Around (2014)

Created by Michael Trent and Dancemakers

Company Dancers: Robert Abubo, Amanda Acorn, Ellen Furey, Benjamin Kamino and Simon Portigal

Emerging Dance Artist Project: Lee Gelbloom, Andrew Hartley, Jolyane Langlois, Anna Mayberry and Riley Sims

Dramaturge: Jacob Zimmer
Sound Score: Christopher Willes
Costume Design: Vanessa Fischer
Lighting Design: Kimberly Purtell
Stage Manager: Laura Cournoyea

Dancemakers marks its 40th Anniversary season with the World Premiere of AROUND, the spring home show, created by Michael Trent and Dancemakers, and for the first time on the mainstage, artists from the company’s Emerging Dance Artist Project (EDAP).

AROUND will continue Trent’s exploration of boundary-pushing performance through contemporary aesthetics cross-disciplinary dialogues and collaborative engagement, the hallmarks that inform the creative process at Dancemakers. AROUND delves into the disconnect between symmetry, perfection, uncertainty and ambiguity. Presented in the round, a floor to ceiling veil will encircle both the audience and performers providing an intimate space for exchange.

Founded in 2009 by Trent, EDAP is an intensive training program to ease the transition between academic practice and full time professional life for contemporary dance artists. Over five years the project has taken many forms providing cross disciplinary training for 42 participants in summer intensives, weekend workshops, training scholarships with Dancemakers, and creation/performance presentations with the company. This year’s format expanded to include the opportunity to collaborate with Trent and the company artists over a six-week period on a major new creation.

Articles and Press

Michael Trent's first-person article for the Charlebois Post on the creation process for Around. Click here

Michael Trent in conversation with Dancemakers founding member Andraya Smith on Evi-Dance Radio. Listen here

"The possibilities are beautiful" - Beat Rice, The Charlebois Post

"I love the unknown, and that is exactly what Dancemakers embraced with Around." - Emma Letki, Mooney on Theatre

"All in all, the thoughtful design, careful staging and strong focus of the performer-dancers allowed for us to put those first moments of knowing someone (anyone) under the microscope, making for one heck of a reflective evening." - Lorenzo Pagnotta, My Entertainment World

"It is a cool show: edgy, self-consciously stylish and game." - Celeste Sansregret, Sprockets and Greasepaint

Around - In Performance