Borrowed Time program notes | Dance Days Festival 2024

Dance Victoria Presents

borrowed time

by Inverso Productions

Borrowed Time

January 27, 2024, 7:30pm Dance Victoria 2750 Quadra St, Victoria, BC Performers/Collaborators: Justin Calvadores, Marisa Gold, Barbara Karmazyn, Kerstin Luettich & Eden Solomon (created with Daria Mikhaylyuk) Victoria Performers: Carla Baehler, Alison Child, Alissa Merz, Judith Price, David Roland, Grace Salez, Amalia Schelhorn, Caroline Sophonow Choreographer: Lesley Telford Lighting : Irene Weng Music by: Thom Yorke, Pérotin, Sick Boss, Caroline Shaw, Administrative and Production Assistant: Samantha Krystal

A 50 year range of ages joins us in an exploration of strength and vulnerability through different phases of our lives. This intergenerational project is a special one for Inverso, bringing together professional and community dancers from 26-76 years old.

How do our relationships across generations allow us to give in, grow and rebuild? How do the constellations of our families shift as the weight of care teeters over time?

Dedicated to my mother, Sandy Telford.

Dance Days Featured Presentation

Inverso Productions creates dance-based work with an interdisciplinary lens. Founded in 2012 in Spain to experiment with other art forms and ways of creating dance, Inverso has been a registered non-profit society in Vancouver, BC on unceded Coast Salish territory since 2017.

Inverso's works have involved the visual arts, literature, theatre, film, music and science. Inverso Productions has produced three fulllength works: Brittle Failure, which has been a part of tours and festivals in Spain, the Netherlands and Canada, Spooky Actions and Gem-like. Inverso has been presented in the CaDance Festival and Korzo Theatre in the Netherlands, International Festival Madrid en Danza and the Reina Sophia Museum in Spain, the Chutzpah Festival, the Banff Festival of the Arts, the Gothenburg Dance and Theatre Festival, the Schmiede Festival, EDAM Choreographic Series, the Fluid Festival in Calgary, the Dancing on the Edge Festival, Dance in Vancouver and the Vancouver International Dance Festival. Inverso's collaborators include Berlin-based scenographer Yoko Seyama, writer Barbara Adler, videographer David Cooper and composer James Meger, and organizations such as TRIUMF UBC, Curiosity Collider, SFU School of Contemporary Arts, Pi Theatre and Sawdust Collector.

Our current project involves dancers of diverse ages in intergenerational performances and community engagement.

Inverso also has programming and professional development for the emerging artist. We value the integrity of the human experience in dance and strive to create works that are culturally sensitive, intelligent, and multi-sensory. inverso.ca

Lesley Telford choreographer

Michael Slobodian

Inverso Productions

Lesley Telford is a choreographer, educator and the Executive Artistic Director of Inverso Productions. Her work has been described as having !a profound way of tapping into very deep recesses of our emotional and intellectual landscapes.” Lesley danced professionally with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Compañia Nacional de Danza in Spain, and Netherlands Dans Theater 1. She has been commissioned to choreograph for Ballet BC, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Netherlands Dans Theater 1, Hubbard Street Dance Company 2, Compañia Nacional de Danza 2, Ballet Vorpommern, International Project for Dance in Rome- DAF, Butler Ballet, University of Utah, and Arts Umbrella Dance Company. This year she will be creating a new work for Zfin Malta Dance Company. She founded Inverso Productions, to experiment with other art forms and ways of creating dance. Through Inverso she has produced and choreographed three full-length works. Lesley also leads initiatives for emerging professional dance artists. She has a Master of Arts in Cultural Production from the University of Salzburg and the Mozarteum and is currently furthering her studies in the field of Gerontology at SFU. Her passion for advocacy and the rights of older adults has brought her closer to the realities of aging and the work that needs to be done. In a small way, this new work explores how we can listen to each other more closely across generations. lesleytelford.com

Justin Calvadores (they/them) is a second generation Filipinx, queer freelance contemporary dance artist based in so called !Vancouver” BC, the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and TsleilWaututh First Nations. They grew up on Treaty No. 1 territory and at the age of 16 they were introduced to dance through a Filipino led hip hop dance community. Justin completed two years of training with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and is a graduate of the Arts Umbrella dance program. Justin has danced with Ballet BC as an emerging artist under the direction of Emily Molnar and continued their contemporary dance career with Ballet Edmonton Under the direction of Wen Wei Wang. As freelance artist Justin has worked with companies such as Nicole Von Arx, Kinesis Dance, F-O-R-M, Wen Wei Dance, Mile Zero, Jill Henis, CoErasga, Isak Enquist, Vancouver Poetry House, Dumb Instrument Dance, Heather Myers, Kelly Mcinnes, and Mascall Dance. This season Justin will be performing with companies and artists including Inverso Productions, FakeKnot, Volt 24, Daria Mikhaylyuk, Action at a Distance and The Falling Company. Justin"s own work and creativity is significantly described by their relationship to queerness and exploring liberation. Most recently, Justin has shared their work !Honey”, performed by Shana Wolfe and Alger Liang at Morrow, cultural space of Dumb Instrument Dance.

Kristine Cofsky

Marisa Gold dancer/collaborator

David Cooper

Justin Calvadores dancer/collaborator

Marisa Gold is an empathetic multidisciplinary artist with a passion for all things soulful. Movement as a form of expression has been her instinct since the beginning of her memory with poetry, styling, acting, singing and choreographing not too far behind. With a BFA in dance (SFU), certificate of completion from The Ailey School Independent Study program (NYC), and The Graham school 2017/18 Intensive(NYC), Marisa has trained in a wide variety of Modern/Contemporary dance styles. Her professional performance and choreographic experience ranges from modern/contemporary concert dance to experimental street style performance, and musical theatre productions to film and TV work. Marisa's artistic influences are deeply rooted in the heart space of her ancestors. She feels powerful and expansive when she remembers all who have come before her in artistic and self-expression. As a writer, mover, designer and performer, Marisa continues her poetic wandering; delving further with love into the mystery of our collective humanity as well as her own. It’s been so beautiful to make supportive connections through time and space with movers of a different life stage.

Eden Solomon (she/they) grew up in Montréal. She studied dance at École Supérieure de ballet du Québec, Arts Umbrella, and Performance Research Project in Vancouver. As a freelancer, Eden performed work by Lesley Telford, Wen Wei Wang, Jasmine Ellis, Danielle Agami, and David Harvey, as well as being movement director for Crack Cloud media collective. She danced with Ballets Jazz Montréal (2020-2023) and performed work by Anne Plamondon, Crystal Pite, Aszure Barton, Andonis Foniadakis, Ihsan Rustem, Ermanno Sbezzo, Juliano Nunes, and Ausia Jones. Eden's choreographic practice continues to grow, focusing on humour, poetry, and political commentary through performance.

Corinne Chepil

Barbara Karmazyn dancer/collaborator

Lara Varat

Eden Solomon dancer/collaborator

Barbara is a free style dancer who has been dancing on the sacred, unceded and ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil Waututh people, for most of her life. She took her first contemporary dance class at the age of 32 at SFU Centre for the Arts and continued taking dance and theatre classes until graduation. Wanting to share her love of dance, she began teaching creative dance to young children. This evolved to her career as an Expressive Arts Educator, providing dance, storymaking, singing and visual arts workshops and facilitating drum circles. Barbara has danced and played with children and adults, educators and caregivers, people with mixed abilities and seniors with dementia.

She has worked in community centres, colleges, conferences, retreat centres, senior centres and care homes, throughout BC. Since retiring in 2012, Barbara has been dancing with The Roundhouse Ageless Dancers, and is one of the founding members of The Monday Dancers in partnership with the Roundhouse. While Barbara has been a familiar dancing presence at music festivals and outdoor events for decades, this will be her first professional performance.

Kerstin Luettich dancer/collaborator

Irene Weng lighting/technical direction

Kurt Huebner

!

I was born and grew up in Berlin, West, at a time when the Wall was still surrounding me. Berlin was a creative laboratory. My entire life I loved to dance and I took as many dance classes as possible in a wide variety. I can truly say that the city had a deep influence on my life. After graduating from High School, I applied for an art program at the Sorbonne in Paris and also for an art education at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. I opted for Berlin. And yet, my sense of security led me to decide to change course after two years and study Political Science and Physical Education at the Free University Berlin, I graduated with a MA in 1989. Parallel, I trained in dance, acquired a teaching certificate ( within my studies a two year dance education program at the Free University Berlin ) and taught courses in modern and jazz dance. Latter was complimentary to a side job of mine - working as a model at danced fashion shows across Europe. Then life changed completely: two kids, a husband and a new start in Canada. After my move to Canada and after our move from Toronto to Vancouver I worked full-time as a program manager at the Institute for European Studies at the University of British Columbia. Only late I rediscovered my love and enthusiasm for dance. After successfully applying for Le Grand Continental (Push Festival) my #second career$"in dancing started as I became more and more drawn into the dance scene of Vancouver.

Yifang was born in Tianjin, China, and graduated from SFU Theatre Production and Design (Honours) and currently based in the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the x%m&'k w&y & m(Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and S&lílw&ta( (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, which she also calls home (Vancouver). Irene's knowledge and experience span across Lighting, Set, projection, sound, and production management. As a person who has multiple cultural backgrounds and bi-language skills, she loves, welcomes, and wants to create diversified artworks. Recent work includes: "Grafting" (Blackout Art Society) Lighting design/ "Strange Joy" (SFU Theatre Mainstage) assistant lighting design/ "Bloom" (Mascall Dance) Lighting Design.

Dance Victoria Board of Directors President: Colette Baty Vice-President: Brendan Ralfs Treasurer: Joost Pelt Secretary: Sarah Millard Directors: Kemi Craig, Linley Faulkner, Marlon Murr, Philip Pierce, Carrie Smart

Thank you!

Thanks to Dance Victoria for making this show possible and to our wonderful local participants!

Inverso Productions is grateful for the generous support from private donors, the Canada Council for the Arts, the City of Vancouver Cultural Services, and The Scotiabank Dance Centre

Dance Victoria Staff Executive Director: Gillian Jones General Manager: Dayna Szyndrowski Development & Operations Manager: Shireen McNeilage Marketing Manager: Anne-Sophie Cournoyer Production Manager: Holly Vivian Artist Programs & Studios Manager: Kiera Shaw Community Engagement Manager: Larissa Sharma Dance Victoria Society 111 – 2750 Quadra St. Victoria, BC V8T 4E8 250-595-1829 info@dancevictoria.com

Dance Victoria Creation & Residency Sponsors:

Dance Victoria Dance Days Funders: