Heidi Strauss - photo by Jeremy Mimnagh

Heidi Strauss has been a Resident Outside Eye (ROE) for Series 8:08’s Choreographic Performance Workshops (CPW) since 2007. A choreographer herself, Strauss believes highly in the importance of dialogue in and around dance. “ We need to be able to talk about our work,” comments Strauss. “Artists need to have an intellectual understanding of what they’re trying to do.”

Before starting her own company, adelheid, in 2007, Strauss worked as a performer and collaborator with choreographers and directors for stage, film and opera. She has worked as a movement coach, a choreographer for opera and as rehearsal director. For the past four seasons Strauss has been artist in residence at the Factory Theatre while also teaching and choreographing for numerous companies and professional training programs and continuing to work as an independent dance artist. Invariably, she brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the CPWs as one of 8:08’s resident ROEs.

“My first experience with a resident outside eye was at Le Groupe Dance Lab in Ottawa. I continue to find it helpful in my processes to have questions posed to me,” says Strauss. “Asking questions allows the choreographer to expand the way they think about their work.” As ROE for Series 8:08, Strauss attends each artist’s tech rehearsal, watches the evening’s performance and writes a generous amount of feedback for the choreographer to take away and use in future rehearsals. “I try to suggest tools to help push the process along.”

Heidi Strauss - photo by Jeremy Mimnagh

Recognizing the value a residency can have on a creative process, Strauss suggested the Take Two Program offered by Series 8:08 to allow artists the opportunity to go further with their work and return to workshop a piece for a second time. This is the first year the program has run and it more accurately reflects a dancer’s nature, notes Strauss: “As dancers, we’re not trained to reach an end product when creating. Like in class, we should be constantly in process, working towards improvement.”

Talking about the efforts of crafting constructive criticism, Strauss says: “It requires creative energy to give feedback to an artist regarding where they’re at in their process and where they’re interested in going. Often choreographers may think they’re doing something, but it may not be translating in a way that other people (except them) can see.”

The ROE’s job is to encourage and challenge choreographers – opening a work up to refine its specificity. Contribution from the audience comes in the form of written feedback, given to each choreographer, providing the means for further consideration and refinement of their work.  Strauss hopes the experience of the workshop will provide ideas and perspective along the road to creation. “There should be a more flexible time frame around when choreography is ready. Processes need to be longer,” urges Strauss.  Series 8:08’s CPW’s support just that. With space, an audience, documented footage and a professional outside eye, they’re the perfect working goal and catapulting platform to keep choreographers chugging along their dance making way.

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Additional ROE’s for the 2011/2012 CPW season are: Sylvie Bouchard, Susie Burpee, Susan Cash, Marie-Josée Chartier, Christopher House and Lee Su-Feh.

Last fall, Leslie-Ann Glen and Nicola Pantin were Series 8:08’s Take Two choreographers. Both enjoyed the opportunity to share works-in-progress, first at either the September or October CPW (Choreographic Performance Workshop), and then again in November. Both choreographers took advantage of residencies, made available to them by 8:08’s newest partner, Hub 14, before sharing their work for a second time. The Take Two program is an extension of the CPW series and was initiated in 2010/11.

What was your impetus to submit choreography to Series 8:08′s Choreographic Performance Workshop?

Falciony Patino Cruz and Freya Sargent - photo by Ingrid Forster

Leslie-Ann Glen: With a brand new dance company, it is important to create as much work and submit to as many opportunities to showcase work as you possibly can. It is also deeply vital for a new choreographer to have feedback on the strength of their work; whether or not audiences will enjoy it, how they will react, etc. I submitted to Series 8:08 because it is accessible to a new and unknown choreographer (they will accept new artists), and because it is an essential tool for obtaining feedback and developing confidence in my art.

Nicola: I had just come back to town, went to one of Kenny pearl’s open classes at CCDT and was catching up with Tanya Crowder. She said there was an opening and I thought it was a great opportunity to show my piece. I’d shown it in a new Fringe in Stratford in May and I needed another look at it to see if it merited developing a full-length work and if I still wanted to choreograph only on women. I used to do 8:08′s all the time – since the beginning – and since it’s been about 10 years since the last one I did, I knew it was a good time to get back and use this valuable forum.

Neesa Kenemy and Meredith Thompson in Nicola Pantin's "Women of Tango" - photo by Omer Yukseker

With your audience responses and notes from your Resident Outside Eye (ROE) after your first showing, how did you prepare to go back into the studio and continue working on the same piece? 

Joanie Audet, Falciony Patino Cruz, Olivia Citter and Brandon Ramsey in Leslie-Ann Glen's rehearsal at Hub 14 - photo by Leslie-Ann Glen

Leslie-Ann Glen: The audience responses for both the first and second showings were extremely diverse – all over the map. Complimentary comments strengthened my confidence in certain aspects of the piece, while constructive criticisms made me question my work and strive to improve it. Comments that were less helpful would disagree with fundamental elements of the piece (things the work was based on and therefore would not change), and comments that were excessively unclear (example: “story??!!!?!!”). I sat down with my dancers and all of the comments, and we chose which ones we agreed with, and which ones we overruled. I also went back to my ROE and asked her the best way to disagree with her advice, and she was again very helpful. [Leslie-Ann had Sylvia Bouchard as ROE for her first workshop and Sasha Ivanochko for her second.]

Nicola: I too had complimentary comments and criticisms. I particularly remember a critique about style – too balletic at one point, something I inserted purposefully. I actually still like that aspect of my work and decided that I may need more for it to be effective.

I had asked the audience whether the Spanish lyrics bothered them and my ROE and audience assured me that it did not. [Nicola’s first ROE was Susan Cash, with Sasha Ivanochko second.] This came as a relief to me as the music in this case was the inspiration for the piece and I preferred to keep it.

Neesa Kenemy in Nicola Pantin's "Women of Tango" - photo by Omer Yukseker

My ROE and audience for the most part thought the piece was strong without the use of men. I gathered from my ROE that I needed to restructure the piece and the characters to make my story more clear. So, with all of this under my belt I decided to do another piece that I’d been meaning to remount, lengthen and finish. I learned that the piece could work on its own, and although I didn’t need men in this piece, I did want to use them in the future to complete a full-length work. I decided that the music worked but I didn’t want to use a whole album of this music for a full-length piece with only women as i had shared with my September CPW audience.

I spoke with my husband (a director) and we decided that Women of Tango (September’s CPW) definitely had a place in a full-length piece that we want to recreate together. So I decided to keep the comments and the work from September as a piece to rework in the future and take advantage of an additional opportunity to get feedback on another installment of the final work. I’m very happy with my decision and I credit my ROE and audience for helping me get there.

Nicola, I understand your residency was used to work on a whole new piece, but Leslie-Ann can you comment further on your residency? For example, tools you may have used to go back into the piece and/or any observations/reflections you made from this opportunity of time?

Falciony Patino Cruz and Freya Sargent in Leslie-Ann Glen's work - photo by Ingrid Forster

Leslie-Ann: This is a tricky question. The lead dancer in my duet was deported to the States shortly after my first showing. So, while I had planned to further develop the duet, instead I had to teach the whole thing to a new dancer and start again from the beginning. This really stunted my ability to work on my suggestions, since they mostly involved bringing the dancers deeper into the work. I was, however, extremely glad to have the residency with Hub14 to help re-teach the piece. Losing my dancer was a huge disappointment, and the donated space softened that blow a lot. I was also able to proceed into the next work, thankfully, but I would have liked to delve deeper into the duet and use my comments to their full capacity. Luckily, I will be able to do so now.

Because of outside circumstances and future considerations, you both weren’t able to use the residency to further develop your initial submissions. After what became two independent workshops, what are your short-term plans – hopes, aspirations – for these pieces? In what ways has 8:08 contributed to your making/thinking?  

Nicola: I’d love to continue to workshop and present both pieces in any small festivals. I will likely present a short version of the Table Dance at a fundraiser through Pegasus Children’s Dance Theatre at the Betty Oliphant Theatre on February 12th. There is also a May Fringe Festival in Stratford where I may present the long version of the Table Dance. I’d also like to start developing the full-length piece called Little Freedoms under Adam Nashman’s direction – trying to see how both pieces fit into the story that we are creating.

Dana Bondy, Neesa Kenemy, Desmond Osborne and Nicola Pantin in Nicola Pantin's "Table Dance" - photo by Omer Yukseker

Nicola Pantin in her own work "Table Dance" - photo by Omer Yukseker

8:08 provided much needed space, an audience and archival video and photos from which to continue to refine the work. It has helped me discover the weaknesses in my story and composition. I did ‘throw’ both pieces together in very few rehearsals due to money and time constraints. I know a lot more time is needed with my dancers to play and to work on style – and to clean of course. Most of all 8:08 helped me to decide to continue with both works.

