As a child, Dana Michel would drape a yellow towel on her head in an attempt to become blonde and to be othered. In YELLOW TOWEL, she revisits this escapist world of alteregos in a performative ritual free longing to be free of censorship.
By Dana Michel
Curated by Emi Forster & Benjamin Kamino
Presented by Dancemakers
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.
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.
Dana Michel
Dana Michel is a live artist.
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.
It’s [1976] almost a character study, except that from its intense inward focus you sense it is deeply, almost unsettlingly personal.” – Michael Crab, The Toronto Star
By Dana Michel
Curated by Emi Forster & Benjamin Kamino
Presented by Dancemakers
1976, have several by DANA MICHEL
Over her first four weeks in residence, Dana Michel has worked with the artistic team at Dancemakers to revisit, transmit, and blow apart 1976 – making a group piece from the rubble.
Dancemakers company dancers Robert Abubo, Amanda Acorn, Ellen Furey, and Simon Portigal all have their own artistic practices and voices. Michel’s risky proposal is to invoke these voices to re-imagine her previous work, opening herself to the processes of other artists and intentionally seeking out a vulnerable space for working- not an easy task!
We are excited about this precarious investigation: a dance that interrogates itself both in its construction and presentation. Asking what might happen if we decide not to begin again, 1976, have several questions our addiction to the new.
PERFORMANCES
Wednesday, JAN 28 2015 | 8PM (PWYC Preview)
Thursday, JAN 29 2015 | 8PM (Opening Night)
Friday, JAN 30 2015 | 8PM
Saturday, JAN 31 | 8PM (Closing Night)
THEATRE
Dancemakers Centre for Creation
Distillery District, 9 Trinity Street, Studio 313
Toronto, ON M5A 3C4
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.
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.
Dana Michel
Dana Michel is a live artist.
Rob Abubo
Robert Abubo was a member of Dancemakers since September 2008.
Amanda Acorn
Amanda Acorn is a dance artist, researcher and choreographer currently based in Toronto, Canada.
Ellen Furey
Ellen Furey is a performer, choreographer, facilitator, spiritual psychic and death doula.
Simon Portigal
I’m Simon Portigal, a Montréal-based contemporary dance artist with a research-based choreographic practice.
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.
CHRONIC NEED is a work by Alicia Grant in collaboration with Andrea Spaziani.
My interest is how to work at sculpting an endlessly recurrent, infinitely present and troublesome need.
By working with presence and absence, Andrea and I are working at shifting our modes of perception. How can we receive the information of the wigs, the public, discomfort and pleasure? How do we stay with the unnameable?
The wigs, for me, are our field of ghosts. Frightening and powerful, empty yet full.
Throughout the process, I encouraged long physical tangents to arrive at a distilled, fierce and confusing situation where the dance could occur.
It’s a hyperfeminine garbage bag:
it’s about
needs
it’s about
desires
it’s about
necessity
it’s about
time
it’s about
what doesn’t leave you
it’s about
what’s always with you
it’s about
something that’s always there
Curated by Ben Kamino & Emi Foster
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.
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.
Andrea Spaziani
Canadian contemporary choreographer and performer, holds an MFA from the Transart Institute/ Plymouth University.
Alicia Grant
Alicia Grant is a dance, performance, video and installation artist.
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.
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?
Curated by Ben Kamino & Emi Foster
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.
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.
Ellen Furey
Ellen Furey is a performer, choreographer, facilitator, spiritual psychic and death doula.
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.
pulsing party and minimalist dreamscape
In collaboration with performer Ann Trépanier and DJ po NY, Leisure Palace plays with notions of time and attention transforming the space from abandoned relic to otherworldly dancefloor. A site responsive, immersive installation that floats between pulsing party and minimalist dreamscape, the artists build an environment in and around the audience in slow motion. Premiered at InFuture Festival at Ontario Place along Toronto’s waterfront. Commissioned by Art Spin for InFuture and co-produced by Dancemakers.
Created with and performed by Amanda Acorn, Ishan Davé, Justin DeLuna, Lori Duncan, Mary Dora Bloch-Hansen, Ann Trépanier and PoNy.
Costume design and creation Amanda Acorn and PoNy. Live Dj PoNy.
Artists
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.
intimate, sensorial encounters.
“A veritable immersion for the spectators, overlooking and surrounding an arena, multiform(s) hypnotizes. A vibrant, moving tableau inspired by the vivid pigments of Mark Rothko’s paintings, the performance transports the audience to an altered state as it fascinates and casts a spell. Beyond time, beyond reality, Acorn manages by means of a subtle, complex dialogue of bodies to create a moment of rare beauty. A journey of the senses, the pure pleasure of abstraction“. – Elsa Pepin, FTA archive
Created with and performed by Jonathan Adjemian, Meryem Alaoui, Ellen Furey, Jolyane Langlois, Germaine Liu, Ann Trépanier and Kathia Wittenborn.
