Maxine Heppner Presents OLD STORIES with DanceWorks , 11/1-3

Maxine Heppner, with Danceworks CoWorks, presents OLD STORIES, an evening of new dances November 1-­?3 at the Scotiabank Theatre.

Choreographed by Maxine Heppner, Old Stories: new dances reveals public myths shared by a community of storytellers and the private world of a woman living amongst them. In the ensemble work"Old Story" the audience literally becomes guests at the tables of an extraordinary cast who, through dance and music, tell communities' tales of birth, love, war, loss, and reunion, and of sustaining energies that are universal. "Moments in Time", described as "reaching a new state of mind" (Globe and Mail) when previewed in 2008, features Takako Segawa, seen in Heppner's "My heart is a Spoon", and KRIMA! The ensemble includes a stellar cast made up of Maxine Heppner (choreographer/designer/performer), Takako Segawa (Moments in Time/Old Story), Viv Moore, Lo Bil, Lila Leon and Charmaine Headley (Old Story).

Maxine Heppner is known for her bold artistic approach and independent spirit. Since the 1970's her award- winning choreography, inter- disciplinary projects and performance have been seen across North America, Asia, Europe and Australia including many major festivals such as Canada Dance Festival, Danceworks, Dancing on The Edge, Athens Olympic Arts Festival, and European Cities of Culture.

For this new show, Heppner transforms the theatre into public and private worlds inhabited equally by performers and audience. Says Maxine: "At any moment a person lives simultaneously inside their own experience, in relationship with the people around, and in context with the public and history. The heart of our work is the moving person, the roots are the impulses within her that is her story, the choreography branches out to include the public. No one is a passive element. Each piece will live in a particular environment engulfing all participants (performers and audience). In Old Stories, the worlds of history, community and individual are illuminated."

The table is always the gathering place where individuals become community, whether in an urban condo apartment, or a village square. The ensemble work "Old Story" invites the audience into this intimate space where the deep legends of the community are shared through gesture and music. Each performer brings to the table her ow flavours, a mixture of her origins and where she is now. Together they expose a fine and powerful web that binds them together.

In the full- length solo "Moment in Times", the group witnesses one person's private experiences of the shared moments: recurring themes and surprising occurrences: precision, abandonment, play, revelation, supplication. As one moment unfolds after the next, one learns its name but more, its energy and impulses, together weaving a portrait of the character on stage, and also the more personal portraits of Heppner as choreographer and Segawa as dance interpreter.

Old Stories is a distillation of Heppner's 20 years fascination with basic impulses and complicated dancing. Says Segawa about Heppner and the work itself: "Maxine's understanding of movement is profoundly human: she integrates her intelligence and her intuition to translate stories into impulse, physical energy, and three-­?dimensional space. The result is dance that is more grounded, more substantial, more sensual, more human. She has led me to dance right to my nerve-­?endings,exhilarating!