DUSK DANCES 2017 Featuring Five Dance Works from Choreographers

Now in its 23rd season, Dusk Dances will return to Withrow Park from August 7 to 13th, with five original dance works created by some of Canada's leading choreographers: Gadfly'sOfilio Sinbadinho, Rhodnie De?sir, Sashar Zarif, Company 605's Dana Gingras, and BoucharDanse's Sylvie Bouchard. Performers include: Zhenya Cerneacov, Sebastian Hirtenstein, Molly Johnson, Kathleen Legassick, Meredith Thompson, Rhodnie De?sir, Luke Garwood, Corrado Cerruto, Mateo Galindo Torres, Sashar Zarif, Amber Funk-Barton, Lisa Gelley, Josh Martin, Nicholas Peter Lydiate and Brendan Wyatt.

Each performance features five 10-minute dance pieces presented in five different locations throughout Withrow Park. Our host, Allegra Charleston (Susie Burpee), will lead the audience from piece to piece. Each presentation begins with a YogaDance workshop with master teacher Marla Meenakshi Joy of Downward Dog Yoga Centre, accompanied live by musical act SWAHA.

The 2017 Withrow Park Dusk Dances Festival programme includes:

RAWRABIDE
CHOREOGRAPHED BY OFILIO SINBADINHO

Performed by: Zhenya Cerneacov, Sebastian Hirtenstein, Molly Johnson, Kathleen Legassick and Meredith Thompson

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.

A Dusk Dances commission and premiere.

DUSK SOCIETY
CHOREOGRAPHED BY RHODNIE DE?SIR

Performed by: Rhodnie De?sir
Music performance: Engone Endong

In this work, De?sir 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.

A Dusk Dances commission and premiere.

HOMING SPIRITS
CHOREOGRAPHED BY SASHAR ZARIF

Performed by: Luke Garwood, Corrado Cerruto, Mateo Galindo Torres and Sashar Zarif Costume design: Sashar Zarif
Music: Sashar Zarif and 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.

A Dusk Dances commission and premiere.

NEW ANIMAL (EXCERPT)

COMPANY 605

CHOREOGRAPHED BY DANA GINGRAS

Performed by: Amber Funk-Barton, Lisa Gelley, Josh Martin, and Nicholas Peter Lydiate 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 Me?lissandre Tremblay-Bourassa for the last section

Performed by:Zhenya Cerneacov, Sebastian Hirtenstein, Molly Johnson, Kathleen Legassick, Meredith Thompson and Brendan Wyatt
Music by:Les Charbonniers de l'enfer
Costumes by: Nina Okens

La gigue en souvenir makes the past come alive through a journey inspired by the energy, the complexity and the vigour of the traditional Que?bec gigue. Six dancers perform, 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.

Premiered as a Dusk Dances commission in 2009.

DUSK DANCES presentations will also take place in Repentigny, QC (July 6-7) at Centre d'art Diane- Dufresne; Hamilton, ON (July 27-30) at Bayfront Park; and Barrie, ON (August 17-20) at Lampman Park.

For more information visit: http://duskdances.ca or call 416.504.6429 X24 FB/DuskDances • @duskdances #DuskDances

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