‘At Your Own Risk’ is a double-bill of original dance-theatre that is sure to stand alone. It is one of the only productions in the Festival that does not share it’s venue with any other company. This gives us the freedom to create a world that does not have to be set-up in fifteen minutes! With only 30 seats and twelve shows, this intimate realm is visceral and right up close.

 

‘MAN’ is a duet created by Alexandra Elliott and performed by Warren McClelland and Ian Mozdzen. It is a pilgrimage through time where McClelland and Mozdzen morph from amoeba to monks to married men. They create their own soundtrack with the low bass only a male can make. At times abstract and at others literal, with McClelland telling us of his mothers’ love of pickling and her eventual passing, we can all find moments to relate to this passage through humanity.

 

“…to be alone…” is a solo created and performed by Elliott, inspired by the traumatic state of isolation. A nightlight illuminates the glow of her naked body; she crouches and sings in a whisper a song her father used to sing. With only a long white insect net to protect her, safety is stripped and the stage is no longer her sanctuary. Set to the masterpiece “Officium Breve” by György Kurtág, this display of physical intensity and emotional range will leave you unsettled until the very end. 

ESSENTIA is a reckless, rigorous and relentless 45 minute long double bill featuring two brand new contemporary dance works. Choreographers Janelle Hacault and Hilary Crist connect corporeal instinct with the cerebral conflict of identity in this athletically charged premiere. Revealing the secrets of the silent self, ESSENTIA exposes raw fundamentals and embodies the struggle when all is thought to be lost. Prepare to confront and question your inner reality as Hacault and Crist transport you to a precarious place between the known and the invisible.”

Show Dates and Times:

Thurs. July 16, 2015 – 3:45pm
Sat. July 18, 2015 – 10:45pm
Sun. July 19, 2015 – 9:00pm 
Tues. July 21, 2015 – 1:45pm
Wed. July 22, 2015 – 7:00pm
Thurs. July 23, 2015 – 10:15pm
Fri. July 24, 2015 – 4:00pm
Sat. July 25, 2015 – 12:00noon

Venue #8 – The Rachel Browne Theatre

Advance Tickets available at winnipegfringe.com or pay at the door – $10

https://www.facebook.com/groups/18342717951/

I am looking for an interested group of professional dances to host an upcoming workshop with theatre artist Monirah Hashemi, who will be in Winnipeg performing her one-woman show for FemFest 2015. This annual women playwrights festival takes place September 12-19.

 Sarasvati Productions is thrilled to be hosting such an talented international artist for this festival and we are hoping to find a partner company for a traditional Afghani dance workshop. We are hoping to find a group of dancers who would be interested in working with Monirah to learn a new style of dance and expression. We would like to be flexible in planning this workshop around the needs and schedule of the participants, so we welcome any ideas.

 More information about FemFest can be found here and more details of Monirah’s work can be found on her website.

 Please contact me if this might be of any interest and we can talk further.

 

Warm regards,

 

Erica Hoiss

Community Outreach Assistant

Sarasvàti Productions

242 Cathedral Ave

Winnipeg, MB R2W 0X3

(204) 586-2236|www.sarasvati.ca

Twitter: @Sarasvati_WPG

 

Community announcement:

Jolene Bailie is teaching open classes during August 2015. Classes run Monday’s, Wednesday’s and Friday’s during the month of August.
http://www.gearshifting.org/education/

All classes run 10:00am-11:15am at the NAfro studios, 109 Pulford Street.
Drop In cost: $5 per class

Open classes:
Wednesday, August 05, 2015
Friday, August 07, 2015
Monday, August 10, 2015
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Friday, August 14, 2015
Monday, August 17, 2015
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Friday, August 21, 2015
Monday, August 24, 2015
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Friday, August 28, 2015

Studio will be open 20 minutes prior to start time.

Thanks,
Jolene

Dear Friends, Family & Community,

I have some exciting news that I want to share with you. I am producing a dance show for the Winnipeg AND Edmonton Fringe Festival (the biggest Fringe in Canada)! As you know this is a big endeavor and your support will make a difference. I have created a fundraising campaign with a website called Fund What You Can, developed by the executive director of the Toronto Fringe:

“The goal of the Toronto Fringe is to provide indie artists with the tools they need to succeed. Crowdfunding has quickly become a major source of revenue for artists. FWYC is an accessible, affordable and arts-based platform. It is a tool that we offer to the indie artist – to help strengthen this inspiring community.”

