my battery is pure love

Please forgive the pun, but our final feature on the Dance TO Showcase artists and presenters is short and sweet on all counts: Yvonne Ng. She may be small, but she is a dynamic performer, thinker, doer, high-energy, witty and compassionate. She is a choreographer and dancer like no other, but also, and importantly, the director of the dance: made in canada/fait au canada festival (d:mic/fac). Don't forget to get yourself out to the opening party of Dance TO Showcase events, tonight September 28th 5-6:30, followed by a free showcase performance with Louis Laberge-Cote, Tribal Crackling Wind and inDANCE.  And here, to finish off our interview series, the succinct and smart answers of Yvonne Ng. LUCY: Why was d:mic/fac founded? How has that shifted over the years? YVONNE: It was founded to give back to the community, my community; as a complimentary platform to DanceWorks and Harbourfront Centre; as a way to expand my dual life. In addition to dancing/choreograph...

Electric, powerful, compassionate, restless soul. Jasmyn Fyffe is like a little sister to me, even though there is nothing little or immature about her. I offer this interview with the full disclosure that I admire and cheer for Jasmyn and Jasmyn Fyffe Dance. I love seeing her flourish artistically, I am delighted by her positivity and "let's make this happen" attitude. photo by Christopher Cushman         LUCY: Why did you want to have a dance company? JASMYN: When I graduated from York University I was hungry and eager to get into the industry as both a dancer and choreographer however my impatience led me to really push towards creating my own opportunities and work.  I wanted to do shows and create choreography and I wanted to do it right away.  In retrospect I didn't have to start a company to make this a reality but I did. I wanted to create a platform to create work with dancers and collaborators who were interested in my vision and ...

He's funny, he's fresh, he's fearless.  Hari Krishnan and his company inDANCE are featured in the upcoming Dance TO Showcase performances. Read on to hear his funny, fresh and fearless responses to my Dance TO Showcase-themed  questions. LUCY: Could you tell me a few things about yourself that most people in the dance community wouldn’t know? Anything racy, funny, bizarre? HARI: I am addicted to the movie ‘Grease’- I’ve watched it at least once a month since I was seven years old! My favorite color is purple. I don’t drink coffee or tea (My Mom knows why!) My very last meal would be a PB&J sandwich. Gay porn bores me. I must squeeze the toothpaste from the middle of the tube every time (it drives my boyfriend Rex crazy!) Rex and I would kill to have Stewart Gilligan Griffin for a son along with bitch-Stewie and evil-Stewie! We still want to kick George Bush Jnr’s ass, for “breaking” the world. I am pissed Justin Trudeau is so bland and ill ...

.         The more of these interviews I write, the more I realize the same words apply to all these artists: energetic, vivid, boundless, frank, funny, hardworking and genuinely nice. Trends appear in the answers of each artist, I hope you are reading and sensing them too. There's a call to get together, interact more meaningfully, learn from each other in real and artistic terms. T    This artist is, like the others, a caring, joyful creature who pushes herself to try new ways of working, new avenues of performance and new embodiments of her goals. Usually I run into her on the subway or the bus somewhere, usually when I am feeling gray and defeated and she always is a focused beam of energy that jolts me out of that funk.                 Anjelica Scannura is the daughter of Ritmo Flamenco founders Roger and Valerie Scannura, spokesartist for the company which is performing in the Dance TO S...

Kevin Ormsby: arts marketing consultant, Cultural Leaders Lab Fellow for the Toronto Arts Council 2015, Program Manager of Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario, Standing Council Chair for Dance Companies Committee of the Canada Dance Assembly and last but definitively not least, Artistic Director, choreographer an dancer for KasheDance. Phew, aren't you tired just reading that! Kevin Ormsby, supreme hard worker, big picture thinker and great guy to be around. He's also feature #5 for Dance TO Showcase. Programmed by Dance Immersion for the upcoming showcase performances at Harbourfront Centre, KasheDance is ambitiously and honestly run by this force of nature. photo by Christopher Cushman photo by Christopher Cushman LUCY: Why did you want to start your own company? KEVIN: I formed my company after returning from dancing with Garth Fagan Dance in New York. I wanted to explore another creative side of myself after feeling I hadn't reached m...

One of the things I am particularly proud of in my career is the time I spent working with Circus Orange -- dancing with fire and pyrotechnics in all types of environments and weather systems. Through this work I came to understand circus as an art form beyond its large-scale entertainment appeal. I also came to know aerial dancers such as Holly Treddenick (well, to be honest I knew her before, but I got to know her better during my time working in circus). I saw multi-talented artists  striving to challenge themselves physically and emotionally through the art, defying the idea that circus is purely spectacle.  Holly Treddenick is now one of the founders of Femmes du Feu, a company is doing just that, making contemporary dance/contemporary circus works that defy simple categorization and seek emotional impact. They are a company chosen to be part of the Dance TO performance showcase this fall,  programmed by Dance TO Showcase partner Harbourfront. photo of Holly ...