickets are on sale now for the fourth edition of this lauded biennial festival of Canadian contemporary dance works (which launched in 2011, starting as a series in 2001) and are available on the d:mic/fac Festival website at princessproductions.ca with discounts available for 3 or more tickets as well as for seniors, students and artsworkers!
Over two dozen artists from across the country appear in three different programmes: the curated Mainstage series, the lottery-drawn What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) series and the free Arts Encounters programme which encompasses dance on screen, in the street, in the lobby and in your head via virtual reality.
The d:mic/fac Festival MainStage series is curated by Yvonne Ng and two guest curators: Danièle Desnoyers, artistic director of Montreal’s Le Carré des Lombes, and award-winning Canadian lighting designer Marc Parent. It consists of three different series totalling nine unique Canadian dance works, including two world premieres, by an exceptional list of contemporary artists:
Parent Series: Thurs Aug 17 at 7pm; Fri Aug 18 at 9pm; Sat Aug19 at 4pm; Post-Show Chat Sat Aug 19 at 5pm.
o Ebnfloh Dance Company (Montreal) performs the Toronto premiere of Complexe R. Can we resist the excesses of modern life or will they end up permanently scarring our mental health? This is the question choreographer Alexandra ‘Spicey’ Landé asks in this creation for a quintet of street dancers that explores the complexities, limits and obsessions of everyday life.
“Alexandra ‘Spicey’ Landé is, without a doubt, one of the most recognized specialists of urban dance.”– Ils dansent, Ici Radio-Canada
o Mocean Dance (Halifax) brings the Toronto premiere of Live from the Flash Pan, a solo commissioned by the company from independent choreographer Cory Bowles. Live From the Flash Pan is entertaining – and challenging. Mocean dancer Rhonda Baker captures the angst of a disillusioned bar singer in this theatrical, provocative piece that is both character study and statement. She is wild, sensual, and on the edge of collapse.
“Using music by Abdullah Ibrahim, The Pretenders, Gorillaz and Radiohead, Bowles has created witty choreography that substitutes movement for words. That is the heart of the piece.” – Paula Citron, The Globe and Mail
o Action at a Distance (Vancouver) presents the Toronto premiere of Container, a solo choreographed and performed by the company’s artistic director Vanessa Goodman who says, “Container is a direct reference to my body as a container of identity and an inherited cultural past.” But there is also a more literal meaning where the container represents an actual lack of freedom.
“Goodman moved to the industrial-ambient music like one of its notes made flesh in a way that elicited from me an audible and unbeckoned “damn” at the end of the performance.” – Rich Smith, The Stranger (Seattle)
o Says curator Marc Parent: “Vanessa Goodman (Action at a Distance) has a singular physicality. Corey Bowles and Rhonda Baker (Mocean Dance) directly address the audience with a rock n’ roll vibe, charging us through their work. Ebnfl_h Dance Company weaves street and contemporary dance together with freshness and energy.”
Morrison/Ng Series: Thurs Aug 17 at 9pm; Sat Aug 19 at 7pm; Sun Aug 20 at 7pm; Post-Show Chat Sat Aug 19 at 8pm.
– Marie-Josée Chartier (Toronto) choreographs a large ensemble of eighteen emerging dance artists for the Toronto premiere of Crépuscule. This visually arresting work is a physical and visual response to the music piece In the High Branches for string quartet and gamelan, written by Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith.
“Lets us see music and hear dance.” – Michael Crabb, Toronto Star
- Human Body Expression’s Hanna Kiel (Toronto) creates a world premiere for 11 dancers that explores the strength behind the family bond. Welcome to Our Home – Tangled draws on Kiel’s own personal experience as we witness the ups and downs around a family’s conflicts and inner workings, questioning “what makes a family stick together through the thick and thin, and why is this bond unbreakable?”
“Kiel choreographs as a thinker as well as an emoter.” – Kaija Pepper, The Dance Current
Naomi Brand (Vancouver) performs the Toronto premiere of her solo Messages to an Audience which takes a whimsical and metaphorical look at communication and the relationship between viewer and performer. It is a portrait of one dancer’s earnest attempt to be understood and her scuffle with all that gets in the way between sender and receiver.
“Naomi Brand reaches audiences at a visceral and visual level in her solo and duet choreography.”
– Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award
- Says curator and d:mic/fac artistic director Yvonne Ng: “Each of these three works speak to me about community. In Marie-Josée’s work, flocks of dancers turn in an instant; Hanna’s new creation is inspired by family which is the basic element of community; Naomi, a single dancer on a bare stage, teaches us that the audience is in community with the performer(s).”Desnoyers Series: Fri Aug 18 at 7pm; Sat Aug 19 at 9pm; Sun Aug 20 at 4pm; Post-Show Chat Fri Aug18 at 8pm.
– Compagnie ODD’s artistic director Yvonne Coutts (Ottawa) brings the Toronto premiere of her The Eventual De-Expression of RGS2, a reflection on the nature of gene expression and environmental influences. A lone female dancer, Kay Kenney, walks an uncertain path while being provoked by a musician (Jesse Stewart on percussion). Trust and balance surface.
“The audience stared into the nutrient agar and waited for a eureka moment in the petri dish. We were in luck this time.”
– Rebecca Galloway, Bachtrack (Montreal)
– Alias Dance Project (Toronto) presents the world premiere of the way we are for an ensemble of five dancers, choreographed by Alias Artistic Director Lauren Cook and Alias member Troy Feldman. Alias Dance Project takes it back to the way we were, “when our personalities were uninhibited, raw, excited, self-serving, and truthfully connected.”
“Alias Dance Project is at the top of its game … these artists’ momentum show no sign of slowing – indeed, it appears to have accelerated.” – Colleen Snell, The Dance Current
– Sasha Kleinplatz (Montreal) delivers a very personal work with the Toronto premiere of Chorus II. Rooted in the swaying movements practiced by Jewish men while they daven (pray), it is inspired by her grandfather. Chorus II transforms an ancient ritual into a cathartic ensemble work for six men that explores performances of masculinity that evoke both strength and tenderness.
“There is great jubilation in witnessing the dancers share momentum to move. Chorus II recruits the body and stimulates the imagination. The masculine is plural, and attuned to both vulnerability and fraternity.” – Nayla Naoufal, Le Devoir
Curator Danièle Desnoyers notes, “What do Alias Dance Projects, Yvonne Coutts and Sasha Kleinplatz have in common? At first sight – nothing much. But if we consider them more closely, we realize that they are each deeply embedded in their respective communities. They embody pathways moving beyond choreography and into the world.”
The Festival is pleased to announce the details for WYSIWYG, Arts Encounters and the Intensive Rep Performance:What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) – Fri Aug 18 @ 11pm; Sun Aug 20 @ 2pm.
Featuring ten-minute works by artists drawn by lottery, the late night WYSIWYG series is comprised of Blue Ceiling dance/Lucy Rupert (Toronto), Angela Blumberg (Toronto), Jasmyn Fyffe Dance (Toronto), Good Women Dance Collective (Edmonton) and Anne-Flore de Rochambeau (Montreal).
Blue Ceiling dance performs Frankenstein Fragments: As Lucy Rupert sews together different limbs and organs with fragments of past dances, a literal monster assembles and emerges with a bit of a devilish sense of humour.
Angela Blumberg presents The Four Elements: This duet is the second piece of the trilogy Time that draws from the elements water, earth, fire and air to explore change and impermanence.
Jasmyn Fyffe presents an excerpt from Reload: This work asks one question, “How do we unload today to reload for tomorrow?”
Good Women Dance Collective perform Caveat: This trio examines what happens to the characters after the end of the fable Avaricious and Envious, picking up the story where Aesop left off.
Anne-Flore de Rochambeau presents Fadeout: The human body is an intricate and auto- regulated engine, designed to adapt and transform as we age. When an anomaly dives in, a race driven by survival emerges through a degenerative mutation.
Arts Encounters – throughout the festival
The Arts Encounters programme animates the Betty Oliphant Theatre space with an array of interdisciplinary work including art exhibits, community and hi-tech dance, post-show chats as well as a series of short dance films.
Artists include Luke Garwood (Toronto) who creates Exquisite Consequence, an interactive digital dance work where content and choreography is built dynamically by a community of people; Susan Kendal (Barrie) who creates a textile artwork using soft sculpture, embroidery and weaving that responds to the work of Hanna Kiel (Mainstage/Morrison Series) in the MainStage series and Cara Spooner (Toronto) who creates You&Us, a 360° community dance piece filmed in Virtual Reality (VR). Philip Szporer’s Inquiry into Time and Perception, Study #1 is installed in the lobby of the theatre.
