Using the Rite of Spring as a jumping off point
In Hi-Fi, the Dancemakers company dancers and their collaborators – Nick Andison, Xenia Benivolski, Marianna Rosato, Christopher Willes and Jacob Zimmer – come together in a different way.
In response to the extremely successful presentation of Lo-Fi, An Evening of Works-In-Progress in 2012, Dancemakers Artistic Director Michael Trent has relinquished his fall season and handed it over, along with all the authority, to the resident company dancers.
The company dancers and their collaborators are using the Rite of Spring as a jumping off point for Hi-Fi. The current Wikipedia entry for the Rite of Spring reads: “[in] various primitive rituals celebrating the advent of spring, a young girl is chosen as a sacrificial victim and dances herself to death.”
A possible future Wikipedia entry for Dancemakers’ Hi-Fi might read: “[in] various contemporary rituals celebrating the advent of something new, nine young people consented to sacrifice themselves into a history of sorts.”
With the presumption of roles removed, the consensual mutiny can begin! In, with and through Hi-Fi, the artists can question authority, criticize the mandate of the company that engages them, and push their own physical boundaries in a safe and supportive environment.
Throughout the unorthodox creation period, the artists surrender to the work: dancer becomes dramaturge, costume designer becomes dancer and dancer becomes musician in order to explore the conundrum of contemporary living.
Made and Performed by:
Robert Abubo, Amanda Acorn, Nick Andison, Xenia Benivolski, Ellen Furey, Benjamin Kamino, Simon Portigal, Christopher Willes and Jacob Zimmer
Lighting Design: Nick Andison
Stage Manager: Marianna Rosato
Artists
Michael Trent
Michael Trent was the Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer of Toronto’s Dancemakers from 2006 – 2014.
Amanda Acorn
Amanda Acorn is a dance artist, researcher and choreographer currently based in Toronto, Canada.
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.
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.
Forty years of Dancemakers
Celebrating Dancemakers 40th anniversary, this new work mines all the ways we encounter ourselves and others in our pursuit of being human.
Working through the production of continuous and non-repeating image-making in groups of 1 to 10, the artists create a series of successive encounters between bodies, the environment and sound.
Through a process of emergence and dissolution, they reveal a space for the viewers’ imagination to take flight.
Choreography and set design by Michael Trent
Created with and performed by
Robert Abubo, Amanda Acorn, Ellen Furey, Lee Gelbloom, Andrew Hartley, Benjamin Kamino, Jolyane Langlois, Anna Mayberry, Simon Portigal and Riley Sims
Sound Score by Christopher Willes
Dramaturgy by Jacob Zimmer
Lighting by Kimberly Purtell
Costumes by Vanessa Fischer
Artists
Michael Trent
Michael Trent was the Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer of Toronto’s Dancemakers from 2006 – 2014.
Amanda Acorn
Amanda Acorn is a dance artist, researcher and choreographer currently based in Toronto, Canada.
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.
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.
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.
Alicia Grant
Alicia Grant is a dance, performance, video and installation artist.
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 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.
2016
Flowchart is a series of multidisciplinary performance presenting short works by artists engaging with the choreographic from the perspective of multiple fields; work which pays attention to organizing movement in space and having it be affected by/also itself affect time. By contextualizing non-dance works within and alongside the choreographic, an engagement with these ideas becomes newly visible. Flowchart is interested in works that centralize the body and offers a curiosity about what happens to non-dance works when they are presented in the scope of a field that inevitably does so.
Flowchart encourages artists to approach their process in a way that is new to them, and offers a platform for experimentation.
Flowchart began as a studio series in 2014 and has grown into a robust recurring series, now housed at Dancemakers, offering a critically needed resourced and supported presentation platform for artists.
Meg Foley,
Open Fortress,
Robert Kingsbury,
Syrus Marcus Ware,
Aliya Pabani,
Lo Bill,
Bridget Moser,
Fan Wu,
Thom Gil,
Peg and Buzz
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.
2017
Flowchart is a series of multidisciplinary performance presenting short works by artists engaging with the choreographic from the perspective of multiple fields; work which pays attention to organizing movement in space and having it be affected by/also itself affect time. By contextualizing non-dance works within and alongside the choreographic, an engagement with these ideas becomes newly visible. Flowchart is interested in works that centralize the body and offers a curiosity about what happens to non-dance works when they are presented in the scope of a field that inevitably does so.
Flowchart encourages artists to approach their process in a way that is new to them, and offers a platform for experimentation.
Flowchart began as a studio series in 2014 and has grown into a robust recurring series, now housed at Dancemakers, offering a critically needed resourced and supported presentation platform for artists.
Meryem Alaoui,
Katie Ward,
William Ellis,
Aisha Sasha John,
Lo Bill,
Francesca Chudnoff/Justin de Luna,
Marisa Hoicka, and
Barbara Lindenberg/Allison Peacock
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.
Francesca Chudnoff
Francesca (she/her) is a Toronto based millennial, with a BFA in performance, and paying rent as a multidisciplinary 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.
2019
Flowchart is a series of multidisciplinary performance presenting short works by artists engaging with the choreographic from the perspective of multiple fields; work which pays attention to organizing movement in space and having it be affected by/also itself affect time. By contextualizing non-dance works within and alongside the choreographic, an engagement with these ideas becomes newly visible. Flowchart is interested in works that centralize the body and offers a curiosity about what happens to non-dance works when they are presented in the scope of a field that inevitably does so.
Flowchart encourages artists to approach their process in a way that is new to them, and offers a platform for experimentation.
Flowchart began as a studio series in 2014 and has grown into a robust recurring series, now housed at Dancemakers, offering a critically needed resourced and supported presentation platform for artists.
Jon McCurley
Kate Nankervis & Ann Trépanier
Nikola Steer
Jasmyn Fyffe & Alicia Nautu
Oliver Husain & Anni Spadafora
Carol Anderson
Lara Kramer
Sarah Aiken
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
Carol Anderson
Carol Anderson was a founding member of Dancemakers in 1974 and she performed with the company for 15 years.
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
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.