Dance Victoria Footnotes 44 (Winter 2014)

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ISSUE  • WINTER  • Ballet BC + Dance Days/Night Moves + more

Videos, + photos fo in e r mo web on the

Dance at the Royal Ballet British Columbia Triple Bill January 30 + 31 • Thur + Fri • 7:30 pm Royal Theatre Running time: 2 hours (including intermission)

Dance Days | Night Moves

DANCE DAYS SPONSOR

Victoria’s NEW Dance Festival

Ballet BC’s Livona Ellis, Gilbert Small and artists in Walking Mad. Photo © Michael Slobodian

January 23 – February 8 Various venues around town Free Classes. Hot Shows. Cool Parties.

NIGHT MOVES SPONSOR

 Footnotes • Issue  • Winter 

Dance Days | Night Moves January  – February  It’s back and bigger than ever. In its fifth season, Dance Days has

Dance Victoria Board: President

Colleen Gibson

Vice President

Dr. Jennifer Charlesworth

Secretary

Gail Maier

Directors

Carlos MacDonald Helen McAllister Jean McRae Chris Wilson Rod Windjack

Staff: Producer

Stephen White

Executive Director

Jason Dubois

Associate Producer

Elise Wren

Administration Cindy Borbridge Assistant Trips Coordinator

Bill Hamar

If you’d like to volunteer for Dance Victoria call 250-595-1829 Studios and Office: 111 – 2750 Quadra Street Victoria, BC V8T 4E8 250-595-1829 DanceVictoria.com for trailers, tickets and more info Footnotes is written by Stephen White (unless otherwise noted) and proofed by Anne Moon.

Highlights BOUNCE around the building!

Dance Victoria Studios (2750 Quadra) January 25 • Saturday • Doors 7:30 pm • $20 at the door Short new works by locals performed in surprising locations throughout the building featuring Broken Rhythms, Brandy Baybutt, Constance Cooke, Stacey Horton and more. At 10 pm the mirror ball drops and Dance Days kicks off with an unforgettable party!

A Very Dangerous Pastime: The Dance Films of Laura Taler Cinecenta (UVic Student Union Bldg.)

February 4 • Tuesday • 7:00 pm $5.75 - $7.75 at the door Ottawa-based filmmaker Laura Taler has won an armful of international awards for her collaborations with some of Canada’s leading dancers/dance-makers. The LA Times writes about Taler, “For depth of feeling, photographic sensitivity and movement invention, her mastery of choreography and direction is unquestioned.” Taler will be on-hand at the screening to participate in an artist talk.

The LOLA Projects Dance Victoria Studios (2750 Quadra) February 6 • Thursday • Noon – 1:00 pm • Free Limited seating. Reserve in advance: community@dancevictoria.com or 250-595-1829 Vancouver dance artist Lee Su-Feh has been working with emerging Victoria artists Andrew Barrett and Alex Thompson since September as they develop their own new works. This will be the first time they show them to an audience and they are eager to get your feedback. Intimate and casual — a chance to get inside the creative process. FN

Tracy Smith Bessette in Laura Taler’s Forsaken. Photo © Jeremy Mimnagh

Dance Victoria is a charitable non-profit society dedicated to excellence in the presentation and development of dance.

Dance Victoria brings the world’s best dance to the Royal Theatre each season and from its studios at 2750 Quadra Street, it nurtures the creation of new dance works and dance artists.

expanded so that in addition to the multitude of free dance classes in studios all over the city, we’ve added Night Moves, a small festival of contemporary dance. There are dance performances by visiting companies at the Metro Studio (Quadra at Johnson) February  through  and a series of free Rough Cuts (studio showings of new dance works in development) at Dance Victoria Studios. Please note: Seating for the studio showings is very limited. Please reserve in advance by contacting Elise: community@dancevictoria.com A complete calendar of activities is now online at DanceVictoria.com or you can pick up a festival guide at any Serious Coffee location on southern Vancouver Island. Or, if you prefer, we would be happy to mail a copy — give us a call at -- or request one by emailing info@dancevictoria.com.

