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
Tap Dance artists looking to dream up the shoe of the future.
An extraordinary journey into the worlds of tap, craft and performance and how many hands are involved in the process of imagining the future through a shoe.
Experience the materials and sounds that shape the dreams of Toronto’s tap dancers, and watch the process of innovating an instrument unfold before your eyes.
Inspiration for this work includes:
Artists
Rumi Jeraj
Rumi Jeraj is an Ismailli muslim hailing from Sherwood Park Alberta.
Travis Knights
Travis Knights. Tap Dancer. Performer. Choreographer. Speaker. Believer.
Elise McGrenera
Elise McGrenera is a tap dancer from Vancouver, Canada currently living in Toronto, Ontario.
Jonah Hamilton
Jonah Hamilton is a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher, and healthcare worker based in the GTA.
Brianna Maltais
Brianna is a tap dance-based artist whose work explores textural soundscapes, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and fosters opportunities for youth in her hometown of Barrie.
Johnathan Morin
Johnathan Morin is a 34 year old indigenous (Nehiyaw) tap dancer hailing from Treaty 6 Edmonton, Alberta.
Kristina Guison
Kristina Guison is a Manila-born, Filipino-Canadian artist based in Toronto.
Jasmine Martins
Jasmine Martins is a shoe designer and maker in Toronto.
Zubin Isaac
Zubin Isaac is a composer and sound designer currently based in Toronto, Canada.
Connie Puetz
Connie Puetz is a Senior Craftsperson, in the Boots and Shoes department at the Stratford Festival.
Sophie Moynan
Sophie Moynan is a multidisciplinary artist based in Tkaronto (Toronto), working in prop making, leatherwork, shoemaking, and visual art.
Vibra Fusion Lab
VibraFusionLab is a media arts centre based in Hamilton, Ontario
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
We want to know what dance might look like in 2074. What will happen to dance, choreography over the next two generations?
This is a speculative choreography project in which nine artists have been tasked with creating a dance for 50 years into the future. We want to know, now, what dance might look like in 2074. What will happen to dance, choreography and stops in between over the next two generations.
This is a thought experiment and a real exercise that considers what the role, purpose, form and potential of dance (as well as performance, choreography, movement, or adjacent and related forms such as performance art) might be at this critical convergence of the climate crisis, violent international conflicts and political upheaval.
Participating artists will present a range of responses—a short performance, written score, film, audio-recording, descriptive essay or something yet imagined.
supportTHEsupport by Margaret Dragu
untitled by Johnny Forever Nawracaj
waiting for the future to remember the past by Nova Bhattacharya
Time to Wake Up by Freya Björg Olafson
Future Tap Dance by Travis Knights
Between a River and Lightning by Lee Su-Feh
Future Dances by Laura Taler
live performance by Ronnie Clarke (with Harry Clarke)
live performance by Ravyn Wngz
essay by abisola oni
Inspiration includes: Jesse Wente’s lecture on CBC Ideas
Artists
Laura Taler
Romanian-born Canadian artist Laura Taler began her career as a contemporary dance choreographer before turning her attention to filmmaking and visual art.
Margaret Dragu
Margaret Dragu works in video, installation, web & analogue book publication, and performance art. Her performances span relational, durational, interventionist and community-based practices.
Ravyn Wngz
Ravyn Wngz “The Black Widow of Burlesque” is an Afro-Indigenous, 2Spirit, Queer and Transcendent multidisciplinary art maker, curator and empowerment storyteller.
Travis Knights
Travis Knights. Tap Dancer. Performer. Choreographer. Speaker. Believer.
Lee Su-Feh
Lee Su-Feh (she/they) is a dancer, choreographer, performance-maker and teacher of voice and movement.
Johnny Forever Nawracaj
Johnny Forever Nawracaj is a non-binary Polish-born performance and media artist currently based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal.
Ronnie Clarke
Ronnie Clarke is a movement and sound artist living and working in Toronto, Ontario.
Nova Bhattacharya
Nova Bhattacharya is an award-winning artist, cultural innovator, and unapologetic trailblazer based in Tkaronto.
Freya Björg Olafson
Freya Björg Olafson is an intermedia artist who works with video, audio, animation, motion capture, XR, painting, and performance.
abisola oni
abisola oni is a performance artist, writer, and curator based in Tkaronto.
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
SUPPORTED BY
