Dancemakers - Talking Dancing

When we talk about it, it’s better for everyone

Want to know more about dance in the 21st century and the artists leading the field?

Dancemakers and the Centre for Creation is pleased to announce a lunch-time series of conversations at the Centre for Social Innovation (215 Spadina Ave) and Theatre Passe Muraille (16 Ryerson Ave)

Each conversation brings together artists from Dancemakers Presents TWOBYTHREE: a festival of duets with a local artist from a different field to talk about their influences and curiosities. Avoiding the pitfalls of jargon in favor of an open conversational tone, Talking Dancing is ideal for new comers to contemporary dance as well as those working in the field.

Facilitated by dramaturge Jacob Zimmer, Talking Dancing connects the questions and desires of artists working in dance fields with other curious folk (like you.)

Wednesday February 17 :: 1-2pm @Centre for Social Innovation ::
Ame Henderson (Toronto) with writer and theatre performer Evan Webber

“Mad crazy bright lights” – Carl Wilson, zoilus.com

Wednesday February 24 :: 1-2pm @Theatre Passe Muraille ::
Mélanie Demers (Montreal) and Laïla Diallo (UK) with theatre and opera director, Guillaume Bernardi

“A poetic and profound reflection on identity (…) One leaves feeling intelligent, alive.” – Le Soleil

Wednesday March 3 :: 1-2pm @Centre for Social Innovation ::
Jonathon Burrows (UK) and Matteo Fargion (Italy) with composer and performer Juliet Palmer

"By now we ought to be accustomed to the surprises the wry, spry and elegant pairing of Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion keep springing on us, but somehow we're not; they've always got an extra rabbit in the hat to take us unawares.”
- Ballet Magazine, UK

Talking Dancing is a series of conversations held in conjunction with all Dancemakers programming

Artist Biographies:

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 17 :: 1-2PM @CENTRE FOR SOCIAL INNOVATION ::

Ame Henderson lives and works in Toronto. A performer and choreographer, she is the artistic director of Public Recordings. She completed her dance training at Concordia University in Montreal and continued at the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam. Her works Blue**Disco (2002), memories and statements (2004), Manual for Incidence (2005), /Dance/Songs/ (2006), Open Field Study (all together now) (2007) and It was a nice party (Dancemakers, 2008) have been presented in The Netherlands, Italy, Croatia and across Canada. Her new creation relay premieres at Harbourfront Centre in April 2010. Ame has developed work in residence at Le Groupe (Ottawa), Studio 303 (Montreal) and Tangente (Montreal) as part of Clash, a choreographic research project directed by Lynda Gaudreau. As a performer she works regularly with Small Wooden Shoe, a theatre company directed by Jacob Zimmer. She has also recently performed in projects by Fiona Banner, Tino Sehgal and Jenn Goodwin. Ame is currently working on a masters degree in choreography at the Theaterschool of the Amsterdam School for the Arts.

Evan Webber is a writer and performer who works collaboratively in theatre. He is a founding member of One Reed Theatre, as well as a frequent contributor to performance works with other companies like Small Wooden Shoe (Dedicated To The Revolutions), Public Recordings (Open Field Study (all together now)) and surPrise Performance. Evan also writes about art and performance. He's published in print for Alternatives Journal and Canadian Theatre Review, and online for many sources. Recent works include Moon Mission (Rhubarb, 2009) and 2 Modern Feelings (One Reed / Luminato / New Waves, 2009). The next thing will be Little Iliad, at the Free Fall festival. His writing can be found online at relativesafety.com

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 24 :: 1-2PM @THEATRE PASSE MURAILLE ::

Mélanie Demers is a graduate of LADMMI (Les Ateliers de Danse Moderne de Montréal). In 1998, she joined the internationally renowned dance company O Vertigo. At the same time, she enlarged her collaborative activities with emerging young choreographers. Working both as a dancer and a choreographer, Mélanie has presented her own work in Montréal, New York, Ouagadougou, Nairobi and Port-au-Prince. She has been involved in establishing a cultural center in Haïti for the last few years combining her aspirations as an artist with her social commitment. In 2005, she benefited from a six-week artist’s residency in Nairobi, sponsored by the UNESCO-Ashberg grant and the Gaàra Company of Kenya. In 2006, she was described as one of the 10 young choreographers to watch for in Montréal and toured for the occasion her Little Pocket Solo. Her work Les Angles Morts, created in 2006 is currently touring in Europe, Asia and America while her new project, Sauver sa Peau (Sense of Self) created in 2008 at Tangente, already toured in the UK and continues its way onto Europeans stages. In order to give a structure to the several activities she is involved in, lately, she constituted the company Mayday.

Born in Canada, Laïla Diallo studied at L’École de Danse de Québec before travelling to La Rochelle and to London to pursue her training, respectively with Régine Chopinot and at the London Contemporary Dance School. In 1998, she received an MA in performance (distinction) from the University of Kent.
Laïla was a member of Wayne McGregor's Random Dance between 1997 and 2005. Since 2005 she has been developing her own choreographic work which has been shown across the UK, in Europe and in Canada. Her latest solo piece, The Wayside, will next be seen at Edinburgh Festival this August. Laïla also choreographs for theatre, opera and television. Recent credits include movement direction/choreography for All's Well That Ends Well and Thérese Raquin, National Theatre; War and Peace, Canadian Opera Company; Days of Significance, Royal Shakespeare Company;The Vortex, Theatre Royal Windsor and A Doll’s House, Theatre Royal Bath. A recipient of a Rayne Fellowship for Choreographers in 2006, Laïla is currently Associate Artist at Swindon Dance and the Arnolfini. She was recently also appointed Associate Artist at the Royal Opera House.

