LAST PERFORMANCE OF INTERSECTION PROJECT TODAY:
YONGE AND BLOOR 5pm!
+
CLOSING PARTY AT THE DUKE OF YORK 7PM
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
CALL FOR ARTISTS: FINAL PERFORMANCE INTERSECTION PROJECT
CALL FOR ARTISTS INTERSECTION PROJECT- Performance #10
The Final Performance!
The Final Reception!
dance crosses urban spaces
artists meet audiences
ideas travel between us
Dear Artists,
Thank you to everyone who has participated over the last 9 performances.
We are please to announce Intersection Project will do its 10th and Final performance, followed by a special reception!
We want you.
....
HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION
Driven by the success of May 1st 2010 Public Performance in Toronto, organized in conjunction with Montreal artist Normand Marcy and Tangente, Laboratoire de Mouvement Contemporain, Priscilla Guy and Kate Nankervis have launched Intersection Project, an initiative that aims to highlight the presence of artists in urban landscapes. Through pedestrian and simple movement vocabulary in city landscapes, the dance is accessible and belongs to anyone who is walking by. Bodies become organic sculptures against urban architectures.
The performances organized by Intersection Project are opportunities for artists and audiences to meet in unexpected and unofficial settings; a reminder performance art also lives outside theatres. Art is essential and lives everywhere we decide to allow for it. Art reflects the common needs and wants members of society share. Intersection Project is an occasion to re-iterate the spontaneous and engaging nature of art as performance emerges from urban architectures and melt with the city landscapes.
Over the past 10 months Intersection Project has organized 9 monthly performances in the Toronto's downtown area, gathering dancers, actors and performers from diverse backgrounds.
THURSDAY JUNE 23rd will be our final performance, followed by a special reception. If you can't make it to the performance, please feel free to join us afterwards!
PERFORMANCE #10
We are looking for performers from any artistic background to participate in this 10th performance of the year!
This performance will occur on Thursday June 23rd. We are looking for up to 25 performers.
Participants must be available from 3:45pm to 6pm at least.
Schedule of the Day:
3:45pm meet
4pm to 5pm rehearsal
5pm to 6pm perform
7pm to 10pm reception with food and projections! LOCATION TO ANNOUNCED MID JUNE
______
PERFORMANCE
Performance details including the score, the arrangement, the locations for the performance will be sent ONLY TO CONFIRMED PARTICIPANTS. Chosen will be in the downtown area (Christie to Yonge / Bloor to Queen's Quays, always accessible by bike, car and TTC)
FINAL RECEPTION INVITE!
We would love to see everyone this day. We encourage you to come out to the open house style reception the evening of June 23rd anytime after 7pm for a final party for Intersection Project. There will be food to snack on and the bar will be open to drink for those interested, as per usual.
We look forward to seeing all.
TO PARTICIPATE, PLEASE E-MAIL:
intersectionproject10@gmail.com
before June 20th, 2011.
TO RSVP to party only:
intersectionproject10@gmail.com
THE INTERSECTION BLOG :
http://intersectionproject10.blogspot.com/
Intersection Project provides the art community and the population with a platform to share dialogue and debate the role and contribution of artists in the society at large. The Intersection Blog addresses various issues and invite performers, audiences and the greater population to share their thoughts on this virtual common forum. On the blog articles/questions are posted to initiate dialogue between performers and other followers.
Look forward to seeing you there,
Kate and Priscilla
--
Intersection Project 2010 - 2011
intersectionproject10@gmail.com
https://intersectionproject10.blogspot.com/
The Final Performance!
The Final Reception!
dance crosses urban spaces
artists meet audiences
ideas travel between us
Dear Artists,
Thank you to everyone who has participated over the last 9 performances.
We are please to announce Intersection Project will do its 10th and Final performance, followed by a special reception!
We want you.
....
HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION
Driven by the success of May 1st 2010 Public Performance in Toronto, organized in conjunction with Montreal artist Normand Marcy and Tangente, Laboratoire de Mouvement Contemporain, Priscilla Guy and Kate Nankervis have launched Intersection Project, an initiative that aims to highlight the presence of artists in urban landscapes. Through pedestrian and simple movement vocabulary in city landscapes, the dance is accessible and belongs to anyone who is walking by. Bodies become organic sculptures against urban architectures.
The performances organized by Intersection Project are opportunities for artists and audiences to meet in unexpected and unofficial settings; a reminder performance art also lives outside theatres. Art is essential and lives everywhere we decide to allow for it. Art reflects the common needs and wants members of society share. Intersection Project is an occasion to re-iterate the spontaneous and engaging nature of art as performance emerges from urban architectures and melt with the city landscapes.
Over the past 10 months Intersection Project has organized 9 monthly performances in the Toronto's downtown area, gathering dancers, actors and performers from diverse backgrounds.
THURSDAY JUNE 23rd will be our final performance, followed by a special reception. If you can't make it to the performance, please feel free to join us afterwards!
PERFORMANCE #10
We are looking for performers from any artistic background to participate in this 10th performance of the year!
This performance will occur on Thursday June 23rd. We are looking for up to 25 performers.
Participants must be available from 3:45pm to 6pm at least.
Schedule of the Day:
3:45pm meet
4pm to 5pm rehearsal
5pm to 6pm perform
7pm to 10pm reception with food and projections! LOCATION TO ANNOUNCED MID JUNE
______
PERFORMANCE
Performance details including the score, the arrangement, the locations for the performance will be sent ONLY TO CONFIRMED PARTICIPANTS. Chosen will be in the downtown area (Christie to Yonge / Bloor to Queen's Quays, always accessible by bike, car and TTC)
FINAL RECEPTION INVITE!
We would love to see everyone this day. We encourage you to come out to the open house style reception the evening of June 23rd anytime after 7pm for a final party for Intersection Project. There will be food to snack on and the bar will be open to drink for those interested, as per usual.
We look forward to seeing all.
TO PARTICIPATE, PLEASE E-MAIL:
intersectionproject10@gmail.com
before June 20th, 2011.
TO RSVP to party only:
intersectionproject10@gmail.com
THE INTERSECTION BLOG :
http://intersectionproject10.blogspot.com/
Intersection Project provides the art community and the population with a platform to share dialogue and debate the role and contribution of artists in the society at large. The Intersection Blog addresses various issues and invite performers, audiences and the greater population to share their thoughts on this virtual common forum. On the blog articles/questions are posted to initiate dialogue between performers and other followers.
Look forward to seeing you there,
Kate and Priscilla
--
Intersection Project 2010 - 2011
intersectionproject10@gmail.com
https://intersectionproject10.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
PORTRAIT OF A CITY: PART THREE
PORTRAIT OF A CITY: PART THREE
INTERSECTION PROJECT, THE FRENCH CONNECTION, AND THE END OF A JOURNEY…
So, here I am. Leaving Toronto today. Writing this last short text from our favorite coffee shop, right next to our house. I will be back in June for our last Intersection Project Performance, the 10th of a series of…10! Amazing.
Ten performances, then locations, then months. And many great encounters. Do I feel like I know the city better now? Of course I do. And not only in terms of its architecture and neighborhoods. I feel that, through Intersection Project, I got to understand better the interaction people have with art and performance in general in Toronto, to understand the nature of the city through the lens of our project, and to juxtapose myself to how people live here.
When Kate and I decided to organize these monthly performances, the two of us had different hopes and expectations for the project, but one thing was sure: we both wanted to put art in public spaces and share it with unexpected audiences. “Sharing” might be the strongest and the best word to express what we were after. Along with our friend Jolyane who became our third collaborator, helping us with the logistic of this complex project, we discussed for several hours what direction the project should take.
Public spaces barely exist nowadays. We faced the reality and challenge of being a group of dancers in spaces that we thought were public, but that in the end were spaces “reserved” for someone else, for something else, or well, not for us, dancing. The idea that everything and every space belong to someone now, in the cities, often comes up and scares me.
When performing downtown Toronto with our Intersection artists, I always felt we were doing something important and relevant. However, when you look at it, we simply perform pedestrian movement scores in large group, nothing happens before, nothing happens after, we don’t advertise it, we don’t make it a spectacle, we don’t make it fancy and flashing: it happens and disappears. Of course we do gather after every performance and invite people to join us to discuss and share thoughts, and we do document the performances and post videos and photos of it. But nothing drastic happens because of it. So why do I feel this is so important? Is there any direct outcome from what we are doing?
I think it is important because it makes a difference for “me”. And that is the beginning of everything.
I am now in the train station, waiting for the 5 O’clock train. Yes, I am bringing you through my last travelling back to Montreal. Cheesy, I agree. But how exciting hmm??
When I perform with Intersection Project, I feel extremely powerful. It is one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever got out of a performance I am involved in. I feel powerful because I feel free. Free of what? Of regulations, perhaps. It gives me the feeling that I am not too small for my city, that I do have power over what happens in it and how. I feel I am someone in the city, and that I can decide for myself how I want to live in this city. It is a feeling I rarely have the rest of the time. It seems to me the city is so big and overwhelming, I always am depending on everything in it. I am not the one making decisions.
But when I am there, lying on concrete blocs in the middle of the street next to St-Lawrence market with my fellow Intersection Project performers, I feel free. Nobody forces me to be there and do this. I don’t even get paid for all that work (including admin stuff before and after the performance). Being there is a statement, it says the city belongs to me, too. Not only to business people, not only to Rob Ford, not only to the organizers of the G20. The city belongs to me too, because I live in it. It is where I am everyday.
