HOUSE UNREST from Sidra Bell Dance New York on Vimeo
The Tomorrow Collective
formed in 2005 and is based in Vancouver, Canada. The collective was formed by dance artists Mara Branscombe, Katy Harris McLeod and Jennifer McLeish Lewis. The collective is now run by Mara and Katy. Together they continue the work of the collective which is to produce, promote, create and perform new dance and multidisciplinary work. The Tomorrow Collective is responsible for the creation and production of the popular interdisciplinary performance series Brief Encounters.
Brief Encounters is about the mixing of mediums and the crossing of artistic cultures. The collective created this event out of an interest in cross pollination between art forms, audience education and the excitement of creation under the gun. The result is the creation and performance of cutting edge collaborative work between artists who had likely not previously met, let alone worked together. The pieces that emerge from the Brief Encounters pairings fuse, cross over, interrupt and co create new perspectives on artistic forms and the relationships between them. To date, The Tomorrow Collective has produced 156 different artists in Vancouver over the 14 installments of Brief Encounters, as well as 10 artists in Nanaimo.
Alan Watts was an English philosopher, writer and speaker. He wrote more than 25 books and numerous articles on subjects such as personal identity, the true nature of reality, higher consciousness, meaning of life, concepts and images of God and the nonmaterial pursuit of happiness. In his books he relates his experience to scientific knowledge and to the teachings of Eastern and Western religion and philosophy.
Lar Lubovitch Dance Company
Founded by Lar Lubovitch in 1968 and now celebrating its 40th anniversary with a national tour as well as a Fall season at the New York City Center. Over the years, the company has gained a reputation as one of the world’s foremost modern dance companies, having performed in virtually every state of the US and in more than 30 foreign countries.
Lar's dances are renowned for their musicality, rhapsodic style and sophisticated formal structures. His radiant, highly technical choreography and deeply humanistic voice have been acclaimed throughout the world. Born in Chicago, Lar Lubovitch was educated at the University of Iowa and the Juilliard School in New York. His teachers at Juilliard included Antony Tudor, Jose Limon, Anna Sokolow and Martha Graham.
Denishawn School of Dance
The Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts, founded in 1915 by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn in Los Angeles, California, helped many perfect their dancing talents. Some of the school's more notable pupils include Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman and silent film star Louise Brooks. The school was especially renowned for its influence on ballet and experimental modern dance. In time, Denishawn teachings reached another school location, as well, Studio 61 at the Carnegie Hall Studios. Because St. Denis and Shawn believed that all dance techniques were valid and instructive, the school offered classes in Oriental, Spanish, and primitive dance; the fundamentals of ballet; their own innovative techniques; and, later, the modern dance techniques that had been developed in Europe by Rudolf Laban.
"The art of dance is too big to be encompassed by any one system. On the contrary, the dance includes all systems or schools of dance. Every way that any human being of any race or nationality, at any period of human history, has moved rhythmically to express himself, belongs to the dance. We endeavor to recognize and use all contributions of the past to the dance and will continue to use all new contributions in the future"
Gearshifting Performance Works
Jolene Bailie is the Artistic Director
Gearshifting Performance Works is a not for profit Arts Organization dedicated to the advancement of the art form of modern dance. Committed to promoting modern dance, raising public awareness of the form and enriching the community, the Company has three main activities; these include the advancement of education, creation and presentation of modern dance.
The endeavors to create accessible and artistically daring works. The body of work encompasses a broad range of new creation and respected traditional works. The subject matter often stems from psychological reactions to environment and reflections upon trends in Canadian lifestyle. The presentations strive to be rewarding to both the audience and the creators as well as suitable for a broad range of audiences and performance venues.
DAWN
Edward Bower Hesser
Among dancers and early motion picture performing community there existed a very strong belief in the ideals of the physical culture movement, of physical perfectibility, bodily beauty, hygiene, and expressive sexuality. Some, Isadora Duncan, Ted Shawn, Annette Kellerman, Margaret Edwards, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., were messianic exhibitionists intent on demonstration to any public that would look the splendor, the human physique. Edwin Bower Hesser in his own distinctly suspect way latched on to certain of these convictions. From 1923 until the mid 1930s he edited and supplied imagery for as many as seven art magazines designed for art students concerned with problems of the human form. His brief stint of study at the Art Institute of Chicago did not entirely elevate his aesthetics from kitsch and artiness to art. This was, of course, what Duncan and the Greek dance movement was doing at the same time. Dancing in minimal costume in the open air. Few copies remain of the publications in which Edward printed. He was not the only supplier of images to these publications. Included was Alfred Cheney Johnston, John De Mirjian, George DeBarron, and Strand Studio.
Sideshow Circus Magazine
An online magazine for United Kingdom's contemporary circus lineup of reviews, interviews, calendar, and features from the best and also worst. This online magazine is edited and substantially written by John Ellingsworth.
Visceral Dance Chicago will bring dance to an extensive population, challenging audiences to examine their perception of the dance experience. By providing thought provoking and innovative performances, VDC will push itself to bring new explorations of movement and theater without limitation of specific styles. It is a goal of Visceral Dance Chicago to reach wider audiences, obtain great arts support, and form a universal dance audience. Audiences should be taken to a different place and be exposed to something extraordinary, something that makes them think and ask why. VDC intends to reach to a deeper place to help the audience
experience something that is not easy or simple but that cultivates conversation both for the individual and the audience as a whole. Visceral Dance Chicago wants to change the way the audience thinks and views dance. By driving dance in a different direction, VDC hopes to make the art form accessible to everyone, providing an avenue for deeper thought, understanding, and appreciation.
Front Stage Curtain
Le Train Bleu
A ballet in one act with choreography by Nijinska, libretto by Cocteau,
music by Milhaud, curtain by Picasso, set by Henri Laurens, and
costumes by Chanel.
Premiered 20 June 1924, by the Ballets Russes de Diaghilev at the
Théâtre de Champs-Elysées, Paris.
A ballet with a sporting theme, it features a group of fashionable and
rich friends amusing themselves on the Mediterranean coast.
Cocteau's scenario was influenced by the Olympic Games, silent films,
and jazz music, while Nijinska's choreography had a strong gymnastic
element to it. The Train Bleu itself, an express train between Paris and
the Côte d'Azur, does not appear in the ballet.
Le Train Bleu takes place amidst the French Riviera circa 1920s, an era
where populist visions of a modernist utopia gave rise to the cult of the
body beautiful. Choreographer Bronislava Nijinska satirised this shift
towards shallower lifestyles using Chanel’s sporting ensembles as a
fashion conduit.
Dan Merlo
The Seldoms
"The Seldoms make contemporary dance that translates inquiry into
movement and amplifies its impact through collaboration with image,
sound, text and location, providing an avenue for audiences to
experience relevant and engaging dance. We are a Chicago based
dance performance company that values making intelligent, visual
dance theater driven by inquiry. We ground our inquiry in the history
of ideas, art history, and our personal experience to find complex and
faceted ways to describe the nature of our question."
"The center of our work is dance, however, our vision extends to the
whole of action and environment on stage."
