past and future generations come together and manifest in Lara Kramer’s body, mind and dreams.
Them Voices explores the transporting of sound, body, mobility, imagination, and connection, in relation to a recurring dream, memory, family, and future dreaming.
The artists Lara Kramer positions herself inside shared experiences with her mother and explores hopes, dreams and future thriving. The title Them Voice is interpreted as multiple voices, stories, imagery, that are imbedded in the artist’s body and that are anchored with her mother and family relations. The multigenerational experiences that come before and proceed the artists, future dreaming becomes the crafting of fuel towards new rhythms, new modes of mobility.
Them Voice searches to be inside the place that carries memory and future imagination. Laying out in all possible directions. What has been exerted, what is failed. What is not yet seen or dreamt of. All is together, intersecting in Them Voice. Strives to re-imagine new pathways connected to future ancestors in their flight and journey.
Conceived, created, set and performed by Lara Kramer
Sound creation + editing: Lara Kramer + Simon Riverin
Outside Eyes: Faye Mullen + Peter James
Knowledge keeper: Ida Baptiste
Elder: Emerson Ninigishki’ing
Documentation: Ivanie Aubin-Malo + James Oscar
Lighting Design: Hugo Dalphond
Technical Director: Simon Riverin
Creative Residencies with Dancemakers + Place des Arts + Musée d’art contemporain
Coproduced with Festival TransAmériques + Dancemakers
With support from Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec
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.
I’m laying with my heart. Eating the land.
Conceived, scenography and created by Lara Kramer
Created and performed in collaboration with Aria Evans, Ana Claudette Groppler, Patti Shaughnessy and Brian Solomon
Field recordings by Aria Evans, Ana Claudette Groppler and Lara Kramer
Fashion developed by Aria Evans, Ana Claudette Groppler, Lara Kramer, Patti Shaughnessy and Brian Solomon
Sound mixing by Lara Kramer
Lighting Design Oz Weaver
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.
How might the human body write choreography into a mask and then, how might the mask write choreography onto human bodies?
In 2018, I approached Bracken Hanuse Corlett (Wuikinuxv/Klahoose) to ask if he would carve me a mask. We then spent a year talking with each other—over coffee, via text messages and emails. These conversations were between two artists getting to know each other. They touched upon our relationship to the land and waters where we live, to art, to traditions, and to our families and loved ones. We talked about our respective relationships to masks in general.
We talked of the mask as a representation of the territory between us: me, an immigrant and him, Indigenous to the west coast of Turtle Island. We would refer to the mask as “The Territory Between Us”.
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.
…reminding us of the many unexpected ways to be seen.
Aisha Sasha John begins her three-year residency with Dancemakers by remounting an entirely revised version of her first full-length solo performance “the aisha of is”—a show whose previous presentations include the Whitney Museum (2017), MAI (2018) and SummerWorks Festival (2018).
In this latest iteration of an essentially mutable work, live musical environments created by collaborators Victoria Cheong and Amy Manusov provide the atmosphere wherein Aisha Sasha John is both Wizard and Dorothy—here the wizardry is one of reception, and the home being sought is perpetually found: “the aisha of is” has and continues to be a laboratory for arrival. Welcome to is. Where arrival has a sensual imperative—rhythm.
Team
Victoria Cheong & Amy Manusov | Music
Adam Kinner & Justine A. Chambers | Outside Eyes
Tina Fushell | Curatorial Support
Yehuda Fisher | Lighting Design
Artists
It continues my fascination with the relationship between humans and the constructed environment.
The work uses bodies, machines and everyday objects, to create a visual arc of images and choreographic vignettes, that explore notions of the ‘natural’ and the ‘artificial’.
The work attempts to expose the duality of the ‘natural’ and the ‘artificial’ as a fiction, by decentralising humans, democratising them with objects, and upturning the usual symbolism associated with conscious entities against their inanimate surroundings.
The work results from the first two stages of an inaugural three year International Artist Residency with Dancemakers- centre for the development of the field of contemporary dance located Toronto, Canada.
Natural Orders is a co production between Dancemakers and Luminato Festival. It was presented in June 2017 in the Dancemakers MiniFest and Luminato Festival.
Artistic Director – Antony Hamilton
Robot Design and Construction – Alisdair Macindoe
Sound Design – Alisdair Macindoe
Lighting Design – Antony Hamilton & Alisdair Macindoe
Performers – Michael Caldwell, Tia Kushniruk, Jolyane Langlois, Sahara Morimoto
Production Manager – Tanya Bregstein
Stage Manager – Yehuda Fisher
Producer – Frances Shakov
Dancemakers Curator – Amelia Ehrhardt
Images – Francesca Chudnoff
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.
Antony Hamilton
Antony Hamilton is Dancemakers’ 2015-2018 Resident Artist. A Melbourne, Australian-based choreographer, his multi-award winning performances involve a sophisticated melding of movement, sound and visual design.
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.
There are moments when you query whether it is man or machine that you are witnessing.
