TORONTO, February 1, 2011 − Stories Off the Record is this season’s second installment of world premieres by rising choreographers in York University’s MFA Program in Dance. Graduate students Angela Blumberg, Alison Daley, Katya Kuznetsova and Anastasia Maywood are each contributing an original work to the playbill as part of their thesis productions. A new duet by guest artist Tracey Norman, who graduated last year in first cohort of MFA dance students, rounds out the program, which runs February 16 to 18 at 7:30pm in the Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan Theatre at York’s Keele campus.
Stories “off the record” are told in confidence. Investigative journalism often relies on off-the- record sources to get to the heart of a story. Evoking the spirit of such a clandestine encounter, this production speaks heart to heart as the choreographers investigate moving ideas with performers from York’s undergraduate dance program, recent grads and more.
“Watching these dancesmiths evolve with their distinctive choreographic perspectives, I’m convinced that dance is one of the more meaningful paths to understanding the spaces and time we inhabit together,” said graduate program director Darcey Callison, who serves as artistic director for the production.
Blumberg’s duet Unregistered Visitors is danced by York alumna Brittany-Brie D'Amico (BFA ‘10) and Kyra Jean Green, a graduate of New York’s Juilliard School. The choreography fuses urban reality and fiction, presenting an autumn fairytale in which the surface of actuality is scratched to reveal two mysterious visitors beneath. The piece is set to music performed live by a percussion trio.
Blumberg worked as an independent dance artist, presenting her own work in Germany, the UK, Sweden and Canada for four years before embarking on graduate studies at York.
Daley’s and Kuznetsova’s works are performed by members of the York Dance Ensemble, the department’s pre-professional repertory company directed by Professor Susan Cash.
Daley’s septet Ridiculous Emotions tackles pre-teen angst. “When we're thirteen, our bodies are much too small to contain the enormity of our reactions and emotions,” Daley said. Her seven dancers are Mariève Aubé, Irvin Crow, Tracy Day, Rachel Martin, Stefanie Theroux, Alex VanDaele and Hannah Walter.
Daley was a company member with Japan’s Tokyo Space Dance and has performed her own work at festivals in Canada, Europe and Asia.
Her Illustrious Highness, choreographed by Kuznetsova, explores the specific physicality of moving in high heels. Re-interpreting fragments of movement vocabularies from ballroom dances such as the foxtrot and Argentine tango, this bold new work illuminates the states of bodies in these delicate acts of balance. It features dancers Meghann Bronson, Stéphanie Charette, Patty Kallidi, Erin Man, Susie Saya, Brittany Turner, Megan Windeler and Michelle Zetts.
Kuznetsova trained professionally as a ballroom dancer in her native Russia and toured in Europe, China and the US. Following graduate studies in dance and education in Alaska, she enjoyed a ten-year teaching career before coming to York to pursue her MFA in dance.
Expect the unexpected in Angles of Departure, Maywood’s piece for six dancers chosen from all levels of the undergraduate program, from first to fourth year. Using the written work of renowned theatre pedagogue Jacques Lecoq as a starting point, Maywood playfully twists the audience’s expectations in both physical and visual ways. Her dance is performed by HaleyRae Christian Cannell, Nadege Blackhall, Becky McGuire, Hannah Greyson-Gaito, Kendra Guimond and Conrad Racicot.
Maywood danced and choreographed with Alberta’s Orchesis Modern Dance Group for nine years before joining York’s graduate dance program.
Norman’s duet here is performed by two other alumni from York’s dance program, Jesse Dell (BFA ‘03) and Sky Fairchild-Waller (BFA ‘09). Building on material she first explored in her thesis research, Norman continues her investigation of concepts of navigation. This new work looks at the limits, boundaries and discoveries unearthed in the process of navigating in close proximity to another.
Norman, who teaches part-time in York’s Dance Department, is an independent dance artist specializing in interdisciplinary work. Her choreography has been presented by many Canadian organizations including DanceWorks, Dance Ontario, Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre, Kinetic Studio (Halifax), Festival de Danse en l’Atlantique (New Brunswick) and Larchaud Dance Project.
Stories Off the Record is the second in a series of thesis concerts being presented this season by York’s MFA Program in Dance. The first show, Shooting a Bird, ran last fall and featured a collection of self-choreographed solos (see YFile November 1, 2010). A final set of self-produced independent projects will be showcased later in this spring.
The Faculty of Fine Arts launched the Master of Fine Arts in Dance program in 2008, complementing the department’s groundbreaking MA program in dance history, ethnology and criticism. The MFA program provides graduate students with the opportunity to conduct studio-based research in contemporary choreography and dance dramaturgy, developing their directorial and dramaturgical roles in the creative process and production of theatrical choreography. The research is developed within the context of contemporary dance and its many manifestations as both personal statement and universal metaphor, incorporating political, social, cultural and personal consequences intrinsic to issues in the art form.
Stories Off the Record: Original choreography
When: Feb 16 to 18 at 7:30pm
Where: Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan Theatre | Accolade East Building | York University | 4700 Keele Street | Map
Admission: $20 | $10 for students & seniors
Box Office: 416-736-5888 | www.yorku.ca/perform/boxoffice
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Media Contact:
Amy Stewart, Communications, Faculty of Fine Arts, York University
416.650.8469 | amy.stewart@yorku.ca
