my battery is pure love

It's a dreary raining gray, far-too-cold-for-April 29th day in Toronto, but you can be assured that somewhere in the world it is sunny and warm, and since it is International  Dance Day, we can all soak up that sun vicariously. I intended to write about International Dance Day sooner but have been bogged down by a string of illnesses over the last two months which have drained me of my ability to get things done in a timely fashion. I've been rehearsing one project or another non-stop, which is amazing -- truly amazing how dancing can transport the ailing body from itself even if just running a 30 second section of choreography. I can forget that I have pneumonia/sinusitis/a bad cold/an eye infection. The possibility for transcendence through dance can be on this individual microcosmic scale, and also has been noted recently in work with those suffering from Parkinson's. Dance as a regular activity can override symptoms and give participants in dance liberation from...

1         Tracey Norman is the co-producer of the Blumberg/Norman Double Bill and one of the hardest working dance artists in Toronto. A teacher, choreographer, interpreter, researcher, arts advocate and truly one of the kindest and smartest people I've met it is no wonder so many of her collaborators work with her again and again. Tracey is currently on faculty at York University in the Dance Dept, where she completed an MFA in Dance dramaturgy in 2010.         Here are Tracey's answers to the same questions I posed to her co-producer Angela Blumberg about their artistic practice and their upcoming show. e    Where do you get your ideas for new dances? My ideas come mostly from everyday life. I’ll be walking down the street and see something that makes me think of something else and so on. The actual object or subject I am drawn to in the first place might be highly compelling or quite mundane ...

     Continuing my interviews with artists collaborating on projects, I am bringing you a couple from the choreographers of the Blumberg/Norman Double Bill. I posed the same questions to both choreographers -- Angela Blumberg and Tracey Norman. Up first is Angela, an electric dancer with refined and unusual ideas in choreography and piercing body intelligence. Angela is originally from Germany, trained at the Laban Centre in London, then came to Toronto where she completed her MFA in Choreography at York University. Her choreography has travelled to the UK, Sweden and recently to Taiwan. She frequently collaborates with her partner, composer Augusto Monk. Where do you get your ideas for new dances? I can find inspiration in various things including literature, music, simple movement explorations, and the visual arts .  What remains.  [a new work premiering in the Blumberg/Norman Double Bill] for example was inspired by jewellery-like acc...

Well, I'm the one who compiled all these EUNOIA interviews, and it is my blog, so it seems weird to introduce myself....But in case you don't know me, I'm a freelance dancer and theatre performer and for ten years I've been the artistic director/founder of Blue Ceiling dance. I've worked with a number of amazing choreographers and companies over almost 20 years of performing (eek!!) including Anandam Dance, Sashar Zarif, William Yong, Puppetmongers Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille/Allison Cummings, and have spent about a dozen years working with Theatre Rusticle. This is my first time working with Denise Fujiwara's company, although she was an outside eye on two small projects of mine before EUNOIA started. For what it's worth, here are my answers to the questions I posed to everyone else! What were your first impressions or thoughts about EUNOIA the poem and the dance project when you first got involved in Denise's process? I love poetry. At a...

Gerry Trentham is yet another of the impressive performers involved in Denise Fujiwara's EUNOIA. Since 1998 he has been working under the umbrella of pounds per square inch, creating three full evening works and over 30 short works. He is an in-demand voice and theatre coach for dancers, as well as teaching at the renowned National Voice Intensive. He has danced for many of the greatest Canadian choreographers, including 7 years with Dancemakers under Serge Bennathan's directorship. Gerry has a wicked sense of humour and a fluent mind for text analysis, not to mention his remarkable physical presence. Here's his take on his role in EUNOIA -- which includes voice and speech directing as well as performing.   What were your first impressions or thoughts about EUNOIA the poem and the dance project when you first got involved in Denise's process? I had read parts of the book - dense is what I thought --how in the world will the audience stay interested in sitting ...

Below is the poem selected as winner by EUNOIA poet Christian Bok for its unique structure and sound among the entries. We thank all the poetry contest entrants. Every poem was fascinating and surprising. By L.O. sun pun jump un tum must gun sump hush slump pump stump up flush ump tut pup mum fun bugs plush pub hunt puck cut rub tub cuss mutt fuzz tufts skuzz punt cup rum cult us strut hull lull musk bug hum unfug hun buck gut stung

Miko Sobreira is an impressive force in Toronto: performing, presenting a series in his home, teaching salsa at Lula Lounge and to youth, guiding troubled youth and inventing new ways to reach and interest them, and as a human hub that brings great and diverse people together.  Born in Venezuela and trained originally in theatre, Miko has worked with Moonhorse Dance Theatre and Rubberbandance  among many others. He created a raw and ferocious performance with Rebecca Hope Terry and Sasha Ivanochko in Fujiwara Dance Inventions' No Exit, choreographed by Denise Fujiwara. Here is Miko's take on Denise's latest project EUNOIA: What were your first impressions about EUNOIA the poem and the dance project when you first got involved in Denise's process? This sickish mind! (I'm talking about both Denise and Christian!) Based on my theatrical background, I've been always attracted by challenging artists that never settle for the obvious,  and in this par...