The dance artists involved, Warren McClelland and Ian Mozdzen, are sharing the expenses, and therefore it is important for me to come up with as many creative ways possible to raise funds. Funding for the arts is scarce and I am realizing the importance of reaching out to my friends, family, and community for support.

Check out my campaign & rewards, and please pass it on!   https://fwyc.ca/campaigns/help-us-get-edmonton-fringe-festival

With your help I raised $1500 at our Fundraiser Party in April and now I need to raise $3,000 in 28 days!

Costs involved:

• Rehearsal Studio
• Costumes/Props
• Print Material/Marketing
• Travel/Accommodation
• Artists Fees

Winnipeg Fringe Festival, July 15-26

Edmonton Fringe Festival, August 13-23

Thank you for your ongoing support. 

Sincerely,

Alex

http://www.alexandraelliottdance.com

Chase Scenes #1-58

[French follows]

Performances: 8pm, 19, 20, 21 June 2015

Installation: 3-18 July

Artist Talk: 5.30pm, 3 July

It’s evening. A tree lined park absorbs the rhythmic sound of her heels against concrete.  The sharp snap of a twig interjects. She pauses looking back. Silence. Her steps continue, only to be interrupted by heavy breathing and a shuffling through the trees.  Fear. Picking up her pace, she propels herself forward, walking quickly now.  Her thighs and calves are taut, the bones of her feet locked within the forced architecture of her stilettos.  Her heart and arms pump, the beginning of an accelerating crescendo of her own breath sharply entering and exiting her lungs. Her eyes search wildly for an escape route. Her neck twists back frantically to see what distance lies between her and …what? What happens when one gets caught?

Chase Scenes #1-58 is a live performance and installation on the subject of pursuit. Informed by our collective nightmare of being followed or chased and the manifestation of this in film and visual culture, Chase Scenes #1-58 intersects live performers enacting variations of being chased, with video cameras and screens that display live feed projections. Real, living bodies in motion blur with the spectacle of filmic bodies on screen. Classic film techniques (P.O.V., close-ups, slow motion, stalker vision) frame those bodies in conventions that place meaning upon them.

An exploration into how the emotional makes way for the physical. How the psychology, adrenaline, and intense fear of the pursued manifests in the inherent impulse of forward motion. The audience viewing this performance participates in a number of complex ways: as voyeurs of the spectacle; as practiced watchers of film, familiar with the visual language of the chase scene; and as individuals with bodies whose flight/fight or pursuer modes are activated.

‘Cutting to the chase’ is a common turn of phrase originating from early silent films. Screenwriters would bore the audience with unnecessary filler for a length of time leading up to the chase scene, which was the most anticipated part of the movie. Chase Scenes #1-58 are delivered straight, no chaser.

Concept and Choreography by Ming Hon
Featuring Ming Hon
Supporting cast features Hilary Bergen, Carol-Ann Bohrn, and Trevor Pick

Photo: Alexandra Elliot

Biography

Born in Hong Kong, raised in Winnipeg, she found a loophole which afforded her a slim chance of winning the crown for Miss Hong Kong 2003. Thinking she could secretly undermine the pageantry and it’s fanfare of endorsements, the judges proved her wrong and were not interested.

Ming Hon is an independent dancer, choreographer, and performance artist based in Winnipeg. Her practice looks into themes of work, labour, capitalism, and the economy and politics of the female body.  Her most recent works of note include a durational performance; ‘Patricia: Qu’est-ce que c’est, “dégueulasse”? / ‘what is a “scumbag”?’,  ‘Forever in Blue Jeans’ a comission from Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers/Prairie Dance Circuit, ‘The Exhibitionist’ a commission from The University of Manitoba, and a solo called ‘Cleaver Piece’. Hon has exhibited her works and performed both locally and internationally, including at The Taipei Artist’s Village in Taiwan, as part of the National Art Gallery’s Prairie Scene events in Ottawa, Surrey Art Gallery in B.C., Art Gallery of Mississauga, at The CAM Raleigh in North Carolina, and at Plug In Institute for Contemporary Art in Winnipeg and more. She has recieved numerous arts grants, scholarships, and prizes including Winnipeg Arts Council’s 2011 ‘On the Rise’ award. Her practice has developed to include dance/performance installation work and she regularly collaborates as a performer/collaborator on projects with visual artists such as Sarah Anne Johnson, Rebecca Belmore, and Noam Gonick. As a dancer she has studied with Tedd Robinson, Peter Boneham, Susie Burpee, and is a graduate of The School of Contemporary Dancers in Winnipeg.