Leslie-Ann: The duet that I presented in October and November’s CPW, as well as the quartet I showed in the latter, is part of a full-length production I am currently working on for the summer. Pollux Dance has been accepted into the Ottawa Fringe Festival, so we are working on an hour-long presentation for our June deadline. The piece is about the human condition: twenty-somethings, love, relationships, sex, and all that surrounds it. The stories are based upon (and mixed within, recorded conversations over coffee– people dishing their relationship turmoil and feelings on this topic. I am hoping to remount this production in Toronto in the fall.

Series 8:08 has given me a look into how varying the audiences’ perception of a piece can be. Some will receive your message just as you have delivered it, and others will not relate and disconnect themselves. An artists’ work is so subjective that one always wonders if the world understands what they are trying to get across. I believe Series 8:08 is a crucial tool for choreographers to check in with themselves, to see if their work is any “good”. It also instills a confidence in the creator that is vital to believing in ones own art.

Eryn Dace Trudell – photo by Benoit Dhennin

Eryn Dace Trudell is a producer, choreographer, dancer and teacher. Her approach consolidates an accumulated knowledge spanning 20 years in dance. Originally from Toronto, now living in Montréal, she holds a BFA in Dance from Juilliard, is certified in Skinner Releasing Technique, teaches Contact Improvisation and is the founder of Mama dances (2006). Eryn will be teaching December 7^th to 10^th, 2011, at Dovercourt House, Toronto, as part of Series 8:08’s ATC Program.

When did you begin practicing Contact Improvisation (CI)?

In 1991, at the end of my final year at Juilliard in NYC, where I did my BFA in Dance. In that time before I moved back to Toronto I found CI by way of Alexis Eupierre. I had danced in two of his choreographies and both were applying new dance methods, including CI. It was a very exciting time – though I was an uptown girl, I was dancing in the downtown world. On one program Alexis did a duet with David Zambrano that blew my mind. It was a CI performance and it was indefinable to me. I had to know it. How they did it. I started going to the CI jam at PS 122 and had an amazing time. It “clicked” immediately for me. I was completely autonomous there. I like that – to dance autonomously. I fell in love. I had always been drawn to techniques that employed the use of the weight of the body like Limon. But finally I was able to let go of all that turnout stuff. CI felt like something I had been waiting for all of my life.

When and how did you come into contact with Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT)?

Several ways. I had a crush on the bartender at Bar 55 on West Christopher St. who danced for Stephanie Skura in the 80′s. I heard all about Stephanie from him. Then I moved back to Toronto and took an SRT workshop with Joan Skinner that Andrea Smith, one of the founders of Dancemakers, presented – Stephanie Skura had recently left NYC to study and work with Joan in Seattle. Several people in Toronto were already aware of the technique and had practiced it some,  including Sarah Chase and Livia Daza Paris. Both being dancers and artists that I admired. Andrea Smith also brought Jamal Xanitha to Toronto to teach. Jamal was also versed in SRT and using imagery and to bring students to states of *siddhis*. Then Sharon and I hosted a workshop with Stephanie Skura at Damn Straight. Once again like my experience with CI it was a total revelation. I realized in all these classes with teachers that were using alpha states that my formal dance training had enormous gaps, and that quite possibly had to do with my mind.  The traditional methods of dance training, that are mainly imitative and demonstrative, bored my mind. A mirror dimension was not enough for me – I wanted the holoverse.  Going into deep states of consciousness to find the dance took me out of my insecurities and body image phobias that had been interfering with the freedom of my spirit and my ability to connect to the present.

Eryn Dace Trudell and Dustin Humany at Lasqueti Island – photo by Kinga Michalska

Can you talk about the relationship between the two?

As written by Jean Housten in The Farming of Forms Towards a New Natural Philosophy, I believe that CI and SRT “grew out of a necessity to find a new natural philosophy which weaves the findings of physics, physiology, the mysteries of consciousness and the call of the larger ecology into a unity so profoundly felt that it inspires our growth, illumines our transitions, mobilizes our intentions, and gives us the courage to live daily life as spiritual exercise.”