Guillaume Bernardi is stage director and a teacher based in Toronto. His directorial work covers a wide range of genres, from theater and opera to movement pieces. Recent directorial projects include Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro for the Frankfurt Oper and the Canadian Opera Company. Bernardi’s strong connection with dance was established from 1996 to 2000, when he collaborated on a full-time basis with American choreographer Trisha Brown on her opera projects, including the highly-acclaimed 1998 production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. Other dance collaborations include Dancemakers’ inaugural Fast Track with choreographer Heidi Strauss. As dramaturge: with Peter Chin on his creations Berdandan and Stupa; with Boyzie Cekwana on Influx Controls: I wanna be wanna be. As choreographer with Qui connaît le chemin de son coeur? for Four Chambers Dance Projects and Bas-Reliefs for Chartier Danse. Bernardi teaches in Drama Studies Programme at York University. His field of research is intercultural performance practices.

WEDNESDAY MARCH 3 :: 1-2PM @CENTRE FOR SOCIAL INNOVATION ::

Jonathan Burrows was born in 1960. He started his career as a soloist with the Royal Ballet in London but formed the Jonathan Burrows Group in 1988 to present his own work. The company travelled widely and gained an international reputation with pieces such as ‘Stoics’ (1991), ‘Very’ (1992), ‘Our’ (1994), ‘The Stop Quartet’ (1996) and ‘Things I Don’t Know’ (1997). In 2001 he presented ‘Weak Dance Strong Questions’, a collaboration with Dutch theatre director Jan Ritsema, which toured to 14 countries. Since 2002 he has collaborated with the composer Matteo Fargion on a trilogy of duets, "Both Sitting Duet" (2002), "The Quiet Dance" (2005) and "Speaking Dance"(2006). The duo have now given over 150 performances of this work in 37 countries, including winning a 2004 New York Dance And Performance "Bessie" Award. Other high profile collaborators include Sylvie Guillem’s performance of his choreography in Adam Robert’s film ‘Blue Yellow’ in 1996, and his invitation in 1997 to choreograph for William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt. In 2008 he was Associate Director on Peter Handke's 'The Hour We Knew Nothing Of Each Other' for the National Theatre, London. He was an associate artist 1992- 2002 at Kunstencentrum Vooruit in Gent, Belgium, and was Artist-In-Residence at London’s South Bank Centre 1998/9. In 2002 Jonathan was given an award by the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts In New York, in recognition for his ongoing contributions to contemporary dance. He is a visiting member of faculty at P.A.R.T.S, the school of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker in Brussels, and is also a Visiting Professor for the Department of Drama and Theatre at Royal Holloway, University Of London.

Matteo Fargion was born in Milan, Italy in 1961. He studied composition with Kevin Volans at the University of Natal, South Africa, and later with Howard Skempton in London. He met Jonathan Burrows in 1988, and has since written music for many of his pieces, including ‘Dull Morning’, ‘Stoics’, ‘Very’, ‘Our’, ‘Hands’, ‘The Stop Quartet’ (with Kevin Volans) and ‘Things I Don't Know’, in which he also performed ‘Donna Che Beve’ for 3 amplified cardboard boxes. Matteo has also written music for theatre including an oratorio (‘Das Kontingent’) commissioned by and performed at the Schaubühne Berlin and TAT Frankfurt, a chamber opera (‘Le Bellezze d’Hortensia’) at the Theaterhaus in Stuttgart, as well as incidental music for many productions at the Residenz Theater Munich. In 2004 he wrote music for Thomas Ostermeier’s prize winning production of Jon Fosse's new play ‘The Girl on the Sofa’ shown at the Edinburgh International Festival, and in 2005 he collaborated and performed in Canadian choreographer Lynda Gaudreau’s ‘Document 4’ in Gent, Belgium. His piece ‘Duets’, written in collaboration with Kevin Volans, is released on Black Box Records. Matteo also runs composition workshops at PARTS, the school of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker in Brussels.

Juliet Palmer is a composer and performer based in Toronto, Canada. Moving from New Zealand to New York in 1990 to work with interdisciplinary pioneer Meredith Monk, Juliet Palmer completed her PhD at Princeton University in 1999. Working in diverse media, her output ranges from chamber music to sound installations, interdisciplinary performances, dance, music theatre, opera and symphonic works. Palmer's music has been featured around the world, from New York’s Bang On A Can Festival to Italy’s Angelica Festival and Australia's Adelaide Festival. Performers of her music include the Penderecki String Quartet, Trio Fibonacci, the Gryphon Trio, Toca Loca, Continuum, l'Orchestre Métropolitain conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Tapestry New Opera Works (Canada); Les Percussions de Strasbourg (France); Fontanamix (Italy); Piano Circus (UK); California EAR Unit and the Bang on a Can All-Stars (USA). An avid collaborator, she has worked with choreographers, writers, visual artists and architects from China, the UK, Canada and New Zealand. Palmer co-founded the interdisciplinary collective urbanvessel whose works include the site-specfic performance Slip at Toronto’s Harrison Baths and the Dora-nominated Stitch for three women and three sewing machines. Their new work Voice-Box, for four women vocalists who box, is a Harbourfront Fresh Ground commission and will premiere November 2010.