Additionally, Dance Collection Danse with Amy Bowring and Troy Emery Twigg co-curate the exhibit By Invitation Only: Dance, Confederation and Reconciliation that explores the intersections of dance and Confederation. Ballroom dance was used in nation building – and nation building led to banning Indigenous dance. A dynamic array of imagery and artifacts illuminate these two narratives seldom heard in the Confederation story.
Post-Show Chats – Each series has a post-show chat with artists and a moderator:
Desnoyers Series: Fri Aug 18, 8pm with Yvonne Coutts, Lauren Cook and Sasha Kleinplatz; Facilitated by Sara Coffin, Mocean Dance Co-Artistic Director
Parent Series: Sat Aug 19, 5pm with Rhonda Baker, Alexandra Landé and Vanessa Goodman; Facilitated by Shannon Litzenberger, d:mic Dance Ambassador
Morrison Series: Sat Aug 19, 8pm with Marie-Josée Chartier, Hanna Kiel and Naomi Brand; Facilitated by dance notator Natasha Finlay
dancefilms – Each night of the festival, a series of short dance films are presented, free-of-charge:
Programmed by Kathleen Smith, three different programmes of short films deal with dystopian themes of an uncertain future. In the face of adversity, the beauty and truth of the human form in motion shines on the screen, just as it does on the stage.
In many of them, the body is a battleground – such as in Alan Lake’s grim return to nature, Ravages. But the body can also be a site of play, as in Priscilla Guy’s Two Bikes and Émilie Cardu- Beauquier’s Petites failles. It is often a vehicle for communication as in Monique Romeiko’s Love Letter – Duet, or Katherine Macnaughton’s award-winning Wake. And the body is, always, a natural marvel – as explored in Aria Evans’ silence and stars, Anne Troake’s OutSideIn ¬- and in so many of the other films.
Free screenings take place in the Betty Oliphant Theatre’s Green Room (in the basement) every night of the festival and one evening on the patio of the Blake House (across the street from the Betty O) with the following schedule:
Programme One: Sun by Francesca Chudnoff; Footprints by Laurence Siegel; We by Rosanna T.; Wake by Katherine Macnaughton; Passage by Michael Slobodian; Petites failles by Émilie Cardu-Beauquier & Claudia Hébert; Silence and stars by Aria Evans; Ravages by Alan Lake
Programme Two: Pretty Big Dig by Anne Troake; OutSideIn by Anne Troake
dancefilms at the Blake House: Glitch by Grace Smith; Canada by Amanda Pye; Love letter – Duet by Monique Romeiko; Gwen by Aria Evans; Two Bikes by Priscilla Guy; Quartet by Jennifer Mascall; Creature by Thomas Sutherland; Deep End by Jonathan Lawley; Move by Marlene Millar
August 17: Programme One – 6:15pm
August 18: Programme Two – 8:25pm
August 18: dancefilm at the Blake – 10:15pm
August 19: Programme One – 3:15pm; Programme Two – 6: 15pm; Programme One – 8:25pm
August 20: Programme Two – 1:15pm; Programme One – 5:15pm; Programme Two – 6:25pm
Intensive Rep Performance – Sat Aug 19 at 2pm
Toronto’s Summer Intensive programmes come together to share select repertoire from celebrated choreographers, including Peggy Baker, Courtnae Bowman and Malgorzata Nowacka.
For more information and to book tickets, visit the dance: made in canada/fait au canada website at princessproductions.ca .
Founded in 1995, princess productions supports the work of two divisions: tiger princess dance projects (1995) for Yvonne Ng’s activities as a performer, choreographer, teacher and producer; and dance: made in canada / fait au canada (2001), a presenting division that produces a biennial festival of contemporary Canadian dance works.
dance: made in canada / fait au canada Festival
presented by princess productions
Thursday August 17 – Sunday August 20, 2017
at Toronto’s Betty Oliphant Theatre, 404 Jarvis St, Toronto, ON M4Y 2G6
Tickets on Sale NOW at princessproductions.ca
Single tickets from $10-$25 / MainStage 3-, 4- or 6-Pack from $50 – $112
(with discounts for seniors, students & arts workers)
Report by: CMN News
