my battery is pure love

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...

I was very lucky to work with Malgorzata Nowacka in 2004-2005 and 2006 on two separate projects. Malgorzata danced in my unfortunately titled work "that corpse you planted last year". Despite it's title it was a non-stop sextet that mirrored the imagery of T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" (hence the title  of the work) and I.G. Kovacic's "The Pit", with the dynamism of the six dancers. Malgorzata brought power to the choreography and humour to the rehearsal hall. I think on several occasions, she also brought chocolate. The next year, I asked Malgorzata to make a solo piece for me on Blue Ceiling dance's first program exploring what I could do as a soloist. The resulting solo was kind of a terrifying experience -- Malgorzata's work demands strength and punch and grittiness that I don't usually associate with myself, personally or artistically; I was not sure if I could carry it off.  I was very pleased and relieved when dancers from M...

I recently had the immense pleasure of experiencing Paulina Derbez's performance Shika. It was coming full circle for me in a way: a few years ago I heard this incredible woman rehearsing with voice and violin in the studio next door to where I was working with Fujiwara Dance Inventions (on EUNOIA, which recently premiered in Harbourfront's World Stage 2014, and is nominated for 3 Dora awards!). I knew something really different and intriguing was going on in there. Fast forward a little, my son Pablo began daycare with a fiesty young girl named Isabella whose mother was a violinist. Guess who?  Paulina Derbez of the haunting voice and violin permeating the rehearsal studio walls at Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre. She had been creating Shika. As a performer who often straddles disciplines not only over my career but within individual performances, I feel compelled to know more about Paulina's process. She moves, vocalizes, plays, shapeshifts and channels sim...

Bee Pallomina collaborated with Blue Ceiling dance on "that corpse you planted last year" in 2005, photo of Bee Pallomina leaving the theatre from "that corpse you planted last year" when a freak fire alarm went off in the midst of the performance. Crazy times. "Days of Mad Rabbits" in 2005 (see last blog post for lots of photos!) and "11xforgetting" in 2007. Jennifer Bolt and Bee Pallomina in 11xforgetting photo by Jeremy Brace She was an outside eye on 2013's "Half Life" and in 2009 Bee and I co-created "watermud/airsmoke" under the moniker Sunnyside Collective. We were both living in apartments in a house at Sunnyside and Constance Ave -- it was a charmed corner, at least name-wise. photos of Lucy Rupert and Bee Pallomina by John Lauener Our co-creation was the 2009 commission from Dance Ontario for DanceWeekend and it went on to be performed at Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival and for the A...

photo of Lucy Rupert in Nova Bhattacharya's Alaap by Walter Lai In order to celebrate our 10th anniversary in 2014, perhaps ironically not a production year for the company, we are gathering anecdotes, impressions and other words from as many of our collaborators as we can. We're including designers, multi-disciplinary or cross-disciplinary artists, dancers, co-creators, composers, outside eyes and members of our advisory committee -- those who offer the company artistic guidance and perspective as well as invaluable practical advice. First up, the commissioned choreographer for Blue Ceiling dance's program Half Life (2013) which was presented as a coproduction with Flightworks as part of DanceWorks CoWorks Series, produced at Dancemakers Centre for Creation. The incomparable Nova Bhattacharya created Alaap for me as a soloist delving into the creation of the universe and uniting with two interwoven works I choreographed  on a theme of parallels between the cellu...

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 ...