A work by Alicia Grant in collaboration with Ellen Furey
Throughout the performance, the two performers develop methods for resistance and resilience through dance moves and life moves. They engage in the labour of transformation of both themselves and the space. They participate in versions of self and environment that are constantly destabilized.
The work is located inside the artifice and reality of a black box theatre. It fully exists because it is being experienced by others.
The two performers have some help from a gong, fantastical dream outfits and hot water bottles. There is fear, there is desperation, there is joy.
Is the light at the end of the tunnel an end or a beginning?
ArtiStic stateMent
By Alicia Grant:
I have a deep curiosity about how people continue participating in life through adversity.
Throughout this process, Ellen and I followed ourselves and lost ourselves. My interest was how to do this by developing our own,
very specific, internal logic of navigation.
My interest in this work is how to inhabit and transform the violence and intimacy of the audience’s gaze.
I am concerned with creating something that is not immediately decipherable, that morphs and shifts, stuns when least expected
and creates an unwanted smile that can part your lips. I want to keep asking questions rather than arrive at any answers.
ArtisTs
Benjamin Kamino
Benjamin Kamino was a company dancer under the direction of Serge Bennethan and Michael Trent. In 2014, he transitioned into the role of Co-Curator alongside Emi Forster, successfully implementing the inaugural year of the Incubation Production House model, designed by Michael Trent.
Emi Forster
From 2014-2015 Emi Forster was Co-Curator at Dancemakers alongside Benjamin Kamino, successfully implementing the inaugural year of the Incubation Production House Model, designed by Michael Trent.
Alicia Grant
Alicia Grant is a dance, performance, video and installation artist.
cuRatorIal notE
By Benjamin Kamino:
This is more of a memory than a note. I first encountered the work of Alicia Grant in 2009. It was a video of a performance she was working on, a solo, perhaps shot in Toronto, perhaps in Berlin. Grant traveled to Berlin in 2008, not for school, not for a job – simply to work elsewhere. This is the location of my great interest in Alicia Grant as dance-artist; her proclivity for hard labour and her investiture in doing. I still do not know why Alicia Grant moved back home, here to Toronto, but I am thankful for it.
Her work, always contained in the rigour of diligence maintains still the freedoms of humour and silliness. Combined with a laissez-faire attitude towards the unknown, Grant is culminating an exceptional body of performance here at Dancemakers and abroad.
Grant has been in the studio quite a bit this year. This is not the only project she has underway, and I have seen Andrea Spaziani coming and going. They both seem to be creating something very special.
acCessibilIty
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
Yes, the venue is wheelchair accessible including ramps into the building, elevators and wheelchair accessible washrooms.
Will the event be ASL Interpreted?
All live events will offer ASL interpretation (upon request). Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.
Will the event be described for Blind and low vision audiences?
This performance does not include audio description.
Rosé Porn is a live cinematic sound work in which the audience plays part in making the architectural space.
This work is intended for an intimate audience, where people are invited to circulate — to sit, to walk, to lie down, to close their eyes, to take pictures, to check out, etc…
Throughout the duration of an hour, 3 performers build environments/spaces in which a “dance” or “song” can/will occur. Where and how these installations take form varies, always in relation to who is in the room, and what shape the room takes according to who is there.
Rosé Porn is based on fabricated memories. Memories generated purposefully in the studio, through repetition, in order to be able to write a song, make a dance, talk about what happened and what is happening as material for viewing.
Curators’ Note:
This work is so far somewhat indescribable. We can say surely that this artistic work, conceived by Zoja Smutny,
locates itself at an intersection between the exhibition space, the performance venue and the dance theatre.
I have listened to Smutny describe the work as “a dance of an environment,” as the dance itself constructs a space
in which all participate as performers, audience and players alike. Continuously evaded throughout these actions of
describing the work are the feelings produced from this very special scenario…
Rosé Porn is an investigation of proximity(s): of the spectator to their body, of dance to space, of sound to image, and
of all the other intricate undergoings of a room that itself is dancing with you in it. I must admit that this description is
bound to fall short in articulating the sensitivity of feelings emergent in the space of this astounding new dance.
Artists
Zoja Smutny
Zoja Smutny is an interdisciplinary artist who uses choreography and liveness as an entry point into making artworks.
Emi Forster
From 2014-2015 Emi Forster was Co-Curator at Dancemakers alongside Benjamin Kamino, successfully implementing the inaugural year of the Incubation Production House Model, designed by Michael Trent.
Benjamin Kamino
Benjamin Kamino was a company dancer under the direction of Serge Bennethan and Michael Trent. In 2014, he transitioned into the role of Co-Curator alongside Emi Forster, successfully implementing the inaugural year of the Incubation Production House model, designed by Michael Trent.
acCessibilIty
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
Yes, the venue is wheelchair accessible including ramps into the building, elevators and wheelchair accessible washrooms.
Will the event be ASL Interpreted?
All live events will offer ASL interpretation (upon request). Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.
Will the event be described for Blind and low vision audiences?
This performance does not include universal audio description. If you are interested in a whisper-guide experience, please email artistic@dancemakers.org.