show time

Well. Today is opening night of our show, and usually I send out an email before hand telling everyone what pieces I'm in and what they're about and things like that but I didn't this year. So, as my sister suggested, perhaps I'll do that here. And if any of you are interested in coming, you can let me know (tonight through sunday at the gas station theatre, 8:00)

I'm in four pieces this year
The first one of the night is my solo (which is only on Thursday and Saturday, my lovely friend Hilary does it the other nights). It's a fun little piece called Caught by the Tango and it involves a little shoe, a black dress with a red crinoline and white gloves. I think this piece is pretty self explanatory...

Next in the evening is Passion Song which we worked on last May with Bill Evans from New Mexico. I think this might be the hardest piece I have ever done in many ways. But it's beautiful and now that all the cleaning is done, it's fun to perform. It fairly classical modern and we have long ankle length full skirts (which are not always cooperative and seem to get longer and longer as the piece goes on...) and we have to do long balances at times which exposes my weaknesses as a dancer... But it's a beautiful piece with great dramatic music and some weird quirky moves that contrast with the classicalness of it as a whole.

After the intermission is Ashes which I have actually done before so some of you may remember it. The piece was inspired by the choreographer's visit to Pompei. It's a piece about survival, dignity, acceptance, human life cycles... I think it also explores strength in numbers and the power of stillness. The piece includes both sculpture and emotion, the choreographer wanted to portray images of the architecture and art she experienced in Pompei, the columns and statues and paintings, but it's also about the lives and the community that took place there before and I guess during the disaster.

Right after Ashes is KJ4 which you will not see me in but I spent many, many hours working on that piece as an understudy so if you like you can pick any one of the 4 of them and imagine it being me. This piece was choreographed by Rachel Browne (the founder of the school, the company and basically modern dance in manitoba). It was inspired by a piece of improvisational piano music and I think it's a great piece, the girls look really strong. I would have loved to perform it.

And last but not least we have Fruit Studies which was choreographed by a very interesting and lovely man named Tedd Robinson. He travelled across Canada this year choreographing pieces for professional training schools who were going to be at the Canada Dance Festival in Ottawa next month. So when the 5 schools get together in Ottawa we're going to put them all together to make a big long piece, which will be hectic but really fun. Part of this work was inspired by a little cult called the Shakers who (in my limited understanding) didn't believe in reproducing, they thought the world should end with them. So men and women were separated within their little community and every once in a while they would get together and basically have crazy dance parties to release their sexual energy... The first piece of music in this dance is Shaker music. It's a pretty unique piece and I'm really excited to perform it.

So that's that. My last show with the school and i think it's a good one. I'm feeling pretty excited about performing tonight, especially after getting out some emotions earlier in the week... Hooray for show time! Hope to see some of you there!