Fujiwara Dance Inventions to Present EUNOIA, Based on Christian Bok Poem
By: Tyler Peterson Sep. 30, 2015
EUNOIA, Denise Fujiwara's inventive adaptation of Christian Bök's award-winning poem of the same name, returns to Toronto for five performances as part of a national tour across Canada. Praised by audiences and critics, EUNOIA is a multimedia experience that weaves together poetry, dance, video, music and costume in a groundbreaking performance.
Eunoia, which means 'beautiful thinking,' is the shortest English word to contain all five vowels. Christian Bök's bestselling book Eunoia is a conceptual poem built on the notion of constraining language to one vowel per chapter. Christian Bök believes Eunoia "proves that each vowel has its own personality, and demonstrates the flexibility of the English language."
Inspired by Christian Bök's poem, Denise Fujiwara and her collaborators apply similar constraints to every artistic choice in EUNOIA. In the choreography ofChapter A for example, the dancers recite a poem from a handstand or plank, and they initiate idiosyncratic movements from body parts that contain only the appropriate vowel - the hand, arm, jaw and calf. The original music composition only uses vowel-specific instrumentation, such as a harp, maraca or tabla. As the methodology becomes apparent, the dance, music, video and design reveal its wit, pathos and cultivation of "beautiful thinking." The performance is as much a workout for the audience as it is for the dancers.
Christian Bök is Canada's premier avant-garde and experimental poet. His collections of poetry include Crystallography and Eunoia, which received the 2002 Griffin Poetry Prize. Currently a professor at the University of Calgary, Christian Bök is also a sound poet, conceptual artist and has invented languages for science-fiction television shows such as Earth: Final Conflict. This year Bök will be releasing a new book, The Xenotext, a two part series detailing his work grafting a poem onto a living "unkillable" genome.
This year marks Denise Fujiwara's 37th year as one of the most diverse talents in the Canadian dance scene. Known for her innovative and original approach to dance technique, improvisation, performance and choreography, Denise Fujiwara is also the Artistic Director of the CanAsian International Dance Festivalwhich presents and cultivates exceptional dance inspired by Asian ideas and expressions and has earned critical acclaim for its world-class programming.
Established in 1991, Fujiwara Dance Inventions was originally founded to house the development of Denise Fujiwara's solo projects. To date, her six solo dance concerts: Spontaneous Combustion, Vanishing Acts, Sumida River, Elle Laments, Brief Incarnations and Komachi have garnered acclaim across Canada and around the world. After twenty years of solo dance, Denise has dedicated the past decade to choreographing innovative ensemble work.
Fujiwara Dance Inventions
in association with Harbourfront Centre present
EUNOIA
Choreographed and Directed by Denise Fujiwara
Based on the poem by Christian Bök
Performed by Sylvie Bouchard, Claudia Moore, Lucy Rupert,
Miko Sobreira, Rebecca Hope Terry, Gerry Trentham
Composition & Sound Design by Phil Strong
Video Design by Justin Stephenson
Lighting Design and Technical Direction by Roelof Peter Snippe
Costume Design by Andjelija Djuric
Dramaturgy by Philip Shepherd
Harbourfront Centre Theatre, 231 Queens Quay West
November 4 - 7, 2015 @ 8pm
November 8, 2015 @ 3pm
Tickets are $30-$39 and can be purchased online at www.my.harbourfrontcentre.com,
by calling 416.973.4000 or in person at the Harbourfront Centre Theatre box office
For more information visit www.fujiwaradance.com
FB/FujiwaraDance • @fujiwaradance • #EUNOIA
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