When I am there, running up the stairs at the CN Tower before crashing onto the cold ground with 15 other people, I feel free. Because I am part of the larger landscape and it seems to me I am providing the people watching with a glimpse of what we can do with our city, if we want to. It happened often that people came to us to say they liked watching the performance because it reminds them of this or that… that in itself sounds enough for me to justify doing it.
When I am there, improvising pirouettes at Queen’s Park’s intersection, creating traffic because cars are slowing down and drivers try to see what is happening with us, 20 performers swaying from side to side and turning all around, I feel that is might be enough, just to be there and state our presence in the city.
And last month, performing with 8 courageous dancers under pouring rain at the corner of Bloor Street and Avenue Road, thinking it is pretty amazing that we are performing despite the rain. It is a statement too: people question what we are doing most of the time, because our performance does not belong to their everyday life. But when we do it under the rain, it brings up the level of questioning to a higher degree! And perhaps make them question our mental health too… well....!
In the last few months, I spent a lot of time with a group of people who call themselves “The French Connection”. They are friends of mine, and I have to admit I am totally part of this French Connection thing, as a French person myself. But what does it mean to be French in Toronto? It is a real cultural chock, even though Montreal and Toronto are in the same country. Different ways of behaving, different views on things, in general.
The reason for mentioning these friends here is because they have been one major element of Intersection Project. First, let’s mention Claudia, who is actually our third wife, our third roommate. She moved in with Kate and I last September and she got to experience Intersection Project from the inside. As a wonderful filmmaker, she would step in for videotaping Intersection’s performances every time we needed a videographer, and that meant half of the time! She did a beautiful job with images every time she came to document to work, but she also became an important component of the project through her numerous participation. We owe her a lot for her hard work, videotaping in the cold, at night for Rhubarb, and in all sorts of challenging situations!
In September, for the first performance of the year, two French friends from Montreal were in Toronto to videotape the performance and help up with the logistic of the project. For the St-Lawrence market’s performance in December, the French Connection came to see the performance. Our friend Thomas wrote a short response to the work that we posted on the Blog, explaining how he felt about such public performances, and what it meant for him as someone who is not used to participate in that kind of event. Then in February, as we performed for The Rhubarb Festival, The French Connection not only came to see the performance, but even joined the group of dancers and travelled with us in the streets of Toronto, picking up on the movement score as they could! At the closing night performance of Rhubarb, our friend Yoan who is French too but from France, made himself available to videotape the performance. Later in April, another group of French friends from Montreal came to the city and participated in the rainy day performance at Bloor and Avenue, taking on the roles of videographer and photographer for the occasion.
So by mentioning that, I don’t mean that French people are nicer than anyone else. I rather want to highlight how Intersection Project became a way to encounter the city for many of our friends coming from outside Ontario, as well as a way to gather together people from different places. Local artists taking part in the project, encountering artists from outside the city. I think it is an important aspect of Intersection Project, how it became a window to the city, an original way to envision Toronto’s neighborhoods for many foreigners among us and to meet people.
We must mention here the amazing participation of a group of Hamilton dancers, coming invariably every month to perform with us, in our city, through the urban architecture of the city. I always thought it was nice and interesting to notice that the core of our performers, the one that were there every single month came from outside the actual city of Toronto!
I think Intersection Project, among many things, became not only an encounter with art for people walking by, as we first envisioned it, but also and mostly an encounter with the city. As we performed the project from month to month, the importance of the locations we chose and the significance of the way we would invest these locations was increasing. In my souvenir, Kate and I were mostly interested in the community aspect of the project (many artists gathering every month for a common goal they have) as well as the importance of reinforcing the artists’ presence in the city (putting art in visible spaces, outside theatres). It ended up, at least for me, that our main statement was a different one, something like “The city belongs to us”, by physically putting ourselves in these urban architectures. Maybe the real nature of Intersection is a mixture of all of theses ideas.
Now, it is 5pm and I am on the train, heading to Montreal for real. But I’ll be back in June, for one more Intersection Project performance. And I am not worried anymore about the weather or anything like that, I am not concerned about getting funding for the project or not, or about getting enough performers or not. It seems clear to me now what this whole journey is about. Intersection Project is about being there, being present in the moment in a specific location, and deciding for myself what it means to be there and to do what I do.
To feel free, in my city, for a few minutes at least.
We better take all opportunities we have to feel free and powerful, don’t you think?
INTERSECTION PROJECT, THE FRENCH CONNECTION, AND THE END OF A JOURNEY…
So, here I am. Leaving Toronto today. Writing this last short text from our favorite coffee shop, right next to our house. I will be back in June for our last Intersection Project Performance, the 10th of a series of…10! Amazing.
Ten performances, then locations, then months. And many great encounters. Do I feel like I know the city better now? Of course I do. And not only in terms of its architecture and neighborhoods. I feel that, through Intersection Project, I got to understand better the interaction people have with art and performance in general in Toronto, to understand the nature of the city through the lens of our project, and to juxtapose myself to how people live here.
When Kate and I decided to organize these monthly performances, the two of us had different hopes and expectations for the project, but one thing was sure: we both wanted to put art in public spaces and share it with unexpected audiences. “Sharing” might be the strongest and the best word to express what we were after. Along with our friend Jolyane who became our third collaborator, helping us with the logistic of this complex project, we discussed for several hours what direction the project should take.
Public spaces barely exist nowadays. We faced the reality and challenge of being a group of dancers in spaces that we thought were public, but that in the end were spaces “reserved” for someone else, for something else, or well, not for us, dancing. The idea that everything and every space belong to someone now, in the cities, often comes up and scares me.
When performing downtown Toronto with our Intersection artists, I always felt we were doing something important and relevant. However, when you look at it, we simply perform pedestrian movement scores in large group, nothing happens before, nothing happens after, we don’t advertise it, we don’t make it a spectacle, we don’t make it fancy and flashing: it happens and disappears. Of course we do gather after every performance and invite people to join us to discuss and share thoughts, and we do document the performances and post videos and photos of it. But nothing drastic happens because of it. So why do I feel this is so important? Is there any direct outcome from what we are doing?
I think it is important because it makes a difference for “me”. And that is the beginning of everything.
I am now in the train station, waiting for the 5 O’clock train. Yes, I am bringing you through my last travelling back to Montreal. Cheesy, I agree. But how exciting hmm??
When I perform with Intersection Project, I feel extremely powerful. It is one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever got out of a performance I am involved in. I feel powerful because I feel free. Free of what? Of regulations, perhaps. It gives me the feeling that I am not too small for my city, that I do have power over what happens in it and how. I feel I am someone in the city, and that I can decide for myself how I want to live in this city. It is a feeling I rarely have the rest of the time. It seems to me the city is so big and overwhelming, I always am depending on everything in it. I am not the one making decisions.
But when I am there, lying on concrete blocs in the middle of the street next to St-Lawrence market with my fellow Intersection Project performers, I feel free. Nobody forces me to be there and do this. I don’t even get paid for all that work (including admin stuff before and after the performance). Being there is a statement, it says the city belongs to me, too. Not only to business people, not only to Rob Ford, not only to the organizers of the G20. The city belongs to me too, because I live in it. It is where I am everyday.
When I am there, running up the stairs at the CN Tower before crashing onto the cold ground with 15 other people, I feel free. Because I am part of the larger landscape and it seems to me I am providing the people watching with a glimpse of what we can do with our city, if we want to. It happened often that people came to us to say they liked watching the performance because it reminds them of this or that… that in itself sounds enough for me to justify doing it.
When I am there, improvising pirouettes at Queen’s Park’s intersection, creating traffic because cars are slowing down and drivers try to see what is happening with us, 20 performers swaying from side to side and turning all around, I feel that is might be enough, just to be there and state our presence in the city.
And last month, performing with 8 courageous dancers under pouring rain at the corner of Bloor Street and Avenue Road, thinking it is pretty amazing that we are performing despite the rain. It is a statement too: people question what we are doing most of the time, because our performance does not belong to their everyday life. But when we do it under the rain, it brings up the level of questioning to a higher degree! And perhaps make them question our mental health too… well....!
In the last few months, I spent a lot of time with a group of people who call themselves “The French Connection”. They are friends of mine, and I have to admit I am totally part of this French Connection thing, as a French person myself. But what does it mean to be French in Toronto? It is a real cultural chock, even though Montreal and Toronto are in the same country. Different ways of behaving, different views on things, in general.
The reason for mentioning these friends here is because they have been one major element of Intersection Project. First, let’s mention Claudia, who is actually our third wife, our third roommate. She moved in with Kate and I last September and she got to experience Intersection Project from the inside. As a wonderful filmmaker, she would step in for videotaping Intersection’s performances every time we needed a videographer, and that meant half of the time! She did a beautiful job with images every time she came to document to work, but she also became an important component of the project through her numerous participation. We owe her a lot for her hard work, videotaping in the cold, at night for Rhubarb, and in all sorts of challenging situations!