DanceVictoria.com • 

nar’s part, what she has created with the new Ballet BC is a company that is perfectly suited for the city of Vancouver. It’s young, fresh, contemporary — much like the city itself. It has a vitality and aspiration like the city of Vancouver. It’s progressive in the same way. It’s really pretty remarkable — magic really, that in such a short time, Vancouver (and the province) can celebrate a very sophisticated performing arts company that is finding its stride.

Ballet BC Insider

Livona Ellis and Connor Gnam in Walking Mad. Photo © Michael Slobodian

Sleight of Hand Any magician will tell you it takes a lot of training, practice and hard work to accomplish the impossible.

In three short years, Artistic Director Emily Molnar has pulled off something just short of magic at Ballet British Columbia. When she started in the summer of 2011, she was quite literally picking up fragments of a company that had been broken for some time. In the 1990s, Ballet BC had received accolades for its strong, versatile dancers and sometimes challenging repertoire. But a few bad decisions, artistically and financially, and soon the company was in a tailspin that took a few years to unwind.

In retrospect, Molnar was the right person for the job. For one thing, she trained at the National Ballet School and upon graduation had danced in companies in Canada and Europe so she understood how it works inside. She has always been more than a dancer. You knew it even when she was performing in someone else’s work — there was a sensitivity, charisma and intelligence that hinted at something deeper.

Dancers in general have an incredible work ethic. They spend hours in the studios every day. Most begin serious training when they’re adolescents. Molnar harnessed this internal discipline and the magic she made happen at Ballet BC came via hard work. She went into the studio every day. She worked one on one with the dancers.

She pushed them, strengthening their technique so that they could interpret a wide range of work. It’s an almost impossible task to be a contemporary ballet dancer. You need the ballet foundation, the strict form that has been distilled over several centuries originating from the mannered court movement of France’s Louis XIV, but you also need the suppleness and expression of the contemporary dancer.

The other card that Molnar had up her sleeve was a vision of what she wanted the company to be. She wanted a company that was performing new works by some of Europe’s (and Canada’s) leading dance makers. She wanted mixed rep programs that showcased the ability of her dancers. She wanted contemporary voices and ideas — she wanted to satisfy an audience but also make them think.

In the end, and I believe this is fortuitous, or unconscious on Mol-

Connor Gnam has been a Ballet BC dancer for eight years and in October 2013, just days before the Vancouver opening of Ballet BC’s Tilt (the exact same triple bill program we’ll see in Victoria), he wrote about his experience dancing the three pieces. The evening consists of two new works; one by Finnish choreographer Jorma Elo and the other by Ballet BC Artistic Director, Emily Molnar. It also includes a remount of a piece entitled Walking Mad by Swedish dance maker Johan Inger. Here are some highlights from what Connor had to say: Jorma Elo has the ability to take an emotion, thought or memory and break it down into its most elegant physical form. I am always amazed at how he can use the simplest steps to say so much.

Through several years of Emily Molnar choreographing, a mutual knowledge has developed and allowed her to push us in new and exciting ways. She’s created an atmospheric mood in her newest creation that is constantly shifting. She’s created a powerful and moving ballet.

Walking Mad should make you smile genuinely, laugh heartily and in the end break your heart. It’s a classic boy meets girl and you get to live through an entire relationship in one ballet. It lives in my heart as one of my favourite ballets of all time. The audience loved it the first time we performed it.

Best of the Year Every year the Globe and Mail critics are asked by the Publisher to “crown their artists of the year” (Globe and Mail, December 28, 2013).

This year, dance critic Paula Citron selected Ballet BC Artistic Director, Emily Molnar. Citron says, “After training at the National Ballet School…Regina-born Molnar went on to a glorious career with William Forsythe’s iconic and influential Ballet Frankfurt… [Here] she honed her own dance aesthetic, one that favours risk and excitement over the safe and comfortable. Her vision for the 18-member company is to make Ballet BC a lean, mean, contemporary-ballet machine… As a result [it] has a new-found reputation for producing cutting-edge dance.” FN

Pre-Show Chats Presented by January 30 + 31  Thr + Fri • 6:45 pm Join Producer Stephen White and Ballet BC Artistic Director Emily Molnar in the lobby of the Royal Theatre for an informative conversation about the evening’s performance. FREE to ticket holders.

 Footnotes • Issue  • Winter 

Dance Seen Victoria gets a new Dance Festival I have to admit, I am a little excited. Other people would get out of Dodge if they took a look at my towering, dense schedule for the coming month. But what do you expect when you’re launching a new presentation series (Night Moves, February  through ), you have two major Canadian dance artists and their companies in residence in the studios and a group of colleagues (dance presenters like myself) coming into Victoria from every corner of Canada to see new work? For a couple of weeks, January  through February , as a matter of fact, dance owns this town, and it certainly owns me.

I’ll be OK. I’m eating my Wheaties, hitting the gym and ensuring I have at least an hour or two each day to read and relax.

I’m excited because our new Night Moves event is the fulfillment of an idea I’ve had for some time. We have created a platform to show Victoria the exciting, small-scale dance works that are being created by the next generation of dance artists across this country. Until now we weren’t able to show these pieces at the Royal Theatre or McPherson Playhouse. I love the invention, the artists’ commitment, the craft in each of the three very different pieces we’re presenting this year.

We’re leading into these presentations with a series of free daytime studio showings or Rough Cuts of new works currently in development from a variety of artists including local Constance Cooke. Those visiting dance presenters will participate in a public roundtable led by Dr. Allana Lindgren that will focus on Dance Victoria’s intention to grow its commitment in supporting the creation and development of new dance works. In all — a grand little event and almost all of it is FREE or offered at minimal cost. FN

Stephen White photo © Benjamin Moore; (above) Out Innerspace photo © Wendy D Photography; (bottom left) 605 Collective photo © David Cooper; (left) Lee Suh-Feh photo © Yvonne Chew

By Stephen White

DanceVictoria.com • 

Night Moves Performances at the Metro Studio Quadra at Johnson

PRESENTING SPONSOR

On Sale

Now!

February 6 – 8 Buy a NIGHT MOVES Pass and see all three shows for $50. Pass holders are also invited to a party with the dancers at the Metro after the 9:00 pm Friday, Feb. 7, performance.

Individual performances are $20 in advance/$25 at the door.

Purchase in advance at DanceVictoria.com or by phone: Brown Paper Tickets 1-800-838-3006

OUT INNERSPACE Vancouver Me So You So Me FEBRUARY 6 • THR • 7:30 PM • METRO STUDIO FEBRUARY 7 • FRI • 9:00 PM • METRO STUDIO “A warped new hot pot of Japanese pop culture and contemporary dance as much fun as a Saturday-morning animé marathon.” – Georgia Straight

THE 605 COLLECTIVE Vancouver Inheritor Album FEBRUARY 7 • FRI • 7:00 PM • METRO STUDIO FEBRUARY 8 • SAT • 9:00 PM • METRO STUDIO Vancouver’s 605 Collective fuses house, hip hop, and capoeira with contemporary dance to create a brilliant new movement style.

BATTERY OPERA Vancouver Jung-Ah, Su-Feh and Everything FEBRUARY 8 • SAT • 7:00 PM • METRO STUDIO • ONE SHOW ONLY! Two quirky new works that feature Victoria’s Jung-Ah Chung and Vancouver’s Lee Su-Feh.

Pay Your Age is a Success!

Support by Il Terrazzo Ristorante This year, with support from Il Terrazzo Ristorante, Dance Victoria launched Pay Your Age for anyone aged 12 to 29. A limited number of PYA tickets are available roughly three weeks in advance to a Dance at the Royal performance. What made us so happy at Dance Victoria was the number of 20 – 29 year olds who took us up on our offer and came to Alberta Ballet’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. This audience is very important to us as we grow.

If you have a young friend who should know about PYA, tell them to Like us on Facebook at Dance Victoria or follow us on Twitter @Dance_Victoria so that they’re the first to know when the discounted tickets go on sale.

For up-to-date information visit DanceVictoria.com/ performances/NM Like us on Facebook.

Follow us on Twitter.

 Footnotes • Issue  • Winter 

Re-elected Chair of CanDance Network At its annual General Meeting in Vancouver this November, I was very proud to be elected Chair of the CanDance Network for a second term. CanDance is Canada’s national network supporting the creation and distribution of contemporary dance. Its 40 members across the country are professional dance presenters who cooperate on commissioning and touring projects, showcases and professional development. Through these activities, the network furthers the Canadian public’s access to dance and enjoyment of dance events.

