my battery is pure love

With a rush of immersive, augmented, non-traditional, call-it-what-you-will new dance works being staged inventively these days, it has got me thinking a lot about rehearsals. As dancers we spend a lot of time training our bodies to physically do very specific things and be in the best, most responsive physical shape for the tasks at hand. But when the tasks at hand involve the unpredictability of an audience immersed in your world with no clear separation of stage and witnesses, how do you prepare? You can't rehearse an interactive audience without just performing with an interactive audience. A new level of readiness and confidence is imperative. I sat down -- usually that's a cliche in interviewing terms, but we really did sit down in the same room together! -- with Jennifer Robichaud to speak about her site-specific, potently interactive work GRIDLOCK for Larchaud Dance Projects which opens June 11th at the Artscape Youngplace building. The work moves through t...

If you know Bageshree Vaze, you know these things (and if you don't know her, here's the short and sweet): she is funny she is multi-talented she is ambitious she is dedicated to dance in all its expanses  she is a sparkling and inviting presence on stage Following my line of interviews on collaborations this year, Bageshree answered a few of my questions about collaborative processes as they relate specifically to her inter-disciplinary projects, working with her husband and sources of inspiration. h     LR: How did you come about gathering this particular cast of dancers? They are an interesting intersection of dance. BV: I have worked over the years with dancers trained in various styles – in fact I have worked with very few professional-level Kathak and Indian classical dancers in group works. Whenever I am working on a piece, I look for dancers who are very physically-versatile, and able to interpret music and movements from cultural styles outsid...

Marie France Forcier's works have always created intense, moody worlds where humans are  almost exhaustingly human in their ability to manoeuvre and manipulate each other connecting without entwining. The first work I saw of Marie France's made my heart ache in a good way.   photo of Marie France Forcier by David Hou courtesy of the artist's website Her recent academic work delving deeply into dance as an artistic embodiment of trauma has taken her approach to an even more intense level. Her upcoming shared program with Tracey Norman in DanceWorks MainStage Series gives us a chance to see how it all comes together. Below are some thoughtful, honest answers to my questions about her process. 1      LR: Can you tell me  a little about the collaborations involved in your portion of the upcoming Double Bill show? MFF:  I am working with composer James Bunton again on this new piece. Over the last decade, our...

  Tracey Norman is one of the hardest working, most thoughtful dance artists working Toronto right now. And now she's a new mother to boot. You may have seen candid photos around on social media of Tracey and new baby Pearl in the studio rehearsing her choreography in the Forcier/Norman Double Bill opening at Harbourfront Centre as part of DanceWorks MainStage Series next week.  I have known and adored Tracey for about ten years and besides my wanting to dance for her, I have been fascinated by the dancers with whom she collaborates and continues to collaborate. In fact seeing Sky Fairchild-Waller dance in Tracey's works spurred me to ask Sky to dance in a new dance work with me. And now I adore him too. So here's a little interview with the two of them, answering the same questions in their very different ways. They reveal a little of the synergy possible between an intelligent and giving choreographer and a generous and imaginative performer. LR: How did you, ...

Choreographer Heidi Strauss' new work elsewhere is described as a world in which people are  simultaneously  together and alone, which is a fitting metaphor for the collaborative process at times. So much of it happens purely inside one's head, in the midst of many, the ideas may struggle to find effective language that relays the ideas to others. But the collaborative process can also be joyful, synergistic, communal, instinctual. I am happy to begin a series of interviews that celebrates the collaborative process. By covering viewpoints of artists involved in dance creations, but not necessarily the primary choreographers, I hope to learn more about the magic of collaboration and to offer  different  perspectives on  what  it is to create dance. photo by Jeremy Mimnagh First up is Jeremy Mimnagh.  Jeremy Mimnagh is a multi-talented visual, photographic, sonic and multi-media artist collaborating on Adelheid's upcoming premiere of elsew...

An interview for the DanceWorks Mainstage Event coming up April 29-May 2 at Enwave Theatre. Accident 1. an event that is without apparent cause 4. occurrence of things by chance Fate 1. a power regarded as predetermining events unalterably 2. an individual’s appointed lot (source Canadian Oxford Dictionary) Both artists have been asked the same questions: Consider the similarities and differences in their answers, and if the “how” of their answers as well as the “what” is evident in their choreography. Susie Burpee choreographer and performer of Mischance and Fair Fortune1. What was the initial spark to create your work for this show? Ovid's myth of Pyramus and Thisbe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramus_and_Thisbe#Ovid.27s_version 2. Do you believe in accidents or fate? Accidents. 3. What made you want to start choreographing? I imagined things that didn't exist yet in the world, and I wanted to realize those ideas. 4. What would you want an audience to take away from seeing ...