In September, for the first performance of the year, two French friends from Montreal were in Toronto to videotape the performance and help up with the logistic of the project. For the St-Lawrence market’s performance in December, the French Connection came to see the performance. Our friend Thomas wrote a short response to the work that we posted on the Blog, explaining how he felt about such public performances, and what it meant for him as someone who is not used to participate in that kind of event. Then in February, as we performed for The Rhubarb Festival, The French Connection not only came to see the performance, but even joined the group of dancers and travelled with us in the streets of Toronto, picking up on the movement score as they could! At the closing night performance of Rhubarb, our friend Yoan who is French too but from France, made himself available to videotape the performance. Later in April, another group of French friends from Montreal came to the city and participated in the rainy day performance at Bloor and Avenue, taking on the roles of videographer and photographer for the occasion.
So by mentioning that, I don’t mean that French people are nicer than anyone else. I rather want to highlight how Intersection Project became a way to encounter the city for many of our friends coming from outside Ontario, as well as a way to gather together people from different places. Local artists taking part in the project, encountering artists from outside the city. I think it is an important aspect of Intersection Project, how it became a window to the city, an original way to envision Toronto’s neighborhoods for many foreigners among us and to meet people.
We must mention here the amazing participation of a group of Hamilton dancers, coming invariably every month to perform with us, in our city, through the urban architecture of the city. I always thought it was nice and interesting to notice that the core of our performers, the one that were there every single month came from outside the actual city of Toronto!
I think Intersection Project, among many things, became not only an encounter with art for people walking by, as we first envisioned it, but also and mostly an encounter with the city. As we performed the project from month to month, the importance of the locations we chose and the significance of the way we would invest these locations was increasing. In my souvenir, Kate and I were mostly interested in the community aspect of the project (many artists gathering every month for a common goal they have) as well as the importance of reinforcing the artists’ presence in the city (putting art in visible spaces, outside theatres). It ended up, at least for me, that our main statement was a different one, something like “The city belongs to us”, by physically putting ourselves in these urban architectures. Maybe the real nature of Intersection is a mixture of all of theses ideas.
Now, it is 5pm and I am on the train, heading to Montreal for real. But I’ll be back in June, for one more Intersection Project performance. And I am not worried anymore about the weather or anything like that, I am not concerned about getting funding for the project or not, or about getting enough performers or not. It seems clear to me now what this whole journey is about. Intersection Project is about being there, being present in the moment in a specific location, and deciding for myself what it means to be there and to do what I do.
To feel free, in my city, for a few minutes at least.
We better take all opportunities we have to feel free and powerful, don’t you think?
Sunday, April 17, 2011
A text by Cara Spooner, Toronto dance artist
Why do we make art?
Why do we make art in public spheres?
Why is 'site' or 'context' interesting fuel for performance?
'Why' fundamentally implies the need to understand intention or to validate whatever the questioner is asking the questioned. In this case, what is it that I desire validation of? Am I interested in 'the reasons', the well-constructed and rational sets of well manicured trajectories which lead us from point A to point B? I make this so that my desired outcome can be thus achieved? Is this Why we make art? Or is it something more ephemeral that we desire in our art making, something less tidy, less clearly defined? May art point us to new curiosities to invent new questions rather than provide answers to the questions that already exist? Why not?
I am interested in the potential that making art (specifically performative, movement based art) in specific sites/contexts has to offer. I know that this is not new and I know that I am not the only one interested in this potential. My own mistakes, experiments, questions, projects and interest in 'non-conventional sites' seem to innately hold a mirror up to the very form, aesthetics, vocabularies, accessibility, power dynamics and purposes that 'performance' has been defined as. This leads me to consider the ways in which we specifically in Toronto, in Canada and in North America are responding to, reacting against, contributing to and creating art for specific sites or public spheres. Is it a choice or is it necessity? Are we creating work with 'sites' in mind until we are validated by the traditional proscenium institutions (and the interactions/processes/dynamics it inevitably brings with it?) Or are we interested in the systems, movement and structures that we have all culturally adopted? If the choice is based on necessity (funding, etc) is it not an opportunity to develop our artistic craft in integrated and insightful ways? Can we not critically look at the 'public'/'private' contexts in which we are embedded in and comment upon them symbolically, artistically and aesthetically? Are we aware in our art making of the constantly changing factors which inevitably enter into us, affect us, change us and define us at each new site we enter into?
It seems that many artists are choosing to create work in non-traditional, non-proscenium, site-specific settings. The integration and acceptance of a performance's context (the site, the people, the social codes, the politics) seems to almost create a new set of standards for the 'Why' question to unravel.
Or perhaps 'How' is of greater relevancy and a more appropriate question to ask. 'How' seems to point to form, aesthetic, vocabulary, accessibility and power. If our 'audience' in a public setting has not signed the contract of buying a ticket (and thus adopted the learned social codes associated with that action) how can we enter into an aesthetic discussion with them? How can we make and ask new questions? For me, the ability to see beyond the socialized patterns, or at the very least point to them, is the essential motivating factor for creating work in/for a particular context. Without the acknowledgement and integration of what makes a site a 'site', I cannot truly enter into a dialog there. If I create something with the expectation that I will know my outcomes, am I asking any new questions with my art making?
'How' seems to ask for description. It is a question for the qualitative, messy, step-by-step play-out of a certain thing. The practical steps to achieving the reasons listed after 'Why'. But more importantly 'How' seems to imply the desire for a solution, a question with a larger desired outcome. It seems to point to movement.
How does the 'site' or 'context' create fuel for performance?
How do we make art in public spheres?
How do we make art?
Cara Spooner
Why do we make art in public spheres?
Why is 'site' or 'context' interesting fuel for performance?
'Why' fundamentally implies the need to understand intention or to validate whatever the questioner is asking the questioned. In this case, what is it that I desire validation of? Am I interested in 'the reasons', the well-constructed and rational sets of well manicured trajectories which lead us from point A to point B? I make this so that my desired outcome can be thus achieved? Is this Why we make art? Or is it something more ephemeral that we desire in our art making, something less tidy, less clearly defined? May art point us to new curiosities to invent new questions rather than provide answers to the questions that already exist? Why not?
I am interested in the potential that making art (specifically performative, movement based art) in specific sites/contexts has to offer. I know that this is not new and I know that I am not the only one interested in this potential. My own mistakes, experiments, questions, projects and interest in 'non-conventional sites' seem to innately hold a mirror up to the very form, aesthetics, vocabularies, accessibility, power dynamics and purposes that 'performance' has been defined as. This leads me to consider the ways in which we specifically in Toronto, in Canada and in North America are responding to, reacting against, contributing to and creating art for specific sites or public spheres. Is it a choice or is it necessity? Are we creating work with 'sites' in mind until we are validated by the traditional proscenium institutions (and the interactions/processes/dynamics it inevitably brings with it?) Or are we interested in the systems, movement and structures that we have all culturally adopted? If the choice is based on necessity (funding, etc) is it not an opportunity to develop our artistic craft in integrated and insightful ways? Can we not critically look at the 'public'/'private' contexts in which we are embedded in and comment upon them symbolically, artistically and aesthetically? Are we aware in our art making of the constantly changing factors which inevitably enter into us, affect us, change us and define us at each new site we enter into?
It seems that many artists are choosing to create work in non-traditional, non-proscenium, site-specific settings. The integration and acceptance of a performance's context (the site, the people, the social codes, the politics) seems to almost create a new set of standards for the 'Why' question to unravel.
Or perhaps 'How' is of greater relevancy and a more appropriate question to ask. 'How' seems to point to form, aesthetic, vocabulary, accessibility and power. If our 'audience' in a public setting has not signed the contract of buying a ticket (and thus adopted the learned social codes associated with that action) how can we enter into an aesthetic discussion with them? How can we make and ask new questions? For me, the ability to see beyond the socialized patterns, or at the very least point to them, is the essential motivating factor for creating work in/for a particular context. Without the acknowledgement and integration of what makes a site a 'site', I cannot truly enter into a dialog there. If I create something with the expectation that I will know my outcomes, am I asking any new questions with my art making?
'How' seems to ask for description. It is a question for the qualitative, messy, step-by-step play-out of a certain thing. The practical steps to achieving the reasons listed after 'Why'. But more importantly 'How' seems to imply the desire for a solution, a question with a larger desired outcome. It seems to point to movement.
How does the 'site' or 'context' create fuel for performance?
How do we make art in public spheres?
How do we make art?
Cara Spooner
Friday, April 8, 2011
CALL FOR ARTISTS- Performance #9
CALL FOR ARTISTS INTERSECTION PROJECT- Performance #9
dance crosses urban spaces
artists meet audiences
...ideas travel between us
Thank you to everyone who has participated in past 8 performances....... ONLY TWO left.
We want you.
INTERSECTION PROJECT
....
HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION
Driven by the success of May 1st 2010 Public Performance in Toronto, organized in conjunction with Montreal artist Normand Marcy and Tangente, Laboratoire de Mouvement Contemporain, Priscilla Guy and Kate Nankervis have launched Intersection Project, an initiative that aims to highlight the presence ofartists in urban landscapes. Through pedestrian and simple movement vocabulary in city landscapes, the dance is accessible and belongs to anyone who is walking by. Bodies become organic sculptures against urban architectures.