Almost all CI classes that I have studied include studies that come from SRT. The teachers themselves aren’t really aware of the origins but
historically they are related (I think Steve Paxton is a generation younger than Joan Skinner). All of the new dance forms came out of post-modern dance and, much of the post-modern movement was influenced by Mabel Todd’s book The Thinking Body (1930). Joan Skinners’ first dance teacher had been a student of Mabels’ so the use of imagery begins here (in Western practice). Both SRT and CI are “process forms”. They are not meant to have a final product – they are ongoing practices. They teach us to be in the present, tuned into the self as it is reflected in, and affects, others and the universe. By dancing we enter feeling states – bliss, transubliminal ecstasy – which originate in the egoless state that unifies the whole. This unity permits intensity and detachment to exist simultaneously

In CI practice we don’t use altered states or imagery, because we need to be very present with what is happening in the space. It is more of a sport in that regard. We have to always be aware of potential fly-away balls. However, we do enter into a creative exploration with another person who we may or may not know, whereby our bodies unify and move as one mind.  I think that a good CI dance is one where there is complete equality, unity and autonomy – it is a dichotomy. In order to be able to truly live this dichotomy we must be able to comprehend that we are in all things – the holoverse theory. SRT is the only dance training that I know of that teaches creativity and egolessness as well as strength, flexibility efficiency and alignment and all those things that the body needs to be articulate. In my CI classes I have noticed a huge range of abilities that are difficult to address individually. SRT is truly a dance technique that is accessible to movers of all experience levels without any danger of injury. Therefore, I strongly believe that SRT is the best training to prepare to do CI. CI is not a technique – it is research.

Eryn Dace Trudell and Dustin Humany at Lasqueti Island – photo by Kinga Michalska

You’ve taught workshops all across Canada, what do you hope students take away from the experience?

Understanding the possibility and power of fearlessness. Moving toward it. Having dived deep in the ocean and swam with the whales, unfolded with the fiddle-heads, floated by distant clouds, travelled through time, shapeshifted, enveloped by a mantle of unconditional love, as well as fought and slayed the demons that are trapping us inside. I hope students work towards a state of egolessness and transparency – a sense of connection with themselves, with love, with the universe, with everything and with everyone. The ability to enter into a dance with deep truths and trust, that come from freeing ourselves from the judgments of our social and cultural conditioning. Further cultivation of: empathy; states of multi-dimensional balance and non-compression, ease,  fluidity and confidence. Awareness of what might be holding them back. Freedom.

 
You founded Mama Dances in 2006. Can you comment a little on what you were doing before?

Between 2001 and 2005 I was working in Toronto with Rebecca Todd on Botany of Desire, Dendrite, Ode, and Stabat Mater; I mounted two big shows:
Heliotrope, and Grace; I helped to develop MAM (Momentum Arts Management)
Collective with Kate Alton, Julia Sasso and Susanna Hood; I helped to
establish the beginnings of The Dovercourt House; I danced for Kathleen
Rea and Susan Lee; I travelled back and forth from Montréal to work with
Deborah Dunn; I worked with Moynan King – Tons of wonderfully fulfilling
stuff. I was an Independent Toronto Dance Artist struggling to pay rent. In
that time I completed my teachers training certification in SRT, Studied
with Nancy Stark Smith, Ruth Zaporah, and Linda Putnum.

What is Mama Dances all about? How has it evolved over the years?

My daughter was born in 2005 so, Mama dances was created partly out of
necessity and partly out of curiosity and fascination. It started as an
inspired moment, it became a choreography for a festival, and now it is
my company with curriculum of classes for mothers who want to dance with
their babies and children. I am currently developing a daycare program
as well as prenatal dance. The mandate of the company is: “An  organization
dedicated to research, creation, dissemination, promotion, and education of
contemporary Canadian dance. It seeks to include other cultural dance
traditions to enhance the learning process, based on integrating the
cultural diversity of Canada. Its primary focus includes animation of
activities involving mothers dancing together and with their babies, as
well as activities involving other members of the family. Through these
activities dance is promoted for young audiences at large. The objective of
the company is to inspire energy, enthusiasm and empathy by raising
awareness and developing self-confidence through dance and music. Focusing
on the values of corporal expressive communication, and the connection
within family, community, culture and health is paramount.”

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For more information or how to register for Eryn’s workshop, visit: www.series808.ca/ATCProgram.html

Peggy Baker in "Geometry of the Circle" - photo by Cylla von Tiedemann

Nearly twenty years ago, in February of 1993, Series 8:08 hosted its very first Choreographic Performance Workshop (CPW). Founders Sarah Chase, Michael du Maresq and Michelle Silagy invited artists to present works-in-progress in the gym of Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church.

“I remember chairs on risers, a wooden floor. Most importantly the building was wheelchair accessible for Ahmed” comments Peggy Baker, whose husband and collaborator Ahmed Hassan used a wheelchair. Baker and Hassan were one of the first presenters at the inