MALCOLM, THE MAN IN BLACK and More Set for Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie's 2013-14 Season

Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie (CLC) Co-Artistic Directors Laurence Lemieux and Bill Coleman have announce an eclectic and daring new season of four new and returning stage works for 2013-14. As well, the "joint will be jumping" as the acclaimed CLC hosts many more shows by great dance and theatre artists from Toronto and beyond at The Citadel, its home in Regent Park.

The four-show Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie season includes the world premiere of Looking for Elvis from Laurence Lemieux along with a special presentation of James Kudelka's The Man in Black honouring Johnny Cash in a highly-anticipated double bill event, a world premiere by James Kudelka featuring the puppet Malcolm and a pianist in Malcolm, and two remounts of acclaimed CLC works from previous seasons, Les Cheminements de l'influence choreographed by Laurence Lemieux and Dichterliebe: The Poet's Love, choreographed by 16 different artists. The lineup:

Les Cheminements de l'influence (Pathways of Influence)

OCT 3-OCT 5, 2013 8pm with added PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN show on Oct 5 at 11pm as a Nuit Blanche special.

Choreographer/Dancer: Laurence Lemieux

Lighting Designer: Simon Rossiter

Music by: Gordon Monahan

Kicking off the season is a reprise of Laurence Lemieux's striking solo work Les cheminements de l'influence, created in honour of her father Vincent Lemieux, one of Quebec's most eminent political scientists. She embodies his groundbreaking work with daring physicality and passion, contrasting the immediateness of the dancer's body with a grand visual scale. Les Cheminements also launched The Citadel in February of 2012.

Malcolm - World Premiere

FEB 19-FEB 23, 2014 8pm with PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN show on Feb 21

Choreography: James Kudelka

Created in collaboration with: Bill Coleman

Original composition and pianist: Dustin Peters

Lighting Design and Scenography: Simon Rossiter

Costume Design: HOAX Couture

Puppet Design: Nell Coleman

CLC's Resident Choreographer, James Kudelka has been working with the puppet Malcolm since 2009, when Malcolm took a role in Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie's Living Dances program in a short work by Kudelka set to an aria from Bach's St. Matthew Passion. This performance inspired Kudelka to include Malcolm in another short appearance in AllOneWord. He now creates a work exclusively for Malcolm in this intimate "duet" to the live performance and original composition by pianist Dustin Peters.

Dichterliebe: The Poet's Love

MARCH 27-28, 2014 8pm

Dancer: Laurence Lemieux

Baritone: Alexander Dobson

Pianist: Jeanie Chung

Dichterliebe is a set of sixteen choreographies for one dancer set to music by Robert Schumann (1810-1856). Originally created for the inauguration of the Mimi Herrndorf Studio Theatre in October 2012, 16 artists across a variety of disciplines each choreographed a song from the song cycle as a thank you to the Delaney family for sponsoring and naming the theatre. All pieces are performed by Laurence Lemieux. Included in the evening are Fantasie in C major by Robert Schumann (1810-1856) and Schwanengesang by Franz Schubert (1797-1828), performed by Jeanie Chung, piano and Alexander Dobson, baritone.

The Man in Black and Looking for Elvis (World Premiere)

MAY 21-31, 8pm with a Pay-What-You-Can performance on May 28

Dancers: Ryan Boorne, Michael Caldwell, Luke Garwood, Tyler Gledhill, Daniel McArthur, Erin Poole, Christianne Ullmark.

The Man in Black

Choreography: James Kudelka

Music: Johnny Cash

Costume: HOAX Couture

Originally commissioned by BalletMet Columbus and premiered there in, 2010, The Man in Black was part of last year's season at the National Ballet of Canada. A celebration of American working-class grit and of the man whose voice embodied it so movingly, the work features six Johnny Cash songs - all covers from the later part of his career (ranging from Ian Tyson's "Four Strong Winds" to Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind"), given visual resonance for an ensemble of three men and a woman, all in cowboy boots.

Looking for Elvis - World premiere

Choreography: Laurence Lemieux

Music: Elvis Presley

Lighting Design: Simon Rossiter

Sound Design: John Gzowski

Looking for Elvis is both a tribute to and a study of the life of Elvis Presley. It is based on Laurence Lemieux's experience of travelling to Graceland in 2012. She says, "I was looking for the man. I was surprised to find a pretty regular, simple, loving man, who was himself just looking for his own happiness. The work also takes its inspiration from my desire to reconcile the place of artists in the public forum, and the artist's capacity to function in society.

