Princess Productions Presents Dance: Made in Canada/fait au canada

princess productions' Artistic Director Yvonne Ng, with guest curators Peggy Baker and James Kudelka, is proud to present the 2011 dance: made in canada / fait au canada (d:mic/fac) festival from Thursday August 11 to Sunday August 14 at Toronto's Betty Oliphant Theatre.

The ninth edition of this highly anticipated biennial festival of contemporary Canadian dance provides a broad spectrum of cutting edge work in three separate MainStage Series programs as well as a first-time Late-night Series (August 12 & 13) and Arts Encounters that include pre- and post-show chats with the artists, Canadian dance film screenings, and visual arts exhibitions (Kristy Kennedy photos, Seth Ruggles Hile/Michael Caldwell installation).
The d:mic/fac MainStage Series features seven pieces and twelve artists from Victoria, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. There are two world premieres (Ash Unravel and kanan - kiri) four Toronto premieres (Tools for Cutting, Soupe du Jour, Self Less and Excerpts from a Wet Summer) and one merited remount (La Lourdeur des Cendres).

BAKER SERIES: August 11 (7pm), 12 (9pm) and 13 (4pm).

Acclaimed choreographer/dancer Peggy Baker was drawn to the way these works highlight the artistry of the performers and their intricate relationship with their choreographers or culture. Says Baker, "The superb works by Marie-Josée Chartier and D. A. Hoskins are important re-stagings with their original casts. Keiko Ninomiya is a generation younger than Chartier and Hoskins, and while her technical foundation is also in contemporary dance, she has chosen not to look inward to the personal sphere, but outward to a cultural tradition beyond her own that she aims to penetrate and reframe. Ninomiya continues her fascinating investigations of the breaking point of formal structure, forcing issues of ethnicity, classicism and gender, and promising the polished edges of exactitude that I so admire in her work."
- Heidi Strauss and Darryl Tracy (Toronto, ON) perform a remount of La Lourdeur des Cendres, choreographed in collaboration with them by Marie-Josée Chartier and originally performed in 2003 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Inspired by visual artist Betty Goodwin's Swimmer Series and the painting Elle a perdu son quilibre, the piece emphasizes the movement of diagonal arms, the weight of one body leaning on another, and the idea of the body as a broken and heavy form.
" ...a dance of incredible physical closeness...Strauss and Tracy don't waver. The work buids with incredible tension to Allison Camerons truly remarkable score..." - The Dance Current

Multi-faceted artist Marie-Josée Chartier is the recipient of the 2001 K.M. Hunter Artist Award, three Dora Mavor Moore Awards (two of which are shared with the URGE collective) and nine Dora nominations. She founded Chartier Danse in 2003 to create integrated works with artists from diverse disciplines. Darryl Tracy is an independent dance artist and senior faculty member at School of Toronto Dance Theatre. He has four new creations of his own work coming in 2011-2012. Dora-winning dancer and choreographer Heidi Strauss is the founder of adelheid and artist-in-residence at Factory Theatre since 2008. Between 1998 and 2006, she and Darryl Tracy worked as Four Chambers Dance Project.

- Jung-Ah Chung (Victoria, B.C.) performs the Toronto premiere of Excerpts from a Wet Summer (2009), a solo choreographed for her by D.A. Hoskins that examines solitude, home and history. Excerpts from a Wet Summer acknowledges a time of reflection, and a passage of experience that we carry within our beings.

"Gorgeous, charismatic woman made [a] strong impression and is definitely one to watch." - The Globe and Mail

Jung-Ah Chung has performed at dance festivals across Canada and has worked with such artists and companies as Ballet Victoria, Battery Opera and Vancouver City Dance Theatre, where she currently performs. Named Victoria's favourite choreographer in 2006 and favourite dancer in 2004 by Monday Magazine, she received a 2011 Crystal Award. D.A. Hoskins has created over 50 choreographic works including commissions by the Elora Music Festival, Vancouver's ArtsUmbrella, , Ballet Kelowna and Toronto Dance Theatre.

- Keiko Ninomiya (Toronto, ON) performs the world premiere of her self-choreographed work kanan - kiri, an interpretive exploration of traditional Balinese dance in which women perform in a male style; embodying - in balance - strength, power, coquettishness and charm with a Balinese stylistic emphasis on facial expression, and hand and eye movements.
"Toronto's Keiko Ninomiya has a droll, even kinky side to her dances." - The Globe and Mail

Dora-nominated Keiko Ninomiya has showcased her work at fFIDA International Dance Festival, CanAsian Dance Festival and in Aomori, Japan. She is the founder of the Yuragi Dance Project and co-founder of AKA Dance, ZUKE and Green Tea. She received a Paula Citron fFIDA Award in 2003 with Louis Labérge-Côté for their piece Futari en trois couleurs, also named one of the top ten performances of the year in both The Globe and Mail and Now Magazine.

MORRISON SERIES: August 11 (9pm), 13 (7pm) and 14 (2pm).

Named after the late, great lighting designer David Morrison and curated by princess productions' Artistic Director Yvonne Ng, these pieces explore identity and memories.
- MACHiNENOiSY dance society (Vancouver, B.C.) performs the Toronto premiere of Self Less (2006), a duet inspired by images and stories from survivors of the 2004 tsunami in South East Asia, created and performed by co-artistic directors Delia Brett and Daelik Hackenbrook. Self Less explores our relationship to identity and place in the wake of disaster. Unmoored from memory, two people struggle to evoke intimacy in a world where familiarity and routine have become mere debris.
"...thank god for companies like MACHiNENOiSY" - Plank Magazine

Daelik Hackenbrook founded MACHiNENOiSY dance society in 2002 after 18 years of performance, including six years as a company member of EDAM and collaborations with Kinesis Dance, DanStaBat, Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers and others. In 2006, he welcomed fellow EDAM dancer Delia Brett into the company as co-Artistic Director. Delia Brett has traveled across the globe with such companies as Battery opera, Trial And Eros and Kinesis Somatro.

- Michael Caldwell (Toronto, Ontario) performs the world premiere of Ash Unravel, a self-choreographed solo that dives headfirst into the memories of a turbulent Vietnamese past and upbringing. Ash Unravel underscores the eternal search for answers as it ruminates on living after experiencing death. Inspired by the recent passing of Caldwell's mother and her life, the piece deals with loss and the grieving process, in all its stages, as well as ruminating on what lies beyond pain and grief.
"Michael Caldwell scores..." - The Toronto Star

Michael Caldwell has performed nationally and internationally in works by such choreographers as Peggy Baker, Danny Grossman, James Kudelka, Tedd Robinson and Holly Small, and with various companies including Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie, CORPUS, the Crazyfish Collective (co-founder), Dusk Dances, Kaha:wi Dance Theatre and TILT sound + motion.

KUDELKA SERIES: August 12 (7pm), 13 (9pm) and 14 (4pm).

Legendary choreographer James Kudelka selected these choreographers because of the thematic link in their approach to looking within their own bodies as a source of inspiration to create movement that, when stylized, creates surreal landscapes.

- MOVE: the company (Vancouver, British Columbia) performs the Toronto premiere of Tools for Cutting (2010), a quartet motivated by artistic director and choreographer Josh Beamish's childhood growing up as a male dancer in a small-town, hockey-focused environment. Tools for Cutting uses skates, snowboards, sticks and goalie pads to examine, exaggerate, and investigate therelationships between men and sporting equipment.Performed by Beamish with Cai Glover, Jeffrey Sykes and Matthew Waldie, the piece was originally created to coincide with the 2010 Olympic Games.
"Josh Beamish is turning heads across the continent and emerging as one of Canada's most promising choreographers." - The Globe and Mail

Josh Beamish's work with MOVE: the company has been performed at the International Ballet Festival in Miami, the Quinzena de Danca Festival in Portugal, the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. and at the Canadian Pavillion at the WORLD EXPO 2010 in Shanghai, China. Beamish is a recipient of the 2009 City of Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award, and a 2008 Globe and Mail Dance Award.

- Fila 13 Productions (Montreal, Quebec) performs the Toronto premiere of Soupe du Jour (2010), an ensemble piece choreographed by Lina Cruz and performed by Elinor Fueter, Catherine Larocque, Loïc Stafford, Soula Trougakos and William Yong with live musician Philippe Noireaut. Cruz's work is the result of an unbridled imagination; she places her work on the margins of mainstream dance, hyper-stylized yet strangely organic, extravagant, mischievous and pleasantly unsettling.
"What can a choreographer born in Columbia, trained in Spain and in the United States and working in Montreal offer us? Well, an entirely extravagant world with which we build a thousand stories in our minds" - Le Polyscope

After 15 years as an independent choreographer, Lina Cruz founded Fila 13 Productions in 2003 to create contemporary dance works integrating musicians on stage. Cruz has presented her work in Spain, Switzerland, France, Mexico, the United States and Canada.

This year, d:mic/fac also features a Late-night Series - What you See is What you Get - running August 12 & 13 at 11pm. The Late-night series features 10-minute works, from local artists drawn by lottery:
- Balanced Corridors, a solo that explores change, adjustment and balance commenting on the emotional extremes of fear, excitement, joy and frustration, choreographed and performed by Jasmyn Fyffe.

- Boxes, a trio about how people cope with the preconceived notions of how they should be, choreographed by Jannine Saarinen of Jay9 Dance Projects and performed by Jen Hum, Chelsea Lee and Jamee Valin.

- La vie, a solo that examines a character's interior world before a departure, choreographed by Sylvie Bouchard and performed by Mairéad Filgate.

- Two Dances "En Plein Air": Salut D'Amour, a solo performed by Jillian Vanstone and Liebesleid, a solo performed by Robert Stephen, both choreographed by Robert Stephen.

- the moment beforeŠ, a trio that observes the neurotic rituals of three dancers on stage 10 minutes before they are about to perform, choreographed by Andrea Spaziani and performed by Spaziani with Amanda Acorn and Lauren Cook.

dance: made in Canada/fait au Canada
August 11 - 14, 2011 at Betty Oliphant Theatre, 400 Jarvis St., Toronto

BAKER SERIES: August 11 (7pm), 12 (9pm) and 13 (4pm).
MORRISON SERIES: August 11 (9pm), 13 (7pm) and 14 (2pm).
KUDELKA SERIES: August 12 (7pm), 13 (9pm) and 14 (4pm).

Mainstage Individual tickets: $28 ($24 students/seniors/CADA)

Mainstage Passes: 3 Ticket Pass: $70 ($65 students/seniors/CADA)
4 Ticket Pass: $90 ($75 students/seniors/CADA)
6 Ticket Pass: $125 ($115 students/seniors/CADA)

Late-night Series - What you See is What you Get - August 12 & 13 at 11pm.
What You See is What You Get tickets: $15 ($10 students/seniors/CADA)

Arts Encounters Informal Chats with the Artists: FREE
Josh Beamish and Lina Cruz - Kudelka Series post-show: Friday, August 12 at 8pm
Marie-Josée Chartier and D.A. Hoskins - Baker Series pre-show: Saturday, August 13 at 3:30pm
MACHiNENOiSY and Michael Caldwell - Morrison Series post-show: Saturday, August 13 at 8pm

Tickets available by calling 416-504-7529 or online at www.princessproductions.ca

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