As part of this month’s Toronto Dance Theatre Digital Residency, we’re profiling prominent artists associated with Toronto’s contemporary dance scene. See all of the profiles here.
Name your favourite recent dance production.
I tend not to recognize a favourite experience but deem most experiences as an audience member to be a process of understanding, hoping for some fulfillment and a non-judgmental but passionate experience. When a performance makes me curious and I sense a small opening in my being … I walk away with a renewed enjoyment of the world and this makes me curiously happy.
What’s one dish or drink from a Toronto restaurant that you cannot do without?
Kale salad at Hey Lucy in Cabbagetown.
Where is your favourite place to go out dancing in the city?
Studio C at Toronto Dance Theatre.
How do you feel contemporary dance in Toronto is changing?
Not being from Toronto, I cannot really comment with any real knowledge but I would say that I sense a real bounty of choreographic talent and a coming together of people that is moving the dance/performance scene in a very positive direction.
Is there a choreographer that you find especially inspiring right now?
I am inspired by the many talented and exciting choreographers, particularly the emerging and mid-career artists, who are breaking through artistic and systemic barriers, showing that this need to express ourselves through abstract and visual means, or really any means possible, in front of an audience is socially and societally important. I am inspired by those taking that slim chance to succeed, living a life with your most intimate ideas being judged and where this most important thing that one does is constantly plagued by discussions about money to support the ideas instead of spending one’s valuable time on developing the ideas themselves.
What drew you to The Glass Fields Project?
Being a senior artist who is also looking into the value of one’s repertoire and possible uses for it, I was drawn to how Christopher, in a very logical but freeing manner, organized the three years of Reimagining Repertoire. I presented Glass Houses in Winnipeg at The Festival of Canadian Modern Dance in the 1980s and so to work with this short masterwork and reinterpret it was something that seemed to complete a cycle somehow to me.
What’s it like to collaborate with Toronto Dance Theatre?
Easy! A pleasure! A beautiful space! Magnificent Dancers! On-the-ball technical help! Smiles! Administrative efficiency! Plus, I am learning how to work with a rehearsal director, so it’s been an education as well.
