made in canada/fait au canada Opens Next Week!

Yvonne Ng, Artistic Director of Toronto's only contemporary dance festival - dance: made in canada/fait au canada (d:mic/fac) - and 2017 Muriel Sherrin Award recipient, has, along with guest curators Danièle Desnoyers and Marc Parent, programmed an exciting lineup for the 2017 version of this biennial contemporary pan-Canadian dance festival - its biggest yet!

Running August 17-20 at the Betty Oliphant Theatre, the festival features artists from Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Ontario in nine different dance presentations over three separate MainStage Series - including two world premieres - and five 10-minute events in the lottery-drawn What You See is What You Get Series, as well as cutting-edge Arts Encounters which include visual arts and a dancefilms series.

A round-up of the full d:mic program is below.
dance:made in canada/fait au canada MAINSTAGE SERIES
I. Parent Series:
Thurs Aug 17 at 7pm; Fri Aug 18 at 9pm; Sat Aug19 at 4pm; Post-Show Chat Sat Aug 19 at 5pm.

o Ebnfloh Dance Company (Montreal) performs the Toronto premiere of Complexe R. Can we resist the excesses of modern life or will they end up permanently scarring our mental health? This is the question choreographer Alexandra 'Spicey' Landé asks in this creation for a quintet of street dancers that explores the complexities, limits and obsessions of everyday life.

o Mocean Dance (Halifax) brings the Toronto premiere of Live from the Flash Pan, a solo commissioned by the company from independent choreographer Cory Bowles. Mocean dancer Rhonda Baker captures the angst of a disillusioned bar singer in this theatrical, provocative piece that is both character study and statement. She is wild, sensual, and on the edge of collapse.

o Action at a Distance (Vancouver) presents the Toronto premiere of Container, a solo choreographed and performed by the company's artistic director Vanessa Goodman who says, "Container is a direct reference to my body as a container of identity and an inherited cultural past." But there is also a more literal meaning where the container represents an actual lack of freedom.

II. Morrison/Ng Series:
Thurs Aug 17 at 9pm; Sat Aug 19 at 7pm; Sun Aug 20 at 7pm; Post-Show Chat Sat Aug 19 at 8pm.

o Marie-Josée Chartier (Toronto) choreographs a large ensemble of 18 emerging dance artists for the Toronto premiere of Crépuscule. This visually arresting work is a physical and visual response to the music piece In the High Branches for string quartet and gamelan, written by Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith.

o Human Body Expression's Hanna Kiel (Toronto) creates a world premiere for 11 dancers that explores the strength behind the family bond. Welcome to Our Home - Tangled draws on Kiel's own personal experience as we witness the ups and downs around a family's conflicts and inner workings, questioning "what makes a family stick together through the thick and thin, and why is this bond unbreakable?"
o Naomi Brand (Vancouver) performs the Toronto premiere of her solo Messages to an Audience which takes a whimsical and metaphorical look at communication and the relationship between viewer and performer. It is a portrait of one dancer's earnest attempt to be understood and her scuffle with all that gets in the way between sender and receiver.

III. Desnoyers Series:
Fri Aug 18 at 7pm; Sat Aug 19 at 9pm; Sun Aug 20 at 4pm; Post-Show Chat Fri Aug18 at 8pm.

o Compagnie ODD's artistic director Yvonne Coutts (Ottawa) brings the Toronto premiere of her The Eventual De-Expression of RGS2, a reflection on the nature of gene expression and environmental influences. A lone female dancer, Kay Kenney, walks an uncertain path while being provoked by a musician (Jesse Stewart on percussion).

o Alias Dance Project (Toronto) presents the world premiere of the way we are for an ensemble of five dancers, choreographed by Alias Artistic Director Lauren Cook and Alias member Troy Feldman. Alias Dance Project takes it back to the way we were, "when our personalities were uninhibited, raw, excited, self-serving, and truthfully connected."

o Sasha Kleinplatz (Montreal) delivers a very personal work with the Toronto premiere of Chorus II. Rooted in the swaying movements practiced by Jewish men while they daven (pray), it is inspired by her grandfather. Chorus II transforms an ancient ritual into a cathartic ensemble work for 6 men that explores performances of masculinity that evoke both strength and tenderness.

dance:made in canada/fait au canada WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET (WYSIWYG) Friday, August 18, 11pm and Sunday, August 20, 2pm
Drawn by lottery, this series features 10-minute works by:

Blue Ceiling dance performs Frankenstein Fragments: As Lucy Rupert sews together different limbs and organs with fragments of past dances, a literal monster assembles with a devilish sense of humour.

Angela Blumberg presents The Four Elements: This duet is the second piece of the trilogy Time that draws from the elements water, earth, fire and air to explore change and impermanence.

Jasmyn Fyffe presents an excerpt from Reload: This work asks one question, "How do we unload today to reload for tomorrow?"

Good Women Dance Collective perform Caveat: This trio examines what happens to the characters after the end of the fable Avaricious and Envious, picking up the story where Aesop left off.

Anne-Flore de Rochambeau presents Fadeout: The human body is an intricate and auto-regulated engine, designed to adapt and transform as we age. When an anomaly dives in, a race driven by survival emerges through a degenerative mutation.

dance:made in canada/fait au canada dancefilms Each night of the festival, a series of short dance films are presented, free-of-charge Programmed by Kathleen Smith, four different programmes of short films deal with dystopian themes of an uncertain future. In the face of adversity, the beauty and truth of the human form in motion shines on the screen, just as it does on the stage.
In many of them, the body is a battleground - such as in Alan Lake's grim return to nature, Ravages. But the body can also be a site of play, as in Priscilla Guy's Two Bikes and Émilie Cardu- Beauquier's Petites failles. It is often a vehicle for communication as in Monique Romeiko's Love Letter - Duet, or Katherine Macnaughton's award-winning Wake. And the body is, always, a natural marvel - as explored in Aria Evans' silence and stars, Anne Troake's OutSideIn - and in so many of the other films.

Free screenings take place in the Betty Oliphant Theatre's Green Room (in the basement) every night of the festival and one evening on the patio of the Blake House (August 18, across the street from the Betty O) with the following schedule:

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