The festival may have changed its name to the Toronto Fringe Theatre Festival, but that doesn’t mean it’s given up its mandate to showcase some quality dance as well.
Olga Barrios delivers the Toronto premiere of her award-winning show Remembering The Farewells (from July 6 at the Robert Gill), which draws on memories of growing up in Colombia. That publicity still (reproduced on our pullout cover) looks pretty revealing.
Two literary works get a unique dance treatment. Sarah Skinner’s The Little Mermaid (from July 6 at the Helen Gardiner Phelan) is bound to make a splash: it’s an all-belly-dance version of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. And The Canary Wallpaper (from July 6 at Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace) finds a music and movement vocabulary for Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s feminist classic.
Lukas Press’s Numbers (from July 6 at the Factory Mainspace) is bound to get people talking. It’s about a young Jewish girl’s experiences during WWII the title refers to the statistics that many victims have become.
Australia-based Jonno Katz, a familiar name from previous Fringe shows, directs Victoria Chiu and Roland Cox in The Ballad Of Herbie Cox (from July 6 at the Randolph), which mixes storytelling and movement to unravel family secrets.
If non-narrative dance is more your thing, a safe bet is The Gravity Hour (from July 6 at the Robert Gill), by talented choreographers Kiri Figueiredo, Michael Caldwell and Shannon Litzenberger. It’s described as a physically intense hour of dance.
