my battery is pure love

Allison Cummings' work album  -- a collaboration with actor and sound designer Lyon Smith -- is a compare and contrast visit through the memories of Allison's and Lyon's lives. Just writing those words creates a vibrating potency. An album contains captured moments of life, often visual and visceral triggers, for something bigger than the paper or the 0s and 1s that make them up. There's a trend in the dance contributions of the Summerworks festival this year, undoubtedly shaped by curator Jenn Goodwin, of simple, strong ideas guiding creations. They lead to deeper things, by way of the body not a philosophical, conceptual or technical approach. Below is a short interview with Allison Cummings, a wry, passionate, uncompromising woman who surprises with each performance work she makes. Her show opens THIS AFTERNOON at 2pm. Go see it and be moved. photo of Allison Cummings by Jan Blythe LR: OK, so the obvious but important question is what triggered the creati...

The more of these interviews I do here, the more I realize our discipline, the arts, the city and actually the world is populated with some really wonderful people. I continue to be inspired by the creativity and ideas all these artists are exploring. Though I know the subject of this interview less well than many of the others I've interviewed, Simon Renaud still captures my artistic heart. Simon's work noyé/e/ opens on Saturday as part of Summerworks Performance Festival 2016. It is a study in minimalism, or perhaps more appropriately micro-ism, a deceptively quiet piece aimed at drawing the audience into the minute details of the relationship and partnership of its two dancers, questioning what can be virtuostic, what is compelling in the subtle and quiet. Simon Renaud and Joanie Audet LR: What led you to be interested in the small, quiet and intimate? Has this alway been an interest or a recent pursuit? SR: It has been an interest for me from the mome...

Tina Fushell: funny, unfathomably stylish, sweet and independent. And all these things come through in her dance creations. I was lucky to dance in one of her works in 2007, "Ladies in Waiting" uniting four distinct archetypes/stereotypes of women as wives. I was the mousy librarian-ish (typecasting?!) and although I can't remember much of the choreography now, I remember what a fun time we had in rehearsals and in performances and I remember how interesting it was that Tina could take a single, simple idea and tell a story that did not succumb to cliche or grandiosity. It stayed slightly off-kilter, fun and true to that singular idea. Tina's work Waving is Funny opens tomorrow night at Summerworks Festival (see end of interview for details). It is a remount of a work she self-produced in 2014. Read on to hear about the process of remounting and the wonderful spirit that is Tina. photo of Tina Fushell by Karolina Kuras LR: Your works always have this be...

Opening tonight as part of Summerworks, Sara Porter's well-travelled "Sara Does a Solo" returns to Toronto, a constantly evolving creature on a quest for honesty and free-ranging engagement in performance. She is an unforgettable being on stage, and this work reveals the intelligent mechanisms that allow her such range and possibility. LR: Sara does a Solo has had quite a life so far. This is well deserved and yet so unusual these days. How did this solo get its (forgive the pun) legs? How did the touring happen for you? SP: Yes. I’ve been fortunate to perform the work in several locations to different audiences. I built the piece (through 2014) with the help of the wonderful Gerry Trentham and Katherine Duncanson, and did a studio showing – to some invited people – in the spring of 2014. The first public performances were produced by Gerry’s company – pounds per square inch performance – as part of Double Bill: Porter/Trentham , a show we shared at the Intergala...

I'll be frank, Kate Nankervis is one of my favourite interpreters of my choreography. There's something enigmatic and sassy about her dancing, as though there is always a hidden story, one in which  maybe just maybe she kicked someone's ass. But there's also remarkable vulnerability, not necessarily in her physicality but in an intense neutrality in her face. In her many roles beyond dancer, she explodes these qualities as a decision maker, community builder, and performance creator. She is always frank, tough and unafraid to be vulnerable. It's a great combination and we are lucky to have her working in so many ways to make the dance and performance milieu stronger and more receptive. Kate's work Horizon is part of this year's Summerworks Festival.  A durational work running 7pm-midnight at Hub 14's intimate and blank-canvas style space (which I also, frankly, adore, so I'm biased there too), it is an effort in choreographic installation, a...