A lot of very good things

Ok - we've got a lot going on in the next month that I want to make sure you know about. So there's a lot going on in this post - but here is a short summery.

1. Festival
2. Lunch conversations
3. Classes and workshops
4. Study group

Click through and follow links for more information.

See you soon I hope (oh and Rhubarb is on and company member Kate Hilliard has a show coming up)

1- Dancemakers Presents TWOBYTHREE: a festival of duets - an amazing line-up of work. Every show a must see. Passes available and volunteers needed.

February 23-25 Mélanie Demers (Canada) and Laïla Diallo (UK)
Sauver sa Peau (Sense of Self)

February 27-March 1 Ame Henderson (Canada) and Matija Ferlin (Croatia)
The Most Together We've Ever Been


March 4-6 Jonathan Burrows (UK) and Matteo Fargion (Italy)           
Both Sitting Duet on March 4
The Quiet Dance, Speaking Dance on March 5
Cheap Lecture and A Not Very Subtle Representation of Resilience through Dance on March 6

2 - Talking Dancing - a lunch-time series of conversations at the Centre for Social Innovation (215 Spadina Ave) and Theatre Passe Muraille (16 Ryerson Ave) Each conversation brings together artists from the festival with a local artist from a different field to talk about their influences and curiosities.

Wednesday February 17 :: 1-2pm @Centre for Social Innovation :: Ame Henderson (Toronto) with writer and theatre performer Evan Webber


Wednesday February 24 :: 1-2pm @Theatre Passe Muraille :: Mélanie Demers (Montreal) and Laïla Diallo (UK) with theatre and opera director, Guillaume Bernardi


Wednesday March 3 :: 1-2pm @Centre for Social Innovation ::
Jonathon Burrows (UK) and Matteo Fargion (Italy) with composer and performer Juliet Palmer

3 - Masterclasses and a workshops: As part of the festival we're offering some masterclasses and a workshop taught by festival artists. These are great opportunities to meet the artists and their work directly.

February 25th - Master class: Strategies in Movement invention with Mélanie Demers and Laïla Diallo

March 5-7 - Writing Dancing: A workshop with Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion

March 15-19 - Master class with Matija Ferlin

For more information and to register - call 416-367-1800 or email info@dancemakers.org

Master class: Strategies in Movement invention with Mélanie Demers and Laïla Diallo Thursday, February 25 | 10-12 | $12 Dancemakers and the Centre for Creation Register now by clicking here Led by both Mélanie Demers (bio) and Laïla Diallo (bio), this workshop will be an exploration of strategies, systems and creative process to generate material. Movement becomes the pretext to focus on the importance of the individual responsibility of each dancer to discover the power of their own dance. Through a problem solving process, the artist is engaged in the rich discovery of having to find highly creative solutions to simple problems.

Writing Dancing A workshop with Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion March 5-7 | 11-5 | Dancemakers and the Centre for Creation $180 | Register now by clicking here (this is an amazing chance to work with two great makers) Choreographer Jonathan Burrows (bio) and composer Matteo Fargion (bio) lead a workshop focussing on discussion leading to practical work in the studio.  Emphasis will be towards investigating choreographic and compositional process, performance and philosophies, questioning how a dance can be made and what it can communicate to someone watching.  Practical work will concentrate on short task-based exercises looking at how to find material and work with time, to hold the attention of an audience and make them care what happens next.  Days will be punctuated also with viewpoints on other mediums and ways of working, asking all the time what dance can do and what it can't do.  This workshop is for dance and other performance artists with experience of performing and making, who are interested in re-examining and extending their own process and practice.

Master class with Matija Ferlin March 15-19 | 10 - 11:45 | $12/class | Dancemakers and the Centre for Creation | Register now by clicking here (Matija's classes fill up quickly) Matija Ferlin’s (bio)training encompasses Release Technique and Muscle & Bone training. His classes begin with exercises sourced from Pilates work with the aim to strengthen the abdominals in order to release the rest. The class continues with floor work that includes exercises and combinations that focus on the isolation of different body parts and joints. Trying to organize the body through its own musicality and importing exercises from Muscle and Bone training, the work involves negotiating with stamina in order to introduce at the end of the class, a dynamic dance sequence that revisits the tools from the beginning of the class.

4 - For the March 2 Thinking Out Loud study group -

We'll return to WE: Collectivities, Mutualities, and Participations by Irit Rogoff for the first half.

After the break, we'll take a pause in our readings to spend some time with Youtube and questions of "amateur" production and aesthetics.
We'll reference An anthropological introduction to YouTube and Margaux Williamson's video Dance Dance Revolutions Co. / Tomboyfriend's End of Poverty, made mostly from clips of teenagers dancing in their basements. Feel free to add links of "amauteur" performance in the comments section of the blog.

Study group meets at 6:30 at Dancemakers. In March we'll be in the office.

(it's true that conversations are better if you've read the readings or watched the videos, just gives us something solid to talk about...)