ACCELERATION 2012

March 28 - 31, 2012

Dancers from the graduating class of the Professional Training Program perform works by acclaimed choreographers Peggy Baker, Anna Blewchamp, Christopher House, Sasha Ivanochko, and Lucy Rupert.

  • Doors are open at 7:30pm.
  • All performances begin at 8:00pm.
  • Tickets will be available for pick up at the box office after 7:15pm on the evening of your performance, under your last name.

Fjeld

(1990)

Choreography: Christopher House
Music: Arvo Pärt, Es sang vor langen Jahren, played by The Hilliard Ensemble
Lighting Design: Gabriel Cropley, after Ron Snippe
Costume Design: Cheryl Lalonde
Dancers:

  • Neesha de Souza, Kristine Van Kessel
  • Chantal Baudouin, Amanda LaRusic
  • Helen Cox, Sarah Leuschen

Inspired by Christian Calon and Chantal Dumas soundscapes…

Fjeld, a piece in five sections, was inspired by a year of reading the Bible. This duet feels to me like a Symbolist painting or a Bergman film...stark and restrained with passion bubbling below the surface. Although the dance was created in silence, the evocative song by Arvo Pärt feels tailor-made for the choreography. I worked simultaneously with two magnificent casts: Coralee McLaren and Kate Alton, and Monica Burr and Miriane Braaf.

- CH

excerpt from coalesce

(2010)

Choreography: Peggy Baker
Staged by: Sahara Morimoto
Original Music: Debashis Sinha
Lighting Design: Gabriel Cropley
Costume Design: Jennifer Dallas
Dancers:

  • Olivia Citter, Natalie Westerbeek, Angela (Ya Qing) Zhou
  • Megumi Kokuba, Amanda LaRusic, Sarah Reid

coalesce is a complex and unpredictable inquiry into the nature of communication received through vibration, heat, light, scent, and touch.  It muses on alternate sensory and movement pathways for eliciting interconnected action. Special thanks to Sean Ling and Andrea Nann.

- PB

Terminal Burrow

(March 28, 2012)

Choreography: Lucy Rupert, in collaboration with the entire cast
Music: Alexander Balanescu, excerpts from Il Partigiano Johnny
Lighting Design: Gabriel Cropley
Costume Design: Jennifer Dallas

Dancers:

  • Olivia Citter, Helen Cox, Jessie Garon, Sarah Leuschen, Lara Roberts, Angela (Ya Qing) Zhou
  • Amelia Iverson, Megumi Kokuba, Jolyane Langlois, Anastasia Shivrina, Kristine Van Kessel, Natalie Westerbeek

As inspiration we started with physiological stages of hypothermia – such as ‘paradoxical undressing’ and ‘terminal burrowing’ – and Napoleon’s ill-fated army stranded in Russia in the winter of 1812. It has unfurled into something else entirely. Each dancer individually developed some of the movement so each cast has a different journey and dynamic. Special thanks to Jennifer Dallas.

– LR

Arrival of All Time

(1975)

Choreography: Anna Blewchamp
Composer: Ann Southam
Rehearsal Direction: Patricia Miner
Original Lighting Design: Jim Plaxton
Lighting Design: Gabriel Cropley
Original Costume Design: Michiko Kano
Costume Design: Jennifer Dallas
Dancers:

  • Helen Cox, Amanda LaRusic, Jelena Vujičić, Jarrett Siddall
  • Chantal Baudouin, Helen Cox, Sarah Reid, Jarrett Siddall

“I feel certain that I am going mad again. . . And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can’t concentrate. . . I can’t fight any longer.”
– Virginia Woolf

Arrival of All Time (1975) was the result of a collaboration by Blewchamp and composer Ann Southam and was originally co-commissioned by the Festival of Women and the Arts and Dancemakers. It was performed as part of the Dancemakers repertory for many years, and re-staged for other companies in the U.K, the U.S., and Germany. The last re-staging was for the Danny Grossman Company in 1995-97.

Anna Blewchamp is pleased to give the students at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre the opportunity to dance in a work which has been performed many times by Patricia Fraser, the Artistic Director of the School and Artistic Associate, Patricia Miner. Arrival of All Time could not have been re-staged without their memories, and their generous help in rehearsals.

Dedicated to the memory of Ann Southam, with special thanks to John Gray and the Canadian Music Centre. Ann Southam bequeathed her entire audio archives to the CMC and it is through the generosity of that organization that her music can be presented in its original form for these performances.

- AB

excerpt from Heaven

(2006)

Choreography: Sasha Ivanochko
Rehearsal Director: Patricia Fraser
Lighting Design: Gabriel Cropley, after Geoff Bouckley
Costume Design: Jennifer Dallas *
Dancers:

  • Jessie Garon, Lara Roberts, Jelena Vujičić
  • Neesha de Souza, Jolyane Langlois, Anastasia Shivrina

The creation of Heaven was made possible through the support of the Ontario Arts Council, The Toronto Arts Council, and The Chalmers Family Fellowship.
This is a short extract from an evening length piece for two men and woman.

*The piece is normally performed nude.  By stripping away costume and music, the viewer’s eyes, ears, and mind focus closely on the details of the body, the human qualities of the dancers as they articulate the work, and the musicality of the choreography.

– SI

Schubert Dances

(1985)

Choreography: Christopher House
Music: Franz Schubert, selections from D. 158, 421, 365, 718, 781 *
Rehearsal Director: Rosemary James
Lighting Design: Gabriel Cropley, after Ron Snippe
Costume Design: Jennifer Dallas
Dancer: Jarrett Siddall

Schubert Dances was first performed by Christopher House in September 1985 at the inaugural Festival International de Nouvelle Danse in Montreal. House has performed the solo across Canada and in such major centres as London, Paris, New York, Mexico City, and Barcelona.

*Note on the recording:  These dances are played on a Graf fortepiano from the early nineteenth century, carefully restored in an attempt to approach the sonority Schubert desired from his own playing.

– CH