Rhodnie Désir in Dusk Society. Photo by John Lauener

PRESENTED BY DUSK DANCES INC.

Dusk Dances returns to Withrow Park with a week of exciting and entertaining dance works from Canada’s finest dance makers!

HOSTED BY ALLEGRA CHARLESTON
OPENING MUSICAL ACT SWAHA
With free YogaDance workshops
with master teacher Marla Meenakshi Joy (Downward Dog Yoga Centre)

Rawrabide

Gadfly
Choreographed by Ofilio Sinbadinho

Performed by: Zhenya Cerneacov, Sebastian Hirtenstein, Molly Johnson, Kathleen Legassick and Meredith Thompson
Music by: Ofilio Sinbadinho & Apolonia Velasquez - Adinhos

Rawrabide is inspired by this quote from a 1970s lower class black homosexual, now considered Harlem renaissance, writer and civil rights activist: “I was not born to be defined by someone else, but by myself, and myself only.” Life is a game. Lots of rules, flocks of players, and sloppy referees… The dancers move in staccato and speak with the bravado from urban realness, social activism, and remix culture.

Premieres this year at Dusk Dances

Dusk Society

Choreographed by Rhodnie Désir

Performed by: Rhodnie Désir
Music performance: Engone Endong

In this work, Désir takes a sociological, historical and choreographic direction. As a mirror of past and present concerns that shape Toronto’s identity, she will build a strong bridge with citizens by gathering written and video testimonies from the community who attends the Festival. In Dusk Society, the body of the choreographer becomes a graphic representation of the society’s pulse, as a way to express people’s voices and thoughts.

As she did for her BOW’T TRAIL project, the artist will create a solo piece, inspired by participants’ interviews and historical sources .

Premieres this year at Dusk Dances.

Homing Spirits

Choreographed by Sashar Zarif

Performed by: Luke Garwood, Corrado Cerruto, Mateo Galindo Torres and Sashar Zarif
Costume design: Sashar Zarif
Composition, Vocal and Percussion: Sashar Zarif
Live music: Artist to be announced
Outside Eye: Elizabeth Langley
Voice Coach: Katherine Duncanson

Using elements of Sufi and Shamanic rituals of the nomadic cultures of the Central Asian steppes, Homing Spirits will share essential elements in which these cultures connect with the idea of home: as earth-home for the human body, as yurt-shelter, and as body-home for the human soul. It is a work that will be taken in visually by the spectators, and also internally by the performers through their experience. The setting of park and grass is perfect for this new work; a negotiation between private self and stage, experience and performance, process and product.

Premieres this year at Dusk Dances.

New Animal (excerpt)

Company 605
Choreographed by Dana Gingras

Performed by: Amber Funk-Barton, Lisa Gelley, Graham Kaplan and Josh Martin
Music: Roger Tellier-Craig
Costume design: Sarah Doucet

Suffused with raw, unbridled energy, groove, ludic interaction and a hunger for movement, the performers reclaim their animal bodies as a means of becoming fully human. Both playful and intimate, New Animal walks a tightrope between fleeting moments of control and radical shifts in dynamics. The tension between flesh ultimately pushes the structure towards the edge of chaos and entropy. The collective effort to maintain form under pressure requires a resultant acceleration of energy from the feral performers, and willingness to adapt against imminent disorder.

A Dusk Dances premiere.

La gigue en souvenir

Bouchardanse
Choreographed by Sylvie Bouchard

With Mélissandre Tremblay-Bourassa for the last section

Performed by: Zhenya Cerneacov, Sebastian Hirtenstein, Molly Johnson, Kathleen Legassick, Meredith Thompson and Brendan Wyatt, with the participation of Young Core Apprentices from the Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre: Marian Asafu-Adjaye, Dylan Jardine-Wong, Alice Lukashevsky, Brianna Morris, Gwyneth Oliver, Uma Roberts, Mollye Stewart, Daryn Wells.
Music by: Les Charbonniers de l’Enfer
Costumes by: Nina Okens (Professional dancers) and Cheryl Lalonde (Core Apprentices)
Project Assistant: Meredith Thompson
Dance teacher for the Core Apprentices: Megan Nadain

La gigue en souvenir makes the past come alive through a journey inspired by the energy, the complexity and the vigour of the traditional Québec gigue. Six dancers perform, alongside Young Core Apprentices from the Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, reinventing the folk tradition of the “gigue” in a contemporary fashion. This dance becomes a bridge between past and present and an ode to this most expressive of heritage.

Sylvie Bouchard would like to thank the dancers for their contribution to the piece and their generosity; Deborah and Michael at the Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, as well as Meredith Thompson and Megan Nadain to have made this beautiful project possible; all the young dancers for their very inspired and inspiring work.

La gigue en souvenir premiered as a Dusk Dances commission in 2008.