Sound performed live by Jonathan Adjemian/Hoover Party and Germaine Liu
Lighting design by Paul Chambers,
Costume design by Sarah Doucet
Supported by Dancemakers and the Centre for Creation
images by Yuula Benivolski and Joffrey Saintrap
Artists
Amelia Ehrhardt
From 2015-2019 Amelia Ehrhardt was the Curator at Dancemakers fostering international success for many of the artists engaged in the Incubation Production House model.
Amanda Acorn
Amanda Acorn is a dance artist, researcher and choreographer currently based in Toronto, Canada.
Ellen Furey
Ellen Furey is a performer, choreographer, facilitator, spiritual psychic and death doula.
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.
This work is for accessing the courage to keep going.
This Desiring Pony is performed by the alter ego SCHPANDO. She materialized as a voice that brings consciousness to the unconscious of A Spaziani.
She speaks indirectly, through technology, and performatively, in an attempt to improvise new forms that attend to the present moment as it is being listened to. She’s a character in a constant state of surrender, wearing the affects around her for the split second of their intensity. She is a strange mirror, reflective of the data of each moment. She is constantly morphing and slipping out from under the constraint of language. She is a representation of how to perceive the present as both incomplete and novel, and how to get out of a constraint by going deeper into its particularities.
Artists
Amelia Ehrhardt
From 2015-2019 Amelia Ehrhardt was the Curator at Dancemakers fostering international success for many of the artists engaged in the Incubation Production House model.
Andrea Spaziani
Canadian contemporary choreographer and performer, holds an MFA from the Transart Institute/ Plymouth University.
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.
a procreative anti-altar that transforms water into deeply felt sound waves and black fabric.
SILVER VENUS is an ensemble reconstruction of the feminine persona VENUS that combines the activity of silver with aquatic behaviour It is a procreative anti-altar that transforms water into deeply felt sound waves and black fabric.
April 26th-28th, 2018
at the Dancemakers Centre for Creation, Toronto
Choreography by Andrea Spaziani
Music and Performance by Matt Smith
Made in Collaboration with and Performed by Nicole Rose Bond, Irvin Chow, Francesca Chudnoff, Alicia Grant, Julia Male, and Claire Turner Reid
Makeup by Jooyeon Kim
Costume Design by Buzz / Rebaie by Rebée
Score design by Gracia Gallo of Concept Citron
Full Score text HERE
Poster by Eric Kostiuk Williams
Photos by Claire Harvie
Artists
Amelia Ehrhardt
From 2015-2019 Amelia Ehrhardt was the Curator at Dancemakers fostering international success for many of the artists engaged in the Incubation Production House model.
Andrea Spaziani
Canadian contemporary choreographer and performer, holds an MFA from the Transart Institute/ Plymouth University.
Alicia Grant
Alicia Grant is a dance, performance, video and installation artist.
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.
We swapped our right eyeballs.
This solo tracks the perception of pressure. I was inspired by time spent in the South-West of the the United States, learning to ride horses, and watching Western films. I invited Clint Eastwood and his many decoys to the desert for a small occasion.
We swapped our right eyeballs. Eye for an eye, plus germs and a tiny stye. I am here now, hiding in plain sight, tying knots, and becoming an edge. Being in the presence of such resilient elements is not a new feeling, but wearing them and owning them is alien.
Artists
Amelia Ehrhardt
From 2015-2019 Amelia Ehrhardt was the Curator at Dancemakers fostering international success for many of the artists engaged in the Incubation Production House model.
Andrea Spaziani
Canadian contemporary choreographer and performer, holds an MFA from the Transart Institute/ Plymouth University.
Danny Grossman
Danny Grossman was a Canadian dancer, choreographer, and activist. He created the Danny Grossman Dance Company which produced his political dances.
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.
Moving between what is precious and what is disposable
Eating bones and Licking bread works with the body, texture and sound. It plays with sustained images that change in meaning. Questions around the colonial system of preserving hunger and consuming land and body anchors the artist inside of the work. Inside the ongoing recovery.
Moving between what is precious and what is disposable, the artist Lara Kramer proposes the solo performance as a state of being close to her public and to deepen her listening to the collective sensations and reactions. It gives attention to the imbalances that occur. A minimal soundtrack of field recordings and textures stirs and provokes the physically marked landscape, like an apocalyptic ballad. We fall to the ambiguity in the dreaming, in the live performance.
Eating bones and Licking bread was first showcased at Dancemakers during the Flowchart series in November 2018 curated by Amelia Ehhrhardt. It since has since been presented and further developed at the Festival International d’Art Performance 2nd Edition November 5th-12th 2019 at the Musée d’Archéologie Précolombienne et de Préhistoire de la Martinique and Lycée Centre Sud de Ducos High School | FIAP, Martinique co-curated by Annabel Guérédrat and Henri Tauliaut.
Artists
Amelia Ehrhardt
From 2015-2019 Amelia Ehrhardt was the Curator at Dancemakers fostering international success for many of the artists engaged in the Incubation Production House model.
Lara Kramer
Lara Kramer is a performer, choreographer, and multidisciplinary artist of mixed Oji-cree and settler heritage
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.