Montréal is taking its place as the world's premiere circus destination. Montréal Complètement Cirque is the city's first circus festival, featuring homegrown talent and creating space to stage the world's finest. July is on fire with shows, including iD by Cirque Éloize. Directed by Jeannot Painchaud, this multimedia show blends ten circus disciplines with urban dance styles such as b-boying/b-girling, break dancing and hip hop. Backed by an impressive creative team that has transformed the environment, the performers include Mason Ames, Valérie Benoit-Charbonneau, Stacey Carlson, Leilani Franco, Christian Garmatter, Elon Höglund, Olivier Lemieux, Emmanuelle LePhan, Josianne Levasseur, Hugo Ouellet-Côté, Thibaut Philippe, Fletcher Sanchez, Kone Thong Vongpraseuth and Florian Zumkehr.
In the words of Painchaud from the press kit: "In the middle of this surreal megalopolis exists a public place. A public place, as a spot where one can seek refuge and escape anonymity, to express one's individuality and affirm one's identity, in order to reclaim possession of public space, and to dance the city..."
The outdoor series of the Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival is heightening spirits this week, including a hypnotic aerial performance by Montréal's Floating Seed. Inspired by Japanese butoh, Chrysalis features the company's co-directors Andrea Legg and Gabrielle Martin.
Alternatively performed indoors, the work takes on a haunting contrast in this video produced and directed by Ivan Rubio. The YouTube notes further detail that "the dancers represent two spirits in an eternal journey of emergence" and that "through its twenty-five minute duration, the dancers portray a profound sensory experience and a rich visual architecture as they suspend, climb, float, and hang in that intermediate state between the material and spiritual planes."
Hamilton is gearing up for Thursday's dinner theatre performance of Cirque-tacular & the Seven Deadly Sins by the aerial dance cirque company A2D2. In a blend of circus disciplines and apparatuses, this show explores the emotions and vices of the lovers Romeo and Juliet. Among the characterized sins is Lust, performed by aerial artist Mark Segal, seen here rehearsing segments of his act.
The next logical step would of course be: aerial! In fact, you can still catch Femmes du Feu performing their "Best of the Fringe" aerial show Head First tonight and tomorrow in Toronto. Integrating suspended bungee cords with contemporary dance, choreographers Sabrina Pringle and Holly Treddenick take their dancing to new heights in Impossibility.
For more information on the show, check out their Event Listing.
From Montreal to Quebec City to Toronto this fall, Cirque du Soleil presents OVO with dazzling and colourful performances that touch the heart and amaze the mind. Proud to be Canadian!
"OVO is a headlong rush into a colourful ecosystem teeming with life, where insects work, eat, crawl, flutter, play, fight and look for love in a non-stop riot of energy and movement. The insects' home is a world of biodiversity and beauty filled with noisy action and moments of quiet emotion. [...] OVO is overflowing with contrasts. The hidden, secret world at our feet is revealed as tender and torrid, noisy and quiet, peaceful and chaotic. And as the sun rises on a bright new day the vibrant cycle of insect life begins anew."
In this interview with Holly Treddenick and Sabrina Pringle, we are pleased to share a bit more about Femmes du Feu and their show Head First. This wild aerial dance show opens tonight at the Fringe Festival, and continues on to next Saturday. Think you'd like to give it a try? The dancers would love for you to join them in the park prior to their Sunday show to try out the silks with them! For more info about the show, check out their website.
SHOW TALK by MERGE
Head First and Beyond
by Brittany Duggan
If the title Head First lends itself to more than just the countless number of times these extraordinary aerialists physically propel themselves, head first, it might be to explain what this collective is capable of achieving that other contemporary collectives can only strive for. That being, the ability to realize whole embodiment of personal expression, without having to modify because of the natural phenomenon we call gravity. In these two electric pieces, Femme du Feu’s six rocker aerialists seamlessly integrate themselves within the dangling, grid to stage, elasticized pieces of fabric. Interspersing air-bound stunts with phrases of grounded contemporary/jazz, they perform with a serious dose of rebellious flare and fearless commitment.
The opening duet, by choreographers and performers Sabrina Pringle and Holly Treddenick, as well as the final group number, are pieced together by a ranging compilation of popular music - Feist, Lily Allen, The Ting Tings; all of which support the fun, playful, while also tender and protective atmosphere created by these young women.
All in all, a very exciting way to spend fifty-five minutes of Toronto Fringe Festival time.
Among the dance companies featured at the Toronto Fringe Festival this year, the aerial dancers of Femmes du Feu risk their necks (with grace) in Head First. These clips are from the works of choreographers Sabrina Pringle and Holly Treddenick, who also perform in this alternative indie rock program. "Head First reflects pop culture from this decade, inspired by fashion media and the aesthetics of Generation Why Not." Check out their Event Listing for more info and schedules.
DANCE TIP #14
Dance @ the Fringe welcomes audiences to reflect on dance in their tagline: Dance made me _________. After a quick Google search for this phrase, here are some of the top entries:
Dance made me cry
Dance made me mad
Dance made me think
Dance made me blush
Dance made me realize
Dance made me see hope
Dance made me laugh out loud
Dance made me quite emotional
Dance made me want to know more
Dance made me want to learn how to be a better person
Do these resonate with any of your experiences watching dance? What other reactions has dance given you?
Indie rock meets bare knuckle, death defying aerial dance.
July 3rd - 11:00pm
July 5th - 4:00pm
July 6th - 8:45pm
July 8th - 12:15pm
July 9th - 7:00pm
July 10th - 6:15pm
July 11th - 1:45pm
Location: Theatre Passe Muraille Main Space, 16 Ryerson Ave, Toronto
Tickets: $10
Box Office: (416) 966-1062 Fringe Ticket Info Reviews: EYE Weekly, NOW Magazine
Toronto's aerial dance company Femmes du Feu is gearing up for a summer of Fringe Festival performances in Toronto, London and Hamilton. Founders Holly Treddenick and Sabrina Pringle bring a modern dance aesthetic to their work, allowing it to inform their creative process and intention. What circus elements bring to the table are "props or apparatuses such as silks, low flying trapeze, hoop, bungee, harness, window frames, chairs or anything else suspended that can be danced with to create an exciting visual effect or convey an image."
More more information about the company, check out their website, and be sure to see the Event Listing for their upcoming fundraiser.
