Free Flight
March 29 - 31 & April 1, 2006
Secrets intimes: version 1 (March 29, 2006)
Choreography: Michael Trent
Music: Klaxon Gueule
Rehearsal Assistance: Andrea Roberts
Lighting Design: Geoff Bouckley
Costume Design: Lori Endes
Dancers: Nicole Dupuis, Jade Sakamoto, Erika-Leigh Stirton
I approached the making of this piece somewhat backwards. In a departure from recent creations, I began this work with an existing piece of music from a composer whose work I had recently danced to in Montreal. I then gave the score to lighting designer Geoff Bouckley and asked him to design a response to it without having seen any of the movement ideas: in essence, the lighting became a spatial and temporal score in and of itself. My task was to create a work - with obsession as its thematic root - within existing and immoveable music and lighting 0parameters. To challenge myself even further, I decided to compose two different trios derived from the same movement pool. You will see both versions this evening. The dancers were integral to this process, and I thank them for their willingness to play with such enthusiasm and grace. - M.T.
Starlight mystery ball (March 29, 2006)
Choreography: Sasha Ivanochko
Music: Matmos
Rehearsal Direction: Patricia Miner
Lighting Design: Geoff Bouckley
Costume Design: Lori Endes
Dancers: Whitney Hewitt, Lynndsey Larre, Jessica Wilson
Understudies: Stéphanie Bernard, Mariana Medellin-Canales, Megan Moore
Many thanks to the dancers and understudies for their hard work and excellent contributions. To Pat, always, for being there, being honest, and being simply great. To Cheryl and Andrea. When creating a short study such as "SMB", I begin by improvising to generate material. I look at this material from different perspectives, manipulate it and observe how the dancers respond to it. In this part of the process, I will see something that sparks my interest. Often it is something small - an unconscious tic a dancer has or even a mistake - but it will have struck me as potent, unusual. This small thing becomes the seed of my piece. "SMB" has no story behind it. Its meaning lies in the tension of the movement, the dancers' interpretation and, if I have done my job well, in the structure of the piece. - S.I.
Skyling (1980)
Choreography: Patricia Beatty
Music: Michael J. Baker
Rehearsal Direction: Graham McKelvie
Original Lighting Design: Roelef Peter Snippe
Original Costume Design: Denis Joffre after Carol Crawley
Set Design: Aiko Suzuki
Dancers: Stéphanie Bernard, Michael Caldwell, Hyeon Ok Kang, Jade Sakamoto, Brendan Wyatt(March 29, 31); Michael Caldwell, Heather Berry, Mariana Medellin-Canales, Arden Metford,Brendan Wyatt (March 30, April 1)
Costumes on loan courtesy of Ryerson University. Skyling is a modern rather than a postmodern work. It risks simplicity to an enormous degree in order to express the universal qualities of aspiration, joy, and freedom that underlie every movement and arrangement of movement within the piece. It is meant to inspire and refresh...to wipe away any trace of fear, cynicism, or neurosis that might be present in the onlooker. These performances are dedicated to the choreographer's older brother, Clifford Beatty who helped to plant modern dance in this part of Canada and who has just recently moved on to the next realm. He loved Skyling and I'm sure he is very pleased that it is still being performed. - P.B.
Excerpts from Missa Brevis (1958)
Choreography: José Limón
Music: Zoltán Kodály *
Direction and Reconstruction: Risa Steinberg
Rehearsal Direction: Patricia Miner
Lighting Design: Gabriel Cropley after Thomas De Gaetani
Original Costume and Set Design: Ming Cho Lee
Sanctus
Dancers: Nicole Dupuis, Whitney Hewitt, Emma-Kate Millar (March 29, 31); Stéphanie Bernard,Mariana Medellin-Canales, Megan Moore (March 30, April 1)
Credo
Dancers: Stéphanie Bernard, Nicole Dupuis, Whitney Hewitt, Mariana Medellin-Canales,Emma-Kate Millar, Megan Moore
Crucifixus
Dancer: Erika-Leigh Stirton
First performed April 11, 1958 at The Juilliard School of Music New York City, New York Zoltán Kodály, the Hungarian composer, wrote Missa Brevis in Tempore Belli at the end of World War II. It was completed under great hardship during the siege of Budapest. It is a mass in time of war. Though Kodály's home was devastated, his manuscripts were later recovered intact. Its first performance was given in the cellar of a bombed-out church in Budapest. José Limón's stirring choreography depicts an indomitable humanity rising up after near-destruction. It is a memento to cities destroyed during World War II and to those unconquerable qualities in human beings that compel the spirit to rise up in hope and to survive.
* By permission of the publishers and copyright owners Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. ©1996, José Limón Dance Foundation. This performance of excerpts from Missa Brevis, a Limónsm dance, is presented by arrangement with The José Limón Dance Foundation, Inc. and has been produced in accordance with the Limón Stylesm and Limón Techniquesm service standards established by The José Limón Dance Foundation, Inc. Limónsm, Limón Stylesm and Limón Techniquesm are trade and service marks of The José Limón Dance Foundation, Inc. (all rights reserved).
Secrets intimes: version 2 (March 29, 2006)
Choreography: Michael Trent
Dancers: Arden Metford, Emma-Kate Millar, Catherine Valle
Glass Houses (1983)
Choreography: Christopher House
Music: “Glass Houses No. 5”, Ann Southam; Christina Petrowska, pianist
Rehearsal Direction: Rosemary James
Rehearsal Assistance: Graham McKelvie and Sean Ling
Original Lighting Design: Roelef Peter Snippe
Costume Design: Denis Joffre
Dancers: Michael Caldwell, Hyeon Ok Kang, Megan Moore, Catherine Valle, Brendan Wyatt (March 29, 31); Heather Berry, Michael Caldwell, Lynndsey Larre, Jessica Wilson, Brendan Wyatt (March 30, April 1)
Thank you to Byron Beckford and Kamen Wang for their participation in the rehearsal process. Glass Houses (1983) was inspired by the music of Ann Southam, the painting of Robert Longo, a summer watching Balanchine in New York, and by the astonishing physical chemistry of Helen Jones and Benoit Lachambre. This fast-paced, virtuosic, and highly aerobic dance is perhaps emblematic of the burgeoning fitness culture of the early eighties. Glass Houses was House’s first "international success,” thanks to a rave review in the New York Times by Anna Kisselgoff.