Night Shift

Night Shift is a durational performance inspired by Le Ballet de la Nuit, a 13-hour court ballet that was most notable for the involvement of the young Louis XIV.

Night Shift is a durational performance inspired by Le Ballet de la Nuit, a 13-hour court ballet that was most notable for the involvement of the young Louis XIV, who performed many roles, including the title of the Sun King.

Danced throughout the night, the ballet acted as a performance with night (darkness) cast as a metaphoric plague on society. The dance is performed as an offering to call upon daylight, when the Sun King exiles the darkness, and the dawn (light) signifies a new beginning through the start of a new day.

Brendan Fernandes has re-contextualized the ballet into a contemporary dance performance in which dancers endure from dusk until dawn, dancing and making gold confetti in anticipation of the new tomorrow. At dawn in celebration of the new day, the accumulated piles of gold confetti will be thrown into the air and the piece ends. 

Night Shift questions notions of labour and time within the context of night changing into day as the dancer’s body endures and asserts itself while in the process of performing.

Choreography by Brendan Fernandez

In collaboration with Michael Trent

Performed by Michael Trent, Robert Abubo, Amanda Acorn, Joanie Audet, Austin Fagan, Sky Fairchild Waller, Kate Holden, Ame Henderson, Ellen Furey, Benjamin Kamino, Cyril Limousin, Simon Portigal, Jolyane Langlois, Simon Renaud, Colleen Snell, Andrea Spaziani, Cara Spooner, Christopher Willes and Jacob Zimmer

Original Score by Thomas Ian Campbell

Costume design by Vanessa Fischer