The performances organized by Intersection Project are opportunities for artists and audiences to meet in unexpected and unofficial settings; a reminder performance art also lives outside theatres. Art is essential and lives everywhere we decide to allow for it. Art reflects the common needs and wants members of society share. Intersection Project is an occasion to re-iterate the spontaneous and engaging nature of art as performance emerges from urban architectures and melt with the city landscapes.
Throughout the upcoming year, Intersection Project will organize 10 monthly performances in the Toronto's downtown area, gathering dancers, actors and performers from diverse backgrounds. In the nature of spontaneity, there is no promotions or marketing for the events. We believe the recurrent aspect of the project will stimulate curiosity and interest for it.
PERFORMANCE #9
SATURDAY APRIL 16th
12:45pm to 3:30pm
NOTE: DIFFERENT TIME THAN IN PAST
We are looking for performers from any artistic background to participate in this ninth performance of the year!
This performance will occur on Saturday, April 16th. We are looking for up to 25 performers.
Participants must be available from 12:45pm to 3:30pm at least.
Schedule of the Day:
12:45pm to 1:45pm-check in/rehearsal
2:00pm to 3:00pm-performance
3:00pm to 3:30pm- break/gather for reception
3:30pm to 5:30pm-reception
Performance details including the score, the arrangement, the locations for the performance and the reception will be sent ONLY TO CONFIRMED PARTICIPANTS. All locations chosen are in the downtown area (Christie to Yonge / Bloor to Queen's Quays, always accessible by bike, car and TTC)
TO PARTICIPATE, PLEASE E-MAIL:
intersectionproject10@gmail.com
before April 14 th, 2011.
PERFORMANCE #8 video..... thank you Claudia Hebert
http://vimeo.com/21862140
Please check out our blog:
THE INTERSECTION BLOG :
http://intersectionproject10.blogspot.com/
Intersection Project provides the art community and the population with a platform to share dialogue and debate the role and contribution of artists in the society at large. The Intersection Blog addresses various issues and invite performers, audiences and the greater population to share their thoughts on this virtual common forum. On the blog articles/questions are posted to initiate dialogue between performers and other followers.
EXTRA NEWS:
There will be no PERFORMANCE in MAY! We will be doing our final PERFORMANCE#10 in June, with a HUGE closing party CELEBRATION!
ONLY 2 CHANCES LEFT TO PARTICIPATE IN INTERSECTION PROJECT 2010- 2011!
Kate and Priscilla
dance crosses urban spaces
artists meet audiences
...ideas travel between us
Thank you to everyone who has participated in past 8 performances....... ONLY TWO left.
We want you.
INTERSECTION PROJECT
....
HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION
Driven by the success of May 1st 2010 Public Performance in Toronto, organized in conjunction with Montreal artist Normand Marcy and Tangente, Laboratoire de Mouvement Contemporain, Priscilla Guy and Kate Nankervis have launched Intersection Project, an initiative that aims to highlight the presence ofartists in urban landscapes. Through pedestrian and simple movement vocabulary in city landscapes, the dance is accessible and belongs to anyone who is walking by. Bodies become organic sculptures against urban architectures.
The performances organized by Intersection Project are opportunities for artists and audiences to meet in unexpected and unofficial settings; a reminder performance art also lives outside theatres. Art is essential and lives everywhere we decide to allow for it. Art reflects the common needs and wants members of society share. Intersection Project is an occasion to re-iterate the spontaneous and engaging nature of art as performance emerges from urban architectures and melt with the city landscapes.
Throughout the upcoming year, Intersection Project will organize 10 monthly performances in the Toronto's downtown area, gathering dancers, actors and performers from diverse backgrounds. In the nature of spontaneity, there is no promotions or marketing for the events. We believe the recurrent aspect of the project will stimulate curiosity and interest for it.
PERFORMANCE #9
SATURDAY APRIL 16th
12:45pm to 3:30pm
NOTE: DIFFERENT TIME THAN IN PAST
We are looking for performers from any artistic background to participate in this ninth performance of the year!
This performance will occur on Saturday, April 16th. We are looking for up to 25 performers.
Participants must be available from 12:45pm to 3:30pm at least.
Schedule of the Day:
12:45pm to 1:45pm-check in/rehearsal
2:00pm to 3:00pm-performance
3:00pm to 3:30pm- break/gather for reception
3:30pm to 5:30pm-reception
Performance details including the score, the arrangement, the locations for the performance and the reception will be sent ONLY TO CONFIRMED PARTICIPANTS. All locations chosen are in the downtown area (Christie to Yonge / Bloor to Queen's Quays, always accessible by bike, car and TTC)
TO PARTICIPATE, PLEASE E-MAIL:
intersectionproject10@gmail.com
before April 14 th, 2011.
PERFORMANCE #8 video..... thank you Claudia Hebert
http://vimeo.com/21862140
Please check out our blog:
THE INTERSECTION BLOG :
http://intersectionproject10.blogspot.com/
Intersection Project provides the art community and the population with a platform to share dialogue and debate the role and contribution of artists in the society at large. The Intersection Blog addresses various issues and invite performers, audiences and the greater population to share their thoughts on this virtual common forum. On the blog articles/questions are posted to initiate dialogue between performers and other followers.
EXTRA NEWS:
There will be no PERFORMANCE in MAY! We will be doing our final PERFORMANCE#10 in June, with a HUGE closing party CELEBRATION!
ONLY 2 CHANCES LEFT TO PARTICIPATE IN INTERSECTION PROJECT 2010- 2011!
Kate and Priscilla
Monday, April 4, 2011
PORTRAIT OF A CITY: PART TWO
BY PRISCILLA GUY
TORONTO-PART TWO
DIMBY AND THE LOVE-IN
DIMBY. What is that? Dance In My Backyard. A fantastic event produced by Lady Janitor/Eroca Nicols. It happens at the end of the summer, in a gorgeous backyard close to Dufferin Park. People sitting on colourful blankets, trees decorated with Christmas lights, a live DJ and a collection of dance pieces created or adapted for this beautiful backyard. So unexpected, so refreshing! Most people I know don’t think of Toronto as a city in which such unusual and funky things happen. People (especially the ones coming from out of the city) tend to see Toronto as this gigantic financial centre, with lights, cars, buses, noise, business people, etc. Well, we better open our minds to another version of Toronto. DIMBY has been happening in August for a few years now, and it is sold out pretty much every performance night. People just love it. And so did I…
About a week before moving in Toronto, I was performing with the DIMBY crew for the first time as a member of the Montreal-based company Les Imprudanses, invited for the occasion. Four performers from Les Imprudanses were encountering Toronto performers for the show. That, too, was a very cool way to encounter the city right before moving in: I got to dance and improvise in front of a Toronto audience with the people that would become by new Toronto dance colleagues. The following year, I worked again with Eroca on DIMBY, and performed as part of Made to Order, a crazy improvised dance piece for which audience members order the dance they want to see right before the show. The group of professional dancers gathered by Eroca improvises these dances for them the same night. Yes, it is pretty cool indeed.
I find DIMBY to be an amazing Toronto event for many reasons. It totally seduces me because of the accessible and casual setting the magic backyard offers. Really, even if you are not a huge fan of dance shows, sitting in this backyard is an experience in itself, as it totally makes you forget about the noise, buildings and craziness of the city. The architecture of a city also encompasses secret places like this backyard, in which unexpected events like DIMBY happen, where the interaction between artists and audience members are highlighted by an intimate setting. After experiencing DIMBY, I found Toronto to be a very surprising city to live in, a very hybrid place, much more nuanced than the reputation it has.
Every city should have a DIMBY. And from the media coverage DIMBY received in 2010, I could tell how Toronto needs more of this: unpretentious yet great projects that remind you there are small paradises inside the city. Maybe this is one interesting way to think of art, whether it is public art or art inside museums and theatres: a window on secret paradises, a way to reveal hidden beauty in the city, or a way to enhance what is already visible to our eye… Art is not disconnected from what we experience in our everyday life: it draws from it, merges into it and allows us to extract new meanings from it.
In PART ONE of this Toronto portrait, I wrote a little about the Toronto Dance Community Love-In. In short, the Love-In offers contemporary dancers the professional training that, they felt, was missing in the city. So every month, they bring in international artists and teachers to provide the dance milieu with a diverse and rich approach to movement and dance training. The Love-In also gathers every month for discussing all sorts of projects and ideals they wish for, from the sustainability of the art form through funding to the sharing of resources between established artists and the emerging generation of creators.
Last fall, the co-founders of the Love-In, Amanda Acorn and Eroca Nicols (yes, I seem to be talking about Eroca all the time, but often, people who are committed to their milieu are involved in several projects…) asked Kate, Meryem Alaoui, and myself to help them structure the organization and create templates for the administrative tasks related to the Love-In. My help to them ended up being very specific and limited, as I was totally overwhelmed with school (yes, I do tend to forget I am here to study full-time…), but meeting with them, trying to figure out what the organization needed and how we could make its functioning efficient, I felt I was part of something important. These ladies do meet at 7am in the morning for discussing crucial issues for their dance community!!! That is a lot of LOVE, I’d say. I believe the Love-In is establishing not only a different type of training for professional dancers than what used to be offered in the city, but also a different way to envision the dance milieu. They promote the sharing of resources, the explosion of dance genres within the contemporary field, and the power of the group. I am excited and curious to see how the Love-In will change Toronto in ten years from now… I think a city can be changed from the inside, moulded by its citizens and artists.