Update on Donor Campaign Once again, we are grateful for the support of this community for the work we’re doing. In the two months since we launched our 2013/14 individual campaign, we have received $25,000 in donations from 70 people and we’re particularly happy that so many people have increased their gifts this season.

Welcome Fisgard Capital Dance Victoria is very happy to welcome Fisgard Capital as a new sponsor to our Dance at the Royal series. Fisgard is the presenting sponsor for our presentation of Ballet de Genève’s Roméo et Juliette, March 14 and 15 (Royal Theatre). Many of you already know about the great support Fisgard Capital continues to bring to the Victoria Symphony over many years. With this new partnership the family-owned company continues to demonstrate its deep commitment to the arts in Victoria. We look forward to working with them.

Macpherson Estate This fall, Dance Victoria received the final cheque from the estate of Hugh Macpherson. Hugh’s bequest has had a very strong impact on our organization, coming at a time when all of the arts were reeling in the aftershock from the financial crisis of 2008. Hugh’s gift helped us get through two challenging years and provided us with the opportunity to reconsider what we do and how we could do it better and reorganize who does what. We’re stronger and more confident for it.

Hugh’s legacy lives on in two ways: His beautiful dance floor, painted by local artist Bill Porteous, is on the wall of the Shaw Studio at Dance Victoria and we remember Hugh each year with a series of classes offered to the Victoria dance community by members of the companies we bring to the Dance at the Royal series. These classes are FREE.

Performance Reviews

by Robin J. Miller Recently, Dance Victoria learned that the Times Colonist will no longer routinely review dance performances in Victoria despite the large audiences that dance attracts. (Dance Victoria’s audience is on par with Pacific Opera’s, for example).

We decided to do something about it and have engaged dance writer Robin J. Miller to review Dance Victoria’s presentations, including the studio showings and performances at this year’s Dance Days | Night Moves event. Her reviews will be posted on DanceVictoria.com in the days after a given performance. There is also an opportunity for you to respond to Miller’s critiques in a comments section on the site.

We have given Miller carte blanche to write honest reviews because we believe that Victoria audiences deserve intelligent arts criticism. We believe that discourse about the work we see and share is a vital component of the whole performance experience. FN

Did you know that Dance Victoria’s Chrystal Dance Prize is now one of Canada’s largest awards for independent dance artists?

Applications for The Chrystal Dance Prize are now online and available for download. This year, Dance Victoria has $21,000 to award to an independent dance artist working on a project with an international artist, or a young dancer who is completing his or her training at a recognized institution outside Canada. You can download the application form at DanceVictoria.com. The deadline for application is March 14.

Past winners have included Victoria dancer Jung-Ah Chung (working with South Korean choreographer Keung-un Lee), Vancouver-based Daelik Hackenbrook (working with French choreographer Fabrice Ramalingom) and Wen Wei Wang (collaborating with Beijing Modern Dance Artistic Director, Gao Yanjinzi). Daelik and Wen Wei will be showing excerpts of their new works at Dance Victoria Studios on Sat., Feb. 8, from 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm. FREE Admission, but limited seating. To make sure you get a seat contact community@dancevictoria.com or call 250-595-1829.

Daelik in Mr. D

Chrystal Dance Prize Keeps Growing

DanceVictoria.com • ď˜ż

At the Studios Infrastructure In the past few months, Dance Victoria has received $39,000 in support from three different sources to make improvements at its Studios. A private donor, Betty Wilkinson, is underwriting the renovation of the main floor lobby to house and display our growing collection of southern Vancouver Island dance materials.

The BC Arts Council and the Greater Victoria Savings Credit Union Legacy Fund (GVSCU) recently contributed to the purchase of seating risers and other amenities that will improve the audience experience at our studios. Next time you drop by to see a Rough Cuts or attend a BOUNCE Cabaret, you won’t have to stand at the back of the room to get a better view!

Creation Residencies Sponsored by Jawl and Bundon

Adelheid photo Š 2008 Jeremy Mimnagh; Wen Wei Wang photo Š Steven Lemay

In late January and early February, Dance Victoria will host two twoweek residencies. adleheid, a Toronto-based company of five dancers and artistic director Heidi Strauss, will continue their work on a new piece entitled elsewhere. The company will be offering a free classes for local dancers in their first week and spending afternoons honing this new work for presentation around the country in the 2014/15 season. Celebrated Canadian filmmaker Laura Taler will be in the studio with the company. She is producing a series of short documentary films about the creation of elsewhere. Join us on Fri., Feb. 7 from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm for a FREE preview of this work at Dance Victoria Studios: your chance to meet the artists and talk about what you’ve seen.

