Toronto Dance Theatre to Launch 2016-17 Season with ANIMATED; Lineup Announced!

Toronto Dance Theatre (TDT) announces the details of its 2016-2017 season, kicking off on November 1, 2016 at the Fleck Dance Theatre with Animated, a mixed program of works by Artistic Director Christopher House that showcase three distinct stages of his repertoire.

TDT's dynamic 49th season features two programs of new creations, two programs that look at TDT's repertoire in fresh new ways, and a visit to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. In addition to Animated (Nov 1-5), season highlights include Noisy, a world premiere by Ame Henderson in collaboration with Sound Designers Matt Smith and Robin Dann of Bernice (Jan 26-29 & Feb 1-4); Christopher House's Chiasmata, which marks the first in a series of re-imagined choreographies supported by The Metcalf Foundation (Mar 30-Apr 2 & Apr 2-8); and Emerging Voices featuring two premieres by emerging choreographers Alicia Grant and Emily Law (May 25-28).

"Last year we presented four programs of new work in Toronto, with a total of fourteen premieres! This year, thanks to a generous grant from the Metcalf Foundation to investigate the potential of our repertoire, we are moving forward in new ways with two programs of new work and two that animate the past,"said Christopher House.

Single Tickets and Season Winch Passes are on sale now at www.tdt.org or call 416.967.1365.

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2016-17 SEASON:

Animated (November 1-5, 2016)
TDT returns to the Fleck Dance Theatre with a program of short works by Christopher House, featuring Martingales (2014) with live music by Thom Gill of which The Globe and Mail wrote at the premiere: "... I was gripped by this gorgeous, atmospheric new work from start to finish." Also on the program is a rare remount of the hyper-kinetic Animated Shorts (1984) to a rollicking score by one of Canada's finest composers for dance, Michael J. Baker, Fjeld (1990), a darkly poetic work set to gorgeous vocal music by Arvo Pa?rt, and Colder Ink (1994), a virtuosic quartet.

Animated is presented as part of Harbourfront Centre's 16/17 NextSteps dance series.

Noisy (January 26-28 & February 1-4, 2016)
Ame Henderson is internationally known for her audacious and unorthodox choreographic experiments with Public Recordings and others. She is equally at home in theatres and galleries and her Dora-nominated Henderson/Castle: voyager - the durational epic she created with singer Jennifer Castle and TDT in 2014 - was performed at the Winchester Street Theatre, the Festival TransAme?riques in Montreal, the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario. With Noisy, Henderson collapses the song into the body, with the dancers themselves becoming the "agents of sounding." Her collaborators include Matt Smith (the Sound Designer of TDT's Marienbad) and Robin Dann of Bernice.

Chiasmata (March 30-April 1 & April 5-8, 2016)
When it premiered in 2007, Chiasmata marked a departure for choreographer Christopher House with its eccentric new vocabulary and "radical asymmetries" (Georgia Straight). Danced to a score by Phil Strong and inspired by the films of the Brothers Quay, it was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Choreography. This new version is the first in a series of reimagined works supported by funds from the Metcalf Foundation. Christopher House says: "I am excited to be diving back into Chiasmata this season with a fresh perspective, new insights, and twelve very inspiring dancers."

Emerging Voices: Two New Works (May 24-28, 2016)
Two of the most intriguing young dance artists on the Toronto scene return to develop works begun during TDT's Emerging Voices project in 2015. Alicia Grant's seductively physical work focuses on repetition as a means to evoke what she describes as "heartbreaking joy." Emily Law uses group memories harvested from film, speech and movement as a means to create a fascinatingly unstable timescape. Through two very different approaches, these gifted young choreographers explore transformation in performance and the ways in which the performers' choices impact on the outcome of the work.

SPECIAL PERFORMANCES:

The Associates

Christopher House's 2015 Dora-nominated (Outstanding Ensemble) Echo takes the stage as part of a shared program with Marie Chouinard and Crystale Pite in Ottawa in March 2017. This special program celebrates the work of three of the NAC's Associate Dance Artists.

For more information, visit: nac-cna.ca

Into The Work

Formerly called The Process Revealed, this special preview event held at the Winchester Street Theatre welcomes audience members to the Winchester Street Theatre to experience short excerpts of TDT's upcoming work, and gives them the opportunity to engage in an open dialogue with the choreographers and the dancers about their inspirations and choreographic methods, taking them deeper INTO THE WORK. FREE to attend.

Animated: Monday, October 25, 7:00 p.m.
Noisy: Monday, January 16, 7:00 p.m.
Emerging Voices: Two New Works: Monday, May 15, 7:00 p.m.

This season also continues to offer TDT's exciting outreach and education opportunities such as: The Into The Work series, which accompanies Animated, Noisy, and Emerging Voices; the Studio Series program for students across the GTA; the popular Tour de Danse fundraising event; the TD Dancer Intern program; and the fifth annual Creative Residency initiative. Additionally, TDT is thrilled to present a special Q&A discussion as part of its Re-imagining Repertoire initiative.

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Toronto Dance Theatre's dancers are remarkable individuals who play an essential role in the creative process. With a broad range of theatrical skills, they are capable of physical and expressive virtuosity as well as powerful ensemble work and have been called "some of the best [dancers] on the planet" (The Globe and Mail).

Performers for the 2016/17 season include: Valerie Calam, Alana Elmer, Yuichiro Inoue, Peter Kelly, Megumi Kokuba, Justin de Luna, Pulga Muchochoma, James Phillips, Erin Poole, Danah Rosales, Jarrett Siddall, and Christianne Ullmark; TD Dancer Interns: Lukas Malkowski and Noelle Young; and TDT Intern Margarita Soria.

Harbourfront Centre is passionate about dance. NextSteps, Harbourfront Centre's national dance series, brings the very best in Canadian dance to Toronto's finest theatres on the waterfront. Harbourfront Centre has supported the dance community for a number of years with NextSteps. This September to June it will showcase the vibrant spectrum of dance within our country.

Toronto Dance Theatre acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council. TD Dancer Interns are made possible with the generous assistance of TD Bank Group. Christopher House is an Associate Dance Artist of Canada's National Arts Centre.

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