Of course, since I am close to the people administrating the Love-In, I do think they are great. But I also think they are part of a greater movement, part of a group of people wanting Toronto to get richer and more diverse, open and safe. As Kate and I started to do the Intersection Project performances, as the G20 shook everyone’s sense of belonging to their city, as Rob Ford got elected, I did realized many people had the desire to envision Toronto as a place where art and business can co-exist, a place where citizens are considered, a place that is created from the inside by its people. Art, or dance, is only a small seed reflecting that reality…
To come in PART THREE (and the last one!):
INTERSECTION PROJECT, RHUBARB AND THE FRENCH CONNECTION
TORONTO-PART TWO
DIMBY AND THE LOVE-IN
DIMBY. What is that? Dance In My Backyard. A fantastic event produced by Lady Janitor/Eroca Nicols. It happens at the end of the summer, in a gorgeous backyard close to Dufferin Park. People sitting on colourful blankets, trees decorated with Christmas lights, a live DJ and a collection of dance pieces created or adapted for this beautiful backyard. So unexpected, so refreshing! Most people I know don’t think of Toronto as a city in which such unusual and funky things happen. People (especially the ones coming from out of the city) tend to see Toronto as this gigantic financial centre, with lights, cars, buses, noise, business people, etc. Well, we better open our minds to another version of Toronto. DIMBY has been happening in August for a few years now, and it is sold out pretty much every performance night. People just love it. And so did I…
About a week before moving in Toronto, I was performing with the DIMBY crew for the first time as a member of the Montreal-based company Les Imprudanses, invited for the occasion. Four performers from Les Imprudanses were encountering Toronto performers for the show. That, too, was a very cool way to encounter the city right before moving in: I got to dance and improvise in front of a Toronto audience with the people that would become by new Toronto dance colleagues. The following year, I worked again with Eroca on DIMBY, and performed as part of Made to Order, a crazy improvised dance piece for which audience members order the dance they want to see right before the show. The group of professional dancers gathered by Eroca improvises these dances for them the same night. Yes, it is pretty cool indeed.
I find DIMBY to be an amazing Toronto event for many reasons. It totally seduces me because of the accessible and casual setting the magic backyard offers. Really, even if you are not a huge fan of dance shows, sitting in this backyard is an experience in itself, as it totally makes you forget about the noise, buildings and craziness of the city. The architecture of a city also encompasses secret places like this backyard, in which unexpected events like DIMBY happen, where the interaction between artists and audience members are highlighted by an intimate setting. After experiencing DIMBY, I found Toronto to be a very surprising city to live in, a very hybrid place, much more nuanced than the reputation it has.
Every city should have a DIMBY. And from the media coverage DIMBY received in 2010, I could tell how Toronto needs more of this: unpretentious yet great projects that remind you there are small paradises inside the city. Maybe this is one interesting way to think of art, whether it is public art or art inside museums and theatres: a window on secret paradises, a way to reveal hidden beauty in the city, or a way to enhance what is already visible to our eye… Art is not disconnected from what we experience in our everyday life: it draws from it, merges into it and allows us to extract new meanings from it.
In PART ONE of this Toronto portrait, I wrote a little about the Toronto Dance Community Love-In. In short, the Love-In offers contemporary dancers the professional training that, they felt, was missing in the city. So every month, they bring in international artists and teachers to provide the dance milieu with a diverse and rich approach to movement and dance training. The Love-In also gathers every month for discussing all sorts of projects and ideals they wish for, from the sustainability of the art form through funding to the sharing of resources between established artists and the emerging generation of creators.
Last fall, the co-founders of the Love-In, Amanda Acorn and Eroca Nicols (yes, I seem to be talking about Eroca all the time, but often, people who are committed to their milieu are involved in several projects…) asked Kate, Meryem Alaoui, and myself to help them structure the organization and create templates for the administrative tasks related to the Love-In. My help to them ended up being very specific and limited, as I was totally overwhelmed with school (yes, I do tend to forget I am here to study full-time…), but meeting with them, trying to figure out what the organization needed and how we could make its functioning efficient, I felt I was part of something important. These ladies do meet at 7am in the morning for discussing crucial issues for their dance community!!! That is a lot of LOVE, I’d say. I believe the Love-In is establishing not only a different type of training for professional dancers than what used to be offered in the city, but also a different way to envision the dance milieu. They promote the sharing of resources, the explosion of dance genres within the contemporary field, and the power of the group. I am excited and curious to see how the Love-In will change Toronto in ten years from now… I think a city can be changed from the inside, moulded by its citizens and artists.
Of course, since I am close to the people administrating the Love-In, I do think they are great. But I also think they are part of a greater movement, part of a group of people wanting Toronto to get richer and more diverse, open and safe. As Kate and I started to do the Intersection Project performances, as the G20 shook everyone’s sense of belonging to their city, as Rob Ford got elected, I did realized many people had the desire to envision Toronto as a place where art and business can co-exist, a place where citizens are considered, a place that is created from the inside by its people. Art, or dance, is only a small seed reflecting that reality…
To come in PART THREE (and the last one!):
INTERSECTION PROJECT, RHUBARB AND THE FRENCH CONNECTION
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
TORONTO: PORTRAIT OF A CITY
BY PRISCILLA GUY
So here we are: only 2 performances left for Intersection Project… As a co-founder of the project, I started to think of how the project has changed my perspectives on the city over the past few months. Toronto... I’ve lived here for two years now. And to say the truth, it is more like: one year and 8 months. So when you think about it, what do I possibly know about this city, hum?
What is it to be a dancer in Toronto?
What is it to be an artist in this city?
What is it to live here?
The next few paragraphs are quite informal: they are the story of an encounter between the city and me. And they probably contain a lot of English grammar mistakes! But I don’t mind. If I am about to share glimpses of my 2-year relationship with Toronto, it might as well reflect how French I am, don’t you think?
TORONTO - PART ONE
KATE, THE FOREIGNERS AND THE EMERGING DANCE SCENE
I moved here in 2009 to do my Master in Fine Arts at York University, with Kate Nankervis, who I did not know at all at the time. We met in a dance workshop in Montreal years ago, and she emailed me to offer me a room in her apartment when I was looking for a place in Toronto. Luckily, we became more than roommates; as most people know, we work together, create together and write grant applications together, in addition to living in the same house, sharing clothes and ear rings, etc. We became very closed friends; people started to call us the wives, just to give you an idea.
Kate has been my Toronto pillar. Before I moved here, the only thing I knew about the city was College Street and the Kensington Market, from visiting the year before. I also knew DIMBY (a fantastic project I’ll talk about later on) and the Dufferin Park. And streetcars. I was very excited about streetcars: we don’t have them in Montreal!
So: Kate knew everything one would possibly want to know about the professional dance scene here. That was of high interest to me, of course, as a dancer. Freshly graduated from a BFA in dance, she already was involved in a myriad of projects here and there. She introduced me to all of her friends. She sent me an incalculable amount of grant applications, call for artists, and call for proposals of all sorts that she thought would suit my work. I was impressed with how much she was willing to share: I don’t usually send out every single call for artists I find out about to all of my artist friends. I sometimes keep the secret for myself so that less of us apply… I know, it’s a shame. But Kate would share every single link with me, and with all of her fellow artists. That is how the emerging dance scene functions here in TO: you know something, you share it. Resources are not to be kept as secret. That is very interesting and particular in a world that is so competitive, a world in which everyone is fighting over the same grants, trying to get funding for their projects. But yes, the group of emerging dance artists I met here shares everything. They support each other so much, and they love each other so much, that they even decided to call their service organization The Toronto Dance Community Love-In. I’ll talk about them later on too, but it gives you an idea. That is the Toronto dance structure I was welcomed in. So refreshing, so powerful.
So yes: Kate literally knew the Toronto dance scene like the inside of her pocket. Probably because she is so passionate about her craft, but also because there IS a desire to share information here, and therefore everyone is aware of what is happening where and with whom. She’d say to you “Well it is no hard work for me to do all of this, it is what I love doing, it is what I work for, it is my life”, but really, when you look at the number of things she can handle in one day, you have to admit this is more than passion: this is talent, intelligence and devotion. Devotion to making the Toronto art scene a better one. Being her roommate, I got to see the Toronto emerging dance scene through the lens of her gaze, and that means in a positive, faithful and enthusiastic way.
In October 2009, I launched a new edition of my calendar for emerging artists. As an on going, annual project, I did not want to skip it for two years just because I was in Toronto. So I decided to do it with Toronto artists: Kate Nakervis, Eroca Nicols and Andrea de Keijzer. Eroca and Kate helped me organize a calendar release party for the project. The night of the party, I started to see more than glimpses of what the Toronto emerging dance scene had to offer. An impressive amount of people, who I barely knew, came to the party, bought calendars, drank and danced all night long, etc. For the occasion, we thought of organizing a series of one-minute performances. I am still, more than a year later, blown away by the extravagance, hilariousness and greatness of all of these one-minute performances. That night, dancing with these artists, watching them giving their time with generosity and asking about my projects with excitement, I knew I was witnessing something unique. I had never seen such a welcoming group of people, all fighting for the same thing. That night, I understood this was an opportunity for me to take part in something great, something important, in some way, here, in Toronto. Especially when dance artists are given less and less funding every year, when government policies are not always encouraging of the art form, when Rob Ford wins... I was delighted to encounter such courageous and inspiring people. There truly was something unique about this new generation of dance creators. They seemed to count on the power of the group to get them somewhere, as opposed to put all of their energy on individual projects. Everyone seemed to feel a part of everyone’s work in some way.