All presentations take place at The Citadel in the Mimi Herrndorf Studio Theatre, 304 Parliament St. Tickets for CLC shows are $35 ($25 Artist/Student) with select pay-what-you-can performances. Visit www.colemanlemieux.com or call the box office at 416-364-8011.

In addition to its presentations at The Citadel, CLC has a dizzyingly busy season of Canada touring and multi-media dance projects. Keep an eye out for:

Les cheminements de l'influence, presented at La Rotonde, Quebec City, Q.C. on Sept 27-28, 2013;

CLC Beyond the Stage short films release from the Verdure B.C. Rainforest Project in early October, 2013;

Convoy PQ-17, performed with the Victoria Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonic Choir on November 10, 2013 at The Phoenix Theatre, Victoria, B.C.;

AllOneWord, presented at Markham Centre for the Arts, Markham on February 27, 2014;

Dichterliebe, presented at the River Run Centre, Guelph on March 29, 2014 and the Burlington Centre for Performing Arts, Burlington on March 30, 2014;

Outside-In 3D dance film, directed by Anne Troake, with dancers Bill Coleman and Carole Prieur, film release in early Spring 2014. Details on release forthcoming.

As well, while not officially part of the Coleman Lemieux & Co. season, The Citadel plays host to a number of the most talented dance artists in the city, as well as a theatrical venture. Watch for:

OCT 11-12, 2013

Fracture by Yvonne Coutts

Trembleherd Bells by Tedd Robinson

A duet for two women, Coutts' Fracture takes its departure point from the long tradition of the conceptual writing format 'fractured fairy tales'. Robinson's recent work, Trembleherd Bells, for four dancers and a musician, reveals his fascination with our indirect lives; how we stumble through our lives unaware of anything except what we run into.

OCT 18-20, 2013

TUDS: Festival of Urban Dance Culture

By Gadfly

The Toronto Urban Dance Symposium is three days of Street Dance Artistry featuring theatrical dance shows, professional all-styles dance battles, panel discussions, workshops and the Gadfly Awards from the award-winning contemporary urban Dance Company.

NOV 13-16, 2013

still here

By Adelheid (Heidi Strauss)

Choreography & Performance: Heidi Strauss

still here is an intimate living portrait of a woman in a place where things are not always what they seem. Alone in a constructed room, she gains and loses control. Triggering the sound and lighting from within the set, she is an agent of change in a delicate world of shifting rules. Part installation, part fantastical solo drifting between realities, still here is a recurrent coming to terms with appearances, eventualities and what is ahead.

NOV 29-30, DEC 5-8, 2013

Arkemy - Toronto premiere

By Gadfly

Award winning company Gadfly focuses on studying, researching and creating movement at the junction where urban dance styles and other praised genres collide and tune together. Artistic Directors Ofilio Portillo and Apolonia Velasquez merge art with entertainment in Contemporary Urban Dancing, which breathes with a spontaneity found only in urban dance culture.

OPENING JAN 21-FEB 2, 2014 (previewing from Jan 17)

Canadian Rep Theatre presents the English-language premiere of Pacamambo

By Wajdi Mouawad

translated by Shelley Tepperman

directed by Ken Gass

Set design by Marian Wihak, Lighting by Rebecca Picherack, Original music & sound by Wayne Kelso

Starring Karen Robinson, Kyra Harper and others TBA.

Premiered in 2000, Pacamambo is conceived as a play for children about death. The work is lyrical, emotionally powerful and hugely life-affirming. It tells the story of Julie, who disappeared for three weeks and was discovered in her grandmother's apartment storage locker with her dog, Growl, and the perfume-laden body of her grandmother. A magical theatrical experience for audiences from 9 to 90.

Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie, founded in 2000 by Bill Coleman and Laurence Lemieux, creates both intimate, small-scale performances and spectacular stage shows featuring some of Canada's greatest dancers, as well as now-legendary site-specific events in both urban and rural settings.

For tickets and info, visit www.colemanlemieux.com or call the box office at 416-364-8011.

Pictured: Laurence Lemieux performing in the first show of the season, Les Cheminements de l'influence (Pathways of Influence). Photo by John Lauener.

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