 

Chase Scenes #1-58  | Ming Hon

Spectacles : 20 h les 19, 20, 21 juin 2015

Installation : le 3 au18 juillet

Causerie d’artiste 17 h 30 : le 3 juillet

C’est le soir. Un parc bordé d’arbres absorbe le son rythmique de ses talons sur le ciment. Le bruit sec d’une petite branche qui craque intervient. Elle s’arrête un moment et jète un coup d’œil derrière elle. Pas un son. Elle continue, le son de ses pas interrompu par des respirations fortes et des pas qui traînent à travers les arbres. La peur. Elle se dépêche, se propulse vers l’avant, marche rapidement maintenant. Ses cuisses et ses mollets sont tendus, les os dans ses pieds coincés dans l’architecture forcée de ses talons aiguilles. Son cœur et ses bras pompent, un crescendo accélérant de sa propre respiration qui pénètre et qui sort aussi vite de ses poumons. Ses yeux cherchent follement une issue de secours. Son cou se tort vers l’arrière pour mesurer frénétiquement la distance entre elle et … quoi? Qu’arrive-t-il quand on se fait prendre?

Chase Scenes #1-58 est à la fois une performance en direct et une installation sur le sujet de la poursuite. Inspirée de notre cauchemar collectif de se faire suivre ou poursuivre et l’expression de ceci dans la culture cinématographique et visuelle,Chase Scenes #1-58 présente divers scénarios de poursuite interprétés par des comédiens actuels qui sont captés à l’aide de caméras vidéo et des écrans qui affichent des projections d’alimentation en direct. Des corps réels et vivants en mouvement se confondent au spectacle de projections de corps filmiques sur l’écran. Des techniques cinématographiques classiques (points de vue, des gros plans, des prises au ralenti, le point de vue du harceleur) encadrent ces corps dans des conventions qui les mettent en contexte.

C’est une exploration sur la façon dont l’émotion fait place au physique. Comment la psychologie, l’adrénaline et la peur intense de la personne poursuivie se manifeste par une impulsion innée de l’élan vers l’avant. L’auditoire ressent cette performance en vivant la complexité de l’expérience de tous les angles : en tant que voyeurs du spectacle; ou des spectateurs habitués du cinéma, qui connaissent le langage visuel de la scène de poursuite; et en tant qu’individus avec des corps pour qui la réaction « de lutte ou de fuite » ou du poursuivant est activée.

« Aller au vif du sujet » est une expression commune issue des débuts du cinéma muet. Les scénaristes ennuyaient l’auditoire avec du matériel bouche-trou pour un certain montant de temps pour enfin en arriver à la scène de poursuite, la partie la plus anticipée du film. Chase Scenes #1-58 est effectuée d’une façon directe, sans pousse-alcool.

Concept et choréographie de Ming Hon

Mettant en scène Ming Hon

Seconds rôles Hilary Bergen, Carol-Ann Bohrn et Trevor Pick

Please note the revised dates and locations:

 

Sedentary Nomad

a free outdoor dance performance 

 

 

Sedentary Nomad, is an inviting public presentation created by Natasha Torres-Garner. The performance features 5 Winnipeg dance artists, Alexandra Elliott, Tanja Woloshen, Ali Robson, Elise Allard and Natasha Torres-Garner, and vocalist Johann Riley. 

The dance performance explores the challenges of preparing to leave the private comforts and safety of home for the more unpredictable social dynamics of the public realm. Sedentary Nomad, works with dance, puppetry, and theatre concepts to consider our individual complexities, and how we might support all of our individual facets when entering into the public world.

 

The outdoor performance aims to bring dance to the public space, allowing for physical expression to be welcomed back into our daily lives.

 

free outdoor performances

 

Fort Rouge Park

295 River Ave.

June 6th and 7th, 2015

2pm

 

Central Park

410 Cumberland Ave.

June 13th and 14th, 2015

2pm

 

 

Created by :

Natasha Torres-Garner

 

Performed by:

Alexandra Elliott

Ali Robson

Elise Allard

Tanja Woloshen

Natasha Torres-Garner

 

Vocalist :

Johanna Riley

 

Dramaturge:

Ian Mozdzen

 

Rehearsal Director:

Johanna Riley

 

Costume Design:

Jill Sawatzky

tonychestnut.ca

 

Crocheted doll and costume designed and created by:

Brenda Garner

 

Sedentary Nomad has been created with the generous support of 

Winnipeg Arts Council and Manitoba Arts Council