Parallel to my life with Kate, I was excited to dedicate myself to studying full-time choreography and dramaturgy for my master. Inside the MFA program, I found a family that would accompany me throughout the toughest parts of the year, when expectations started to fall apart on the academic side. So I started to discover Toronto through my classmates too: as foreigners (the six of us headed from Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmonton, Alaska and Germany), we did not know much about the city. It was quite an exquisite and unique feeling to encounter the city together, having different reference points in Toronto, but no substantial history with it. It is like learning to play a new game when all the players are beginners: you somehow make your own rules! For Anastasia Toronto was big, huge, gigantic! For me it felt conservative and polite. And for the six of us, having to commute to York everyday was simply a pain (except for Anastasia who was living on Campus…poor Anastasias)! Because yes, really, the most of our time we would spend it at York, or traveling to/from York, far away from anything else. So in order to counter balance for the fantastic amount of time we'd spend up there at York, we did put a show together in the first 4 months of our program, and presented it downtown Toronto. We had the chance to encounter early on in our journey the very eclectic Toronto audience for dance. Our works where as diverse as you can imagine, the six of us being so different as individuals and as artists too. But I like to think of that show as such an authentic and original way to get to know a city: through the arts, through people's relationship with the arts. We received all sorts of comments on that show, some good, some less enthusiastic. But one thing remains: 6 foreigners put a show together and local artists are there to support them no matter what. How great hmm?
That being said, York is also a big part of what I will remember from Toronto. I know, the location does not really help the overall appreciation one has of TO, but it comes with it. I also got used to the whole university being closed because it snows a little. Toronto is so unprepared for snow!!! Hilarious. One thing I like about the Toronto subway: the platform might be a little narrow when you wait for the train, but when you get inside, the cars are huge! For some reason, Montreal does the opposite, where the platform is large but the cars are so small they are constantly over packed with people inside…
So, after one academic year, I still did not know much about the city itself, having spent most of my time in theatres or at York. That scared me a little when I realized that. You don’t want to live somewhere for two years without knowing anything about the city you live in...
To come in the next few days:
PART TWO
DIMBY AND THE THE LOVE-IN
PART THREE
INTERSECTION PROJECT AND THE FRENCH CONNECTION
So here we are: only 2 performances left for Intersection Project… As a co-founder of the project, I started to think of how the project has changed my perspectives on the city over the past few months. Toronto... I’ve lived here for two years now. And to say the truth, it is more like: one year and 8 months. So when you think about it, what do I possibly know about this city, hum?
What is it to be a dancer in Toronto?
What is it to be an artist in this city?
What is it to live here?
The next few paragraphs are quite informal: they are the story of an encounter between the city and me. And they probably contain a lot of English grammar mistakes! But I don’t mind. If I am about to share glimpses of my 2-year relationship with Toronto, it might as well reflect how French I am, don’t you think?
TORONTO - PART ONE
KATE, THE FOREIGNERS AND THE EMERGING DANCE SCENE
I moved here in 2009 to do my Master in Fine Arts at York University, with Kate Nankervis, who I did not know at all at the time. We met in a dance workshop in Montreal years ago, and she emailed me to offer me a room in her apartment when I was looking for a place in Toronto. Luckily, we became more than roommates; as most people know, we work together, create together and write grant applications together, in addition to living in the same house, sharing clothes and ear rings, etc. We became very closed friends; people started to call us the wives, just to give you an idea.
Kate has been my Toronto pillar. Before I moved here, the only thing I knew about the city was College Street and the Kensington Market, from visiting the year before. I also knew DIMBY (a fantastic project I’ll talk about later on) and the Dufferin Park. And streetcars. I was very excited about streetcars: we don’t have them in Montreal!
So: Kate knew everything one would possibly want to know about the professional dance scene here. That was of high interest to me, of course, as a dancer. Freshly graduated from a BFA in dance, she already was involved in a myriad of projects here and there. She introduced me to all of her friends. She sent me an incalculable amount of grant applications, call for artists, and call for proposals of all sorts that she thought would suit my work. I was impressed with how much she was willing to share: I don’t usually send out every single call for artists I find out about to all of my artist friends. I sometimes keep the secret for myself so that less of us apply… I know, it’s a shame. But Kate would share every single link with me, and with all of her fellow artists. That is how the emerging dance scene functions here in TO: you know something, you share it. Resources are not to be kept as secret. That is very interesting and particular in a world that is so competitive, a world in which everyone is fighting over the same grants, trying to get funding for their projects. But yes, the group of emerging dance artists I met here shares everything. They support each other so much, and they love each other so much, that they even decided to call their service organization The Toronto Dance Community Love-In. I’ll talk about them later on too, but it gives you an idea. That is the Toronto dance structure I was welcomed in. So refreshing, so powerful.
So yes: Kate literally knew the Toronto dance scene like the inside of her pocket. Probably because she is so passionate about her craft, but also because there IS a desire to share information here, and therefore everyone is aware of what is happening where and with whom. She’d say to you “Well it is no hard work for me to do all of this, it is what I love doing, it is what I work for, it is my life”, but really, when you look at the number of things she can handle in one day, you have to admit this is more than passion: this is talent, intelligence and devotion. Devotion to making the Toronto art scene a better one. Being her roommate, I got to see the Toronto emerging dance scene through the lens of her gaze, and that means in a positive, faithful and enthusiastic way.
In October 2009, I launched a new edition of my calendar for emerging artists. As an on going, annual project, I did not want to skip it for two years just because I was in Toronto. So I decided to do it with Toronto artists: Kate Nakervis, Eroca Nicols and Andrea de Keijzer. Eroca and Kate helped me organize a calendar release party for the project. The night of the party, I started to see more than glimpses of what the Toronto emerging dance scene had to offer. An impressive amount of people, who I barely knew, came to the party, bought calendars, drank and danced all night long, etc. For the occasion, we thought of organizing a series of one-minute performances. I am still, more than a year later, blown away by the extravagance, hilariousness and greatness of all of these one-minute performances. That night, dancing with these artists, watching them giving their time with generosity and asking about my projects with excitement, I knew I was witnessing something unique. I had never seen such a welcoming group of people, all fighting for the same thing. That night, I understood this was an opportunity for me to take part in something great, something important, in some way, here, in Toronto. Especially when dance artists are given less and less funding every year, when government policies are not always encouraging of the art form, when Rob Ford wins... I was delighted to encounter such courageous and inspiring people. There truly was something unique about this new generation of dance creators. They seemed to count on the power of the group to get them somewhere, as opposed to put all of their energy on individual projects. Everyone seemed to feel a part of everyone’s work in some way.
Parallel to my life with Kate, I was excited to dedicate myself to studying full-time choreography and dramaturgy for my master. Inside the MFA program, I found a family that would accompany me throughout the toughest parts of the year, when expectations started to fall apart on the academic side. So I started to discover Toronto through my classmates too: as foreigners (the six of us headed from Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmonton, Alaska and Germany), we did not know much about the city. It was quite an exquisite and unique feeling to encounter the city together, having different reference points in Toronto, but no substantial history with it. It is like learning to play a new game when all the players are beginners: you somehow make your own rules! For Anastasia Toronto was big, huge, gigantic! For me it felt conservative and polite. And for the six of us, having to commute to York everyday was simply a pain (except for Anastasia who was living on Campus…poor Anastasias)! Because yes, really, the most of our time we would spend it at York, or traveling to/from York, far away from anything else. So in order to counter balance for the fantastic amount of time we'd spend up there at York, we did put a show together in the first 4 months of our program, and presented it downtown Toronto. We had the chance to encounter early on in our journey the very eclectic Toronto audience for dance. Our works where as diverse as you can imagine, the six of us being so different as individuals and as artists too. But I like to think of that show as such an authentic and original way to get to know a city: through the arts, through people's relationship with the arts. We received all sorts of comments on that show, some good, some less enthusiastic. But one thing remains: 6 foreigners put a show together and local artists are there to support them no matter what. How great hmm?
That being said, York is also a big part of what I will remember from Toronto. I know, the location does not really help the overall appreciation one has of TO, but it comes with it. I also got used to the whole university being closed because it snows a little. Toronto is so unprepared for snow!!! Hilarious. One thing I like about the Toronto subway: the platform might be a little narrow when you wait for the train, but when you get inside, the cars are huge! For some reason, Montreal does the opposite, where the platform is large but the cars are so small they are constantly over packed with people inside…
So, after one academic year, I still did not know much about the city itself, having spent most of my time in theatres or at York. That scared me a little when I realized that. You don’t want to live somewhere for two years without knowing anything about the city you live in...
To come in the next few days:
PART TWO
DIMBY AND THE THE LOVE-IN
PART THREE
INTERSECTION PROJECT AND THE FRENCH CONNECTION
Monday, March 28, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Some questions about public art, By Kassandra Prus
Kassandra Prus is one of our Intersection Project performer. As an artist in the city, she is interested in the interaction between art and life, the difference or similarity between dance and pedestrian movement, the relationship artists have with their audience, and the various perspectives people have on contemporary art.