Secret Garden was created in residence at Dancemakers Toronto in 2018. Working in collaboration with installation and sculpture artist John Dixon, the performance is an intimate, self guided encounter for one audience member in communion with one performer, in an architecturally devised space. Over a five hour period, audience members cycle through, and are invited to stay as long as they wish. There are no limits to how the audience chooses to engage with the performer, but the experience of the encounter remains a private and personal event, that nobody on the exterior can ever know the truth about. The work uses two incongruous spaces as a means to distort reality.
Artistic Director – Antony Hamilton
Performer – Antony Hamilton
Room Design – John Dixon
Lighting Design – Antony Hamilton
Artistic Associates – Francesca Chudnoff & Michael Caldwell
Production Manager – Tanya Bregstein
Producer – Frances Shakov
Dancemakers Curator – Amelia Ehrhardt
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.
Antony Hamilton
Antony Hamilton is Dancemakers’ 2015-2018 Resident Artist. A Melbourne, Australian-based choreographer, his multi-award winning performances involve a sophisticated melding of movement, sound and visual design.
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.
“The Things I Carry” was made despite my resistance at the time to making a solo for myself.
It was during the Migrant Bodies Project – an E.U.-sponsored choreographic project aimed at opening up a civic and artistic reflection on migrations and their cultural impact for European and Canadian societies.
I didn’t want to spend time alone in the studio, for all the usual existential dance/art reasons – self-loathing, loss of faith etc etc. But one evening, while my friend the Italian choreographer Alessandro Sciaronni was encouraging me, I said to him, “OK, I will make a solo if you agree to be in the room with me, if you agree to hold me. Because we can only know ourselves through our engagement with others”.
The work comes from my body in relation to things – people, geography, history, current news.
Concept, Choreography and Performance
Lee Su-Feh
Dramaturgy
Alessandro Sciarroni
Text
Lee Su-Feh, with excerpts from On A Plane by Chris Bose
Sound Design
Junhong McIntosh-Lee and Lee Su-Feh
Song
Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell
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.
The Talking, Thinking, Dancing Body is a facilitated conversation about aesthetics, context and artistic process.
Initiated in 2012 by Lee Su-Feh of battery opera performance, it encourages speaking about dance from an awareness of our bodies as well as the world it lives in. It unabashedly interrogates dance through a lens that is concerned with anti-colonialism, anti-racism and feminism.
In this edition of The Thinking Dancing Body (TTDB), Lee Su-Feh and Barak adé Soleil will lead a discussion on “Performing the Dominant Body” and what it means for different bodies in different spaces: the how, the why and the impact on both the space and the bodies within that space.
Food and ASL interpretation will be provided. Dancemakers is a fully accessible space. For the accessible entrance, enter through the doors on the north side of the Case Goods building, up the ramp. The Case Goods building is immediately east of Balzac’s. Take the elevator to the third floor and follow signage to the Theatre Studio 313.
Co-Presented by Dancemakers, the Toronto Dance Community Love-In & the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists – Ontario Chapter
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.
Lee Su-Feh
Lee Su-Feh (she/they) is a dancer, choreographer, performance-maker and teacher of voice and movement.
Barak adé Soleil
Barak adé Soleil makes dance, theatre, and performance art.
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 playful, yet also meditative experience.
In her inaugural Residency year, we showed the Toronto Première of Lee Su-Feh’s Dance Machine, a kinetic sculpture that is transformable into multiple configurations.
The public was invited to enter this family-friendly installation and share tasks, play, and work with the artists who act as hosts and facilitators. An embodied experience that has the potential to inspire deep rest as well as mindful play, the Dance Machine is simply a beautiful dynamic object to witness from multiple perspectives.
Dance Machine premiered at Festival TransAmériques in 2017, and it is now being shown across Canada.
Co-produced by battery opera performance
Conceived by Lee Su-Feh
Designed by Jesse Garlick
Assisted by Justine Chambers
With Brandy Leary, Alexa Mardo, Supriya Nayak, Barak adé Soleil, & Brian Solomon
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.
In partnership with
In the summer of 2015, I went to sleep with a question and woke to the memory of a vivid dream of Diana Ross on Broadway, dancing in the center of a sea of other Black dancers, everyone wearing magnificent rose gold costumes of various materials. It felt like an instruction—like a call.
In DIANA ROSS DREAM we are dancing the following:
Feeling cherished.
Verve.
The Quiet.
Pure channel.
Psychic boldness.
Affection.
Awe.
Relaxedness.
Encounter.
Bewilderment.
Miracle.
Mystery.
Black being-together.
Vesselhood.
Tone.
Team
Choreography & concept: Aisha Sasha John
Performance: Aisha Sasha John, Tyra Temple-Smith, Devon Snell, Marcus “Ademi” Paris-Johnson
Outside eye: Dedra McDermott and Evan Webber
Lighting design: Sam Skynner
Sound/Music: New Chance (Victoria Cheong) and Amy Manusov
Costumes: Nyda Kwazowsky
Production Management: Evan Webber & Vishmayaa Jey
Curation: Amelia Ehrhardt (in 2019 as part of the Dancemakers 3-year Residency Program)
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.
Aisha Sasha John
Aisha Sasha John is a performer, choreographer and poet.
Nyda Kwasowsky
Nyda Kwasowsky is a multi-disciplinary performing artist and emerging choreographer of Indo-Caribbean, British and Ukrainian ancestry.
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