MOonhORsE Dance Features Denmark's Renowned Kitt Johnson & Others In O&R 41

Older & Reckless, MOonhORsE Dance Theatre's acclaimed series curated by Artistic Director Claudia Moore, celebrates age on stage with the 41st edition, featuring international dance force Kitt Johnson from Denmark. Dynamic Canadian dance artists Susie Burpee with Linnea Swan, Toronto's beloved Pia Bouman, award-winning choreographer/director Marie-Josée Chartier and Kathak maverick Deepti Gupta (Ottawa), complete the program that runs Friday, November 9 and Saturday, November 10 for three shows only at Harbourfront Centre Theatre.

Older & Reckless #41 also features an exciting Community Performance Project with an excerpt from MoW! On the Move, featuring 30 performers led by Montreal-based choreographer Roger Sinha.

Distinguished Canadian artists including famed singer Tabby Johnson host each performance. Every Older & Reckless performance begins with an audience warm-up and ends with a party where audience and artists have a chance to meet and discuss the work - enlightening for all!

New this year is a Circle Dance Talk before the show on Saturday, November 10 at 6pm. The topic is how dance helps keep us happy and benefits our overall health as we age, a finding now validated by several studies. Guest speakers and movement leaders include Dr. Pia Kontos (Senior Scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute-University Health Network), Joysanne Sidimus (founder Dancer Transition Resource Centre), Martha Randall (black belt Nia instructor), Michelle Silagy (DanceAbilities instructor) and Carol Anderson (Gyrotonics instructor). The Circle Dance Talk is free with purchase of a ticket to Older & Reckless that evening.

Kitt Johnson The award-winning Stigma, choreographed and performed by Denmark's Kitt Johnson, is an enigmatic solo performance focusing on that brand (burned into the flesh) which places one apart from others. "Disturbing transformations powered by inner states Š elegantly, phantasmagorically minimal." -Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice, USA, 2003

Susie Burpee "The charismatic Swan and Burpee are formidable interpretersŠ each can dominate the space even when standing still." -Paula Citron, The Globe and Mail
Road Trip is a tragicomic duet about the power and resiliency of bonds. This is not your average road trip. There are no cars, no drive-thrus, and there are certainly no rest areas. This trip is a journey into the minds of two women at a crossroads. Co-creators and performers Susie Burpee and Linnea Swan are both wickedly dark and absurdly funny in an intense and intimate story of friendship. This work earned a 2013 Dora Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance.

Marie-Josée Chartier "Dance at its best speaks its own mysterious yet powerfully communicative language and Chartier is fluent in it." - Michael Crabb, Toronto Star, 2011
étude pour quatuor/study for quartet choreographed by Marie-Josée Chartier is performed by four magnificent male dancers: Learie McNicolls, Miko Sobreira, Darryl Tracy and Dan Wild, with recorded music by esteemed Canadian composer Linda C. Smith.

Pia Bouman In an Older & Reckless world premiere, Pia Bouman examines the margins presented through birth, time and background during her life on earth in her solo erasing margins. At 76-years-old, she welcomes the challenges that place her "on the edge."

The Lion's Roar is a contemporary Kathak solo choreographed and performed by Deepti Gupta based upon "The Sutra of the Lion's Roar of Queen Srimala," a Buddhist text depicting the journey of Queen Srimala as she struggles to understand the nature of reality and achieve a state of true being. The highly contemporary recorded score is by Toronto composer and cellist Nick Storring.
MoW! on the Move (excerpt) - Community Performance Project An excerpt from Roger Sinha's acclaimed community work MoW! On the Move (Dhadang), will be performed by a cast of 30 comprised of 28 dance enthusiasts with two seasoned professionals: Julia Aplin and Samyuktha Punthambekar. This Bollywood and contemporary dance influenced community choreography by Sinha and Bollywood choreographer Deepali Lindblom was presented this summer at the Aga Khan Museum and Garden Square Brampton. The MoW title combines the words Bollywood and Montreal, where it was originally created.

Kitt Johnson (Denmark) "Rare is the choreographer who can say a great deal with very little" (Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times). Choreographer and dancer Kitt Johnson is a master on the Danish dance and performance scene. For more than 25 years, she has developed her distinctive artistic universe: minimalist, expressive and innovative. Her work is characterized by an extreme body control and an outstanding sense of simple but effective scenic means by which she creates intense physical image transformations exploring the deepest layers of human existence. Her solo Rankefod, widely considered one of the most important Danish dance works of this century, was presented at Harbourfront Centre's 2017 World Stage. Kitt Johnson's work has been recognized with prizes, nominations and legends in Denmark and internationally. In 1999, with Stigma, she received the Danish Art Foundation's award; in 2003 she was placed on the New York Times top 10 for the year's dance experiences with The Mirror, and ditto on the NOW Toronto list in 2004 with the performances The Lemonkeepers and Stigma. www.kittjohnson.dk

Susie Burpee Susie Burpee creates "fully human characters, struggling for connection" (Toronto Star). She choreographs for contemporary dance and theatre, and her work has received Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Choreography and Performance. A former company dancer for Dancemakers and Le Groupe Dance Lab, she is also a past recipient of the K.M. Hunter Artist Award for Dance. Her work examines the intersections of creator and performer, and the collision of chance and craft. Originally from Winnipeg, Susie teaches professional level classes, facilitates creative process and rehearsal directs devised work. Burpee's alter ego, Allegra Charleston, hosts Toronto's annual outdoor dance extravaganza Dusk Dances. www.susieburpee.com

Marie-Josée Chartier A multi-faceted artist, Marie-Josée Chartier moves easily between the worlds of dance, music, opera and multi-media in her roles as choreographer, performer, director, vocalist or teacher. Her choreographic works have been presented in festivals in Canada, Europe and Latin America. She is the recipient of the 2015 Jacqueline Lemieux Prize and the 2001 K.M. Hunter Artist Award. She has been nominated nine times for Dora Mavor Moore Awards, having won twice. In the world of music/contemporary opera/theatre, Marie-Josée has choreographed and/or directed productions with The Gryphon Trio, l'Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal and le Théâtre français de Toronto, among others. In 2003, Marie-Josée founded Chartier Danse to support her creative activities. Acclaimed productions include petites danses versions 2014-2017, Stria (full-length solo work for Chartier), Red Brick with Arraymusic, Screaming Popes with the German company fabrik Potsdam, and Bas-Reliefs with Danse-Cité. www.chartierdanse.com
Pia Bouman (Toronto) Pia Bouman grew up during the restrictions of post-war Holland, in a family where what moved her most left them only mildly interested. She was twelve when she was finally given the chance to dance and came to Canada in 1967. After moving to Toronto in 1971, Pia made the decision to pursue dance as a teaching career. She teaches dance and creates dance and dance stories for young people (1974-present). She never danced "professionally" until she participated in Maxine Heppner's Krima (Toronto, Barrie). Pia performed in the 2012 Old (Bouman) & Young (Allison Cummins) and Reckless Together. Cummins' work Dissimination was Bouman's first solo performance. She returns to the stage to celebrate her many years in dance.
Deepti Gupta (Ottawa) Brought up in Ottawa, Deepti Gupta is a dancer and choreographer of the elegant Kathak style of Indian dance. A disciple of Sri Munna Lal Shukla, renowned guru of the Lucknow Gharana, she has recently been training and working under the guidance of Kathak legend Pundit Birju Maharaj. Deepti's choreographic work is at the cutting edge of contemporary South Asian dance and she collaborates with musicians, designers and new media artists. Artistic Director of Arzoo Dance Theatre, Deepti is a relentless experimentalist with a variety of theatrical interests. She has also worked extensively in Indian theatre as an actor, dramaturge and script writer. arzoodancetheatre.com

Roger Sinha (Montreal) Roger Sinha was born in England to an Armenian mother and an Indian father and later moved at the age of eight to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. In 1991, he formed his company Sinha Danse in Montreal and began developing his distinct choreographic language based on an intermingling of his Indian background and Canadian culture. More than 30 shows were on tour across Canada and overseas. His creations unite Bharata Natyam, a dance originating in Southern India, martial arts and contemporary dance. This unique fusion of influences has given birth to hybrid choreographies that are unquestionably distinctive. www.sinhadanse.com

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