Limited seating. To reserve your seat contact community@dancevictoria.com or call 250-595-1829.

Our second residency is for Wen Wei Wang, who will be developing his new work, Made in China, a collaboration with the Beijing Modern Dance Company. In Victoria, Wang will concentrate on cre-

ating the music and video score for the piece. Musician-composer Qiu Xe He and video artist Sammy Chien will be in residence with Wang. Meet these artists and attend a short demonstration of the music and learn more about the project on Sat., Feb. 8, at Dance Victoria Studios from 2:00 to 3:00 pm.

FREE. Limited seating. To reserve your seat contact community@dancevictoria.com or call 250-595-1829. FN

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 Footnotes • Issue  • Winter 

Next CRYSTAL PITE/KIDD PIVOT May 21 • 8:00 PM • Royal Theatre The Tempest Replica Dance Victoria Subscribers receive a 10% discount on tickets Phone or in-person orders only  250-386-6121 Renowned choreographer and dancer Crystal Pite is a former Victorian who has gone on to have a truly remarkable international career. She formed her own group, Kidd Pivot, in 2002, and has won numerous awards for her imaginative and visually dramatic work, noted for its strong theatrical sense and quicksilver physicality. Last seen in Victoria with Dance Victoria’s 2009 presentation of her ingenious and daring Dark Matters, Pite and Kidd Pivot return with her newest work, The Tempest Replica. Based on motifs and themes from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, this is a work of revenge and forgiveness, reality and imagination, the civilized and the wild. And those dualities are boldly reflected in two parallel worlds onstage. Part of the Royal and McPherson centenary celebration. FN

Dance at the Royal

Subscribers can buy additional tickets to any Dance Victoria performance at ay time of the year and save 20

BALLET DU GRAND THÉÂTRE DE GENÈVE March 14 + 15 • 7:30 PM • Royal Theatre Roméo et Juliette

Recent Donors

Veronica Stinson Patricia Taylor

The following individuals have responded to our recent donor request. (List accurate to Jan. 10, 2014).

FRIEND

PRESIDENT’S CIRCLE Elizabeth Borek Frances Forrest-Richards Cindy & Dr. Wayne Ghesquiere Lorna Harris Marianne Hartwig Gail & Jim Maeir John Pallett & Sue Klemola Timothy & Wendy Vernon Jayne & Steve Weatherbe PATRON Paul & Sharon Bundon Paula Carey & Nicholas Wemyss Colleen Gibson Dr. Erika Kurth Jean McRae Robin J Miller Sheila Reid Larry Ryan Jan Skirrow Fred & Ann Wurlitzer SUPPORTER Gordon D Fulton Anonymous Lois McNabb June Peart Susan Snell

Elizabeth Alkenbrack Lorna Anthony Antler Ridge Dance Margaret Bachmann Douglas Baer Evelyn Battell Ilona & Gord Bell Sherri Bird Phyllis Chuly Barbara Costigan Sallie Dabb Laurie Darah Deborah Dennison & Richard Woods Peggy Firstbrook Norah & Shiv Garyali Heather and Wilf Meagher Lorraine Garcia & Jack Meredith Gordon Gunn & Janete Vanderveen J.L. Headley Shelley & John Hilditch Charles Joerin Larry Jones & Esmee Rothschild Andrea Keil Henry & Sheila Kennedy Mary Kimpton Marian Knock Rosemary Lawrence Dr. Jennifer Waelti-Walters

Dance Victoria gratefully acknowledges the support of the following public sector agencies:

ALVIN AILEY® AMERICAN DANCE THEATER April 8 + 9 • 7:30 PM • Royal Theatre Mixed Repertoire

Dance Victoria’s Chrystal Dance Prize Fund and Endowment Fund are held at

Dance Victoria is a proud member of ProArt Alliance of Greater Victoria, The CanDance Network, Canadian Dance Assembly and the Greater Vancouver Arts Alliance.