The unique Canadian-made Edinburgh Fringe Festival hit, Century Song, featuring the rich soprano voice of Dora Award-winning Neema Bickersteth, comes to Centaur Theatre as the second of two exquisite gems in Centaur's Presenting Series this season. The powerful one-act co-creation, directed by Ross Manson and choreographed by Kate Alton, will be presented from February 12 to 16, 2020.
Century Song began with a question. As a classical singer, Bickersteth spent many years training her voice but once she felt fully accepted and immersed in the art form, she began to ask herself, "How can I, as a Black person singing European roles from another era, connect personally to this art form? I love this music, but I began to feel constricted in my expression of it. I began to look for other ways to fuse my training and love of classical music, with my dawning awareness of other modes of expression." A photo Bickersteth discovered of her great great grandmother made her think of time: "where I am within time and space - my family's time, the many spaces that my family has occupied on the planet ... I'm going back in time to 1916. I'm going to perform Century Song as me."
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