Accolade Project with Dance

– York Dance Ensemble Inaugurates The Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan Theatre –

TORONTO, March 13, 2006 -- York University and its Faculty of Fine Arts celebrate the official opening of The Accolade Project, York’s outstanding new $107.5 million state-of-the-art teaching, exhibition and performance complex, with a week-long Fine Arts Festival running March 20-26.

From March 23-25, the York Dance Ensemble (YDE), under the artistic direction of alumna and Dance Professor Susan Cash, will headline the inaugural performances in the beautiful new Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan Theatre in The Accolade Project, the new home of the Department of Dance.

This intimate, 325-seat proscenium theatre boasts generous stage, wings, sidestage and backstage space as well as a suite of dressing rooms. Equipped with a forestage with adjustable elevation for an orchestra pit, computerized lighting system, full counterweight fly system and traps, this outstanding facility is suitable for both dance and theatre.

Now in its 16th season, the YDE is a lively young company of dancers on the brink of their professional careers. For this special occasion, they will perform homegrown repertoire that pays homage to the past, celebrates the present and heralds a new era for dance at York. Spotlighting works by faculty, alumni and student choreographers, the YDE Showcase runs nightly at 8pm.

The program features the world premiere of Vermillion Arc, a work created by award-winning choreographer, York professor and alumna Holly Small. Together with music director and York gamelan instructor Nur Intan Murtadza, seven dancers move to the live music they create on a Javanese gamelan. Merging contemporary dance with traditional Indonesian music, this mysterious, ritualistic work evokes the journey from moonrise through night-time to sunrise.

Other highlights include a remount of Ever Falling Home, a gripping, dramatic work choreographed by Darcey Callison, director of the Graduate Program in Dance, and Slipping Glimpses, a new commission for the Ensemble by award-winning independent dance artist and alumna Yvonne Ng. Ng draws on her diptych Paper Women and Emerald Lies to devise a startling collage of images in movement that create their own story.

Sashar Zarif, who is both an instructor and a graduate student in dance at York, offers the evening’s second world premiere: a trio titled Wait, contemporary choreography inspired by the Sufi ritualistic dance styles of Central Asia, Azerbaijan and Iran. Graduate student Jack Clark presents a reconstruction of the pioneering early 20^th-century work Soaring by Doris Humphrey and Ruth St. Denis. And artistic director Cash contributes Fence  (under de-struction), a light-hearted investigation of boundaries and borders, set to Cole Porter's hit tune "Don't Fence Me In", sung by Gene Autry and Holly Cole.

Lighting design for the York Dance Ensemble showcase is by York Theatre Professor Peter McKinnon.

Running in repertory with the YDE, the Dance Department also presents Dancing Worlds, choreography with an international flavour, on stage at The Sandra Faire and Ivan Theatre March 23-25 at 6pm. Dancing Worlds presents three works based on cultural, ceremonial and musical traditions of West Africa, choreographed by Artistic Director, Ghanaian dance artist and York Professor Modesto Amegago and two pieces by Sashar Zarif that draw on musical, spiritual and folk traditions of Central Asia. Rounding out the program is a whimsical work set to pop music, created collaboratively by Holly Small and York Professor, multi-media artist Don Sinclair, featuring 27 dancers, interactive video projections and two yellow bicycles.

York’s dance department, the oldest and largest in the country, has been the seedbed for many of Canada’s leading dance artists. Graduates include independent dancers and choreographers such as Carol Anderson, Andrea Nann, Denise Fujiwara, Lata Pada and Santee Smith, as well as many others who have gone on to become artistic directors, choreographers and leading performers with Canadian modern dance companies. Among them are Cirque du Soleil’s long-time principal choreographer Debra Brown; Shannon Cooney of Dancemakers; Patrick Parson, founding artistic director of Ballet Creole; Karen Kaeja of Kaeja d’Dance; Janet Johnson, co-founder of Pedestrian Waltz; and Christopher House, artistic director of Toronto Dance Theatre.

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The Accolade Project, to be officially launched at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on March 20, is a visionary initiative that offers Canada’s future artists, scholars and educators a striking new home in which to learn, create and innovate. This $107.5 million, 358,000 sq. ft. expansion project, designed by leading architectural firms Zeidler Partnership and B+H Architects, provides state-of-the-art teaching, exhibition and performance facilities in two new buildings – Accolade East and Accolade West ­– framing the existing fine arts complex at the heart of York University’s Keele campus. Flagship facilities include a 325- seat proscenium theatre, 325-seat recital hall with integrated recording studio, 500-seat cinema/lecture hall, two art galleries, and dozens of cutting-edge classrooms, labs and studios The Accolade Project reflects York’s stature as a rising cultural powerhouse and partner in Toronto’s cultural renaissance.

The Faculty of Fine Arts at York University is one of North America's leading and largest educational institutions for the fine arts. A vibrant community of more than 3,000 students and 250 faculty working at the leading edge of fine arts practice and scholarship, it offers academic studies and professional training at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in all the fine arts: dance, design, film, music, theatre, visual arts, as well as interdisciplinary cultural studies.

York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 190,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 10 faculties and 22 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.

York University and its Faculty of Fine Arts present the Fine Arts Festival running March 20-26

York Dance Ensemble Showcase: March 23-25 - 8pm - $12

Dancing Worlds: March 23-25 – 6pm - $12

All dance events are held in The Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan Theatre

Accolade East, York University, 4700 Keele St., Toronto

Information & Fine Arts Festival Box Office: 416-736-5888

Fine Arts Festival: www.yorku.ca/finearts/festival  

The Accolade Project: www.yorku.ca/accolade

Department of Dance: www.yorku.ca/finearts/dance

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For more information, contact: 
Media Relations, York University, 416-736-5585 / media@yorku.ca