Here are some of the questions she wants to share:
Boundaries
What/where is the boundary between dance and pedestrian movement?
Does the line between pedestrian movement and dance shift in different settings?
Acceptability
Where is dance “acceptable”? Why? What does it look like?
From the things we do every day, what do we choose to show? What do we crystallize into art? Why does something make the cut to become part of a work?
Perspective
Does the line between movement and dance shift when we change our perspective?
How do you “prepare” an audience for a performance? How do you surprise them? How do you break your audiences expectations?
How long can you hold a surprised audiences attention?
Foundations
Does stringing together movement turn it into dance?
Why is visual rhythm so much harder to recognize than auditory rhythm when vision is our strongest sense?
And you, what do you think? How do you envision dance/art as part of the larger society?
Here are some of the questions she wants to share:
Boundaries
What/where is the boundary between dance and pedestrian movement?
Does the line between pedestrian movement and dance shift in different settings?
Acceptability
Where is dance “acceptable”? Why? What does it look like?
From the things we do every day, what do we choose to show? What do we crystallize into art? Why does something make the cut to become part of a work?
Perspective
Does the line between movement and dance shift when we change our perspective?
How do you “prepare” an audience for a performance? How do you surprise them? How do you break your audiences expectations?
How long can you hold a surprised audiences attention?
Foundations
Does stringing together movement turn it into dance?
Why is visual rhythm so much harder to recognize than auditory rhythm when vision is our strongest sense?
And you, what do you think? How do you envision dance/art as part of the larger society?
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Spontaneous Dance Combustion in Montreal
Organized by Michael Watts this spontaneous dance performance occurred in Montreal:
Saturday, January 29, 2011
INTERSECTION PROJECT @ RHUBARB FESTIVAL
Buddies In Bad Times Theatre presents
THE RHUBARB FESTIVAL
Toronto’s 32nd annual convergence of contemporary performance
Feb 16 – 27, 2011
Festival Director Laura Nanni
INTERSECTION PROJECT IS PROUD TO BE PART OF RHUBARB FESTIVAL FOR AN OPENING AND CLOSING EVENT, FEB 16TH AND FEB 27TH....! MORE DETAILS TO COME.
...
Festival Sponsor TD
Media Sponsor NOW Magazine
The Schedule at a Glance – a fully downloadable and printer-friendly schedule is now on-line:
http://buddiesinbadtimes.com/festival.cfm?id=11
More programming info is available on the website:
http://www.buddiesinbadtimes.com/festival.cfm?id=11
Canada’s premiere experimental performance festival returns to Buddies in a new two-week format. Over 100 local and international artists offer up fresh live encounters in contemporary theatre, dance, performance art, music and hybrid forms. This year’s line-up includes sacrilegious celebrity impersonations, utopian science fiction, mass pop-up performances in secret spots around the city, and all kinds of glorious transgressions.
RHUBARB’S NEW TWO-WEEK FORMAT:
-Mainstage Evenings: Wed – Sat, beginning at 8pm - Different programming each night
-Sunday Socials: an affably social day of politically-minded performances and events - PWYC
-Mobile Works: artists infiltrate the streets of Toronto with surprising performances designed for public spaces - FREE
TICKET INFORMATION
Wed – Sat, Evening Pass $20
Sunday Socials, PWYC
Mobile Works/Offsite, FREE
12 Alexander St. Toronto, ON
Box Office 416-975-8555
buddiesinbadtimes.com
follow us: yyzbuddies.blogspot.com or twitter @yyzbuddies
THE RHUBARB FESTIVAL
Toronto’s 32nd annual convergence of contemporary performance
Feb 16 – 27, 2011
Festival Director Laura Nanni
INTERSECTION PROJECT IS PROUD TO BE PART OF RHUBARB FESTIVAL FOR AN OPENING AND CLOSING EVENT, FEB 16TH AND FEB 27TH....! MORE DETAILS TO COME.
...
Festival Sponsor TD
Media Sponsor NOW Magazine
The Schedule at a Glance – a fully downloadable and printer-friendly schedule is now on-line:
http://buddiesinbadtimes.com/festival.cfm?id=11
More programming info is available on the website:
http://www.buddiesinbadtimes.com/festival.cfm?id=11
Canada’s premiere experimental performance festival returns to Buddies in a new two-week format. Over 100 local and international artists offer up fresh live encounters in contemporary theatre, dance, performance art, music and hybrid forms. This year’s line-up includes sacrilegious celebrity impersonations, utopian science fiction, mass pop-up performances in secret spots around the city, and all kinds of glorious transgressions.
RHUBARB’S NEW TWO-WEEK FORMAT:
-Mainstage Evenings: Wed – Sat, beginning at 8pm - Different programming each night
-Sunday Socials: an affably social day of politically-minded performances and events - PWYC
-Mobile Works: artists infiltrate the streets of Toronto with surprising performances designed for public spaces - FREE
TICKET INFORMATION
Wed – Sat, Evening Pass $20
Sunday Socials, PWYC
Mobile Works/Offsite, FREE
12 Alexander St. Toronto, ON
Box Office 416-975-8555
buddiesinbadtimes.com
follow us: yyzbuddies.blogspot.com or twitter @yyzbuddies
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Warm the cold month with a dream a hot travels......
Free Travel Advice For Strangers
an ongoing project by Laura Nanni
So its cold right now..... thinking of a HOT getaway? Check Out Laura Nanni's Travel Advice For Strangers...to dream up your next vacation.
WHAT STARTED IT:
In early September 2009, I was walking along Brunswick St. (or Major?), when I came across a boy around six or seven who had set up a 'FREE TRAVEL ADVICE' stand on the sidewalk. A woman gardening behind him, who I guessed was his mom, noticed that I had crossed the street to take a closer look and assured me, "He's serious." Intrigued, I asked him about his travel tips for Nova Scotia, a place I was eager to visit. Why not, right? After consulting an atlas, and asking me a few questions: "What time of year were you thinking?" "Do you have any allergies?" "Have you ever been to Yarmouth?" he suggested a 6-day itinerary that included a traveling from Halifax to Inverness at night, 3 days of hiking along the northern shore, a shopping trip, a boat tour and a visit on the last day to Lunenberg where the Bluenose was built. After this I thanked him and asked if he had ever traveled to Nova Scotia. "No" he told me, "But my grandmother did." I told him I thought he'd really like the place, that I would keep his advice in mind and then I said goodbye.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT:
I decided to take my trip to Nova Scotia this summer. I arrived without a map or plan except for the itinerary the boy suggested. Along the way I retold the story of the boy, asked for directions, collected many hand-drawn maps and depended on the kindness of strangers. The journey was eye opening, challenging and magical in many ways.
I never caught this boy's name or made note of his address, but have since decided to begin a search to find him again. First, to thank him for the advice and let him know how the trip went and second, to ask if he'd be interested in joining me to create an adventure, a set of directions for strangers to follow in the city, along the lines of some of the other work that I do.
This past summer and fall, I set up a mobile 'FREE TRAVEL ADVICE' stand in and around the Annex, retelling this story, sharing accounts from my trip to Nova Scotia and asking others for help to find the boy. Postcards and letters were also written to help with the search and handed out as I traveled door-to-door.
I also decided I wanted to create a piece for the boy to experience. While the search party began, I started collaborating with three 'experts' of: land (a geologist), sky (an astrophysicist) and sea (an oceanographer), to create a set of journeys in Toronto, meant for this boy to experience and test out, with the following criteria for each one: it must allow him to navigate, to make choices that influence the outcome of his journey, it must give him the opportunity to see his city in a new way and it MUST be fun.
WHAT NOW:
Recently I moved online to help spread the word through facebook:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Free-Travel-Advice-for-Strangers/173267369372605
If you know anyone who lives in The Annex or used to, that might know the 'young travel advisor' or have seen the 'FREE TRAVEL ADVICE' stand on that street please send them to this page. The page is also place for documenting the search for the boy (a.k.a. young travel advisor), the creation of adventures to be taken in the city and to share creative tips for travel from me and others, all in the spirit of 'free travel advice' FROM and FOR strangers.
Through this page I'm also letting people know of events related to the project i.e. where and when the travel advice stand is set up next, if an adventure tour is taking place, if there is a lead in the search, if the boy has been found, etc. I welcome questions and comments. The next impromptu set-up of the FREE TRAVEL ADVICE stand and Annex search will be early next month. Stay tuned...
Cheers!
Laura
an ongoing project by Laura Nanni
So its cold right now..... thinking of a HOT getaway? Check Out Laura Nanni's Travel Advice For Strangers...to dream up your next vacation.
WHAT STARTED IT:
In early September 2009, I was walking along Brunswick St. (or Major?), when I came across a boy around six or seven who had set up a 'FREE TRAVEL ADVICE' stand on the sidewalk. A woman gardening behind him, who I guessed was his mom, noticed that I had crossed the street to take a closer look and assured me, "He's serious." Intrigued, I asked him about his travel tips for Nova Scotia, a place I was eager to visit. Why not, right? After consulting an atlas, and asking me a few questions: "What time of year were you thinking?" "Do you have any allergies?" "Have you ever been to Yarmouth?" he suggested a 6-day itinerary that included a traveling from Halifax to Inverness at night, 3 days of hiking along the northern shore, a shopping trip, a boat tour and a visit on the last day to Lunenberg where the Bluenose was built. After this I thanked him and asked if he had ever traveled to Nova Scotia. "No" he told me, "But my grandmother did." I told him I thought he'd really like the place, that I would keep his advice in mind and then I said goodbye.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT:
I decided to take my trip to Nova Scotia this summer. I arrived without a map or plan except for the itinerary the boy suggested. Along the way I retold the story of the boy, asked for directions, collected many hand-drawn maps and depended on the kindness of strangers. The journey was eye opening, challenging and magical in many ways.
I never caught this boy's name or made note of his address, but have since decided to begin a search to find him again. First, to thank him for the advice and let him know how the trip went and second, to ask if he'd be interested in joining me to create an adventure, a set of directions for strangers to follow in the city, along the lines of some of the other work that I do.
This past summer and fall, I set up a mobile 'FREE TRAVEL ADVICE' stand in and around the Annex, retelling this story, sharing accounts from my trip to Nova Scotia and asking others for help to find the boy. Postcards and letters were also written to help with the search and handed out as I traveled door-to-door.
I also decided I wanted to create a piece for the boy to experience. While the search party began, I started collaborating with three 'experts' of: land (a geologist), sky (an astrophysicist) and sea (an oceanographer), to create a set of journeys in Toronto, meant for this boy to experience and test out, with the following criteria for each one: it must allow him to navigate, to make choices that influence the outcome of his journey, it must give him the opportunity to see his city in a new way and it MUST be fun.
WHAT NOW:
Recently I moved online to help spread the word through facebook:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Free-Travel-Advice-for-Strangers/173267369372605
If you know anyone who lives in The Annex or used to, that might know the 'young travel advisor' or have seen the 'FREE TRAVEL ADVICE' stand on that street please send them to this page. The page is also place for documenting the search for the boy (a.k.a. young travel advisor), the creation of adventures to be taken in the city and to share creative tips for travel from me and others, all in the spirit of 'free travel advice' FROM and FOR strangers.
Through this page I'm also letting people know of events related to the project i.e. where and when the travel advice stand is set up next, if an adventure tour is taking place, if there is a lead in the search, if the boy has been found, etc. I welcome questions and comments. The next impromptu set-up of the FREE TRAVEL ADVICE stand and Annex search will be early next month. Stay tuned...
Cheers!
Laura
Friday, January 21, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Ordering Dances in Brazil
Morena Paiva and her collective, Prague Leve
Site - Specific Dances on the beach.
Check them out.
Site - Specific Dances on the beach.
Check them out.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Intersection Project Performance #4 - St. Lawrence Market
St. Lawerence Market
December 20th, 2010
video by: Simone Maurice
December 20th, 2010
video by: Simone Maurice
Intersection Project #4 - St. Lawrence Market
Intersection Project #4
December 20th, 2010
video by: Simone Maurice
Intersection Project #4 from Intersection Project on Vimeo.
December 20th, 2010
video by: Simone Maurice
Intersection Project #4 from Intersection Project on Vimeo.
Response to Performance#4
December 18th/St-Lawrence Market
By Thomas Chiasson-LeBel
It’s almost Christmas Eve and the St. Lawrence market is swarming with customers. Some are walking fast, already thinking about the dinner they’ll have to cook for their relatives. They are rushed. In the midst of the crowd, something is about to happen. I am confident of this, I have been invited, I just don’t know exactly where ‘it’ will take place. I ask the first passerby:
-Have you seen dancers or a dance show somewhere around here?
-Oh yeah, it’s just there! Look!
I turn in the direction she’s pointing only to find…nothing! But then something catches my eye. There, on the median strip of the road, two dozens or so people are milling about. The way they move leaves no doubt: they are dancing.
As I get closer to see what is going on, I overhear a conversation between a homeless newspaper vendor and a pedestrian:
-What is going on?
-I don’t know, said the paper man, its art!
This exchange neatly summarizes the whole situation. Apathy is always the enemy of meaning.
Paradoxically, dance is the least intuitive art. Least intuitive because we do not get the meaning immediately. When looking to a dance performance, ideas, words, feelings and emotions are not bursting into one’s mind as it does with other forms of art. Paradoxically, because when we speak, the gestures that come-along with the words are consistent with the meaning. I cannot but think of Bakhtine who insists, in his essay on materialist linguistics, on the importance of tone and gesture in understanding the meaning behind words. The ‘F’ word, for instance, can be employed and interpreted in a myriad different ways. It all comes down to body language and tone. It can mean «I hate you» if used with the middle finger, or it can signify «you are funny! I don’t believe you» if said to a good friend after he/she just made an incredible affirmation. If gestures are so intimately related to the meaning, why is it so hard to understand what message or meaning each choreography conveys? Is it because the meaning is too culturally embedded? Is it because the contemporary dance has developed a hermetical body language?
The newspaper seller didn’t get the signification conveyed by the dancers, and worse, but understandably perhaps, he thought the meaning wasn’t meant for him. He was probably wrong on this last assumption. But he is not the only one who has a hard time getting the meaning of contemporary dance. I am probably one of them. By chance, the choreographers of Intersection Project have paid attention to people like me when preparing their show.
Looking at the spectacle, a first meaning is obvious. They are dancing in the middle of the street, on a narrow strip of ground, without music, giving another flavor to the space. But very few people stop. For many, it’s simply ‘business as usual.’ They don’t notice what is really going on or they don’t care. What’s going on is ‘art’, and for them it can exist as long as business goes as usual. The fact that the dancers are trying to say something, and people don’t care, is probably part of the signification the dancers are trying to convey. It is exactly behind such feelings that a government can hide when deciding to atrociously expel artists from institutional recognition.
A second meaning, and probably the most important, is that those dancers are still there. With no means, they mean. They decided to stand up (or in this case : turn, flip, jump, twist and much more) and share their meaning publicly, out of the spaces reserved for specialists. Even when institutionally rejected, they still express themselves.
A third meaning can be discerned also: in the simple choreography. A group of dancers are moving individually, minding their own business, and they suddenly gather together. Something attracts their common attention. A threat? Just after, one after the other, they fall, and their bodies seem disarticulated. But instead of falling on the ground, alone, and being left there, the others form a human chain to support her and lead her to a place where she will be safer, far from the frontline for a few minutes, where at her turn, she too will become part of the support chain.
I am probably wrong in what I got from this show but I am pretty sure to be right on one thing. We are more than just animals simply because we produce meaning. If I don’t get what somebody says, instead of turning my back, I should ask him/her to repeat it until I understand. And if few people are listening, it might make perfect sense to go out on the street and yell it publicly.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
CALL FOR ARTISTS PERFORMANCE #5
CALL FOR ARTISTS
PERFORMANCE #5
dance crosses urban spaces
artists meet audiences
ideas travel between us
Dear Artists,
This is a reminder for our performance #5 on Jan 22nd!
HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION
Driven by the success of May 1st 2010 Public Performance in Toronto, organized in conjunction with Montreal artist Normand Marcy and Tangente, Laboratoire de Mouvement Contemporain, Priscilla Guy and Kate Nankervis are launching Intersection Project, an initiative that aims to highlight the presence of artists in urban landscapes. Through pedestrian and simple movement vocabulary in city landscapes, the dance is accessible and belongs to anyone who is walking by. Bodies become organic sculptures against urban architectures.
The performances organized by Intersection Project are opportunities for artists and audiences to meet in unexpected and unofficial settings; a reminder performance art also lives outside theatres. Art is essential and it lives everywhere we decide to allow for it. Art reflects the common needs and wants members of society share. Intersection Project is an occasion to re-iterate the spontaneous and engaging nature of art as performance emerges from urban architectures and melt with the city landscapes.
Throughout the upcoming year, Intersection Project will organize 10 monthly performances in the Toronto's
downtown area, gathering dancers, actors and performers from diverse backgrounds. In the nature of spontaneity, there is no promotions or marketing for the events. We believe the recurrent aspect of the project will stimulate curiosity and interest for it.
PERFORMANCE #5
We are looking for performers to participate in the fifth performances of the year!
Saturday, January 22nd. Looking for up to 25 performers. Participants must be available from 11:45am to 2:30pm at least.
**Intersection Project has applied for funding to cover artists fees. However, until the results of grants applications and confirmation with our sponsors, there will be no artist fees. As part of your registration, we will track your HOURS as PERFORMERS for each event and participating artists will be paid retroactively as we get funding results. Artists involved must be ready to participate as they believe in the project and mandate and volunteer their time in the case funding is not successful. It is important for us to pay participating artists, and we assure to you all efforts will be made to provide proper fees as the project continues. Thank you for understanding.
**Schedule of the Day for January 22nd:
11:45am to 12:45pm-check in/rehearsal
1:00pm to 2:00pm-performance
2:00pm to 2:30pm- break/gather for reception
2:30pm to 5:30pm-reception
Performance details including the score, the arrangement, the locations for the performance and the reception will be sent ONLY TO CONFIRMED PARTICIPANTS. All locations chosen are in the downtown area (Christie to Yonge / Bloor to Queen's Quays, always accessible by bike, car and TTC)
TO PARTICIPATE, PLEASE E-MAIL:
THE INTERSECTION BLOG :
http://intersectionproject10.
We hope to see you in January!
Priscilla Guy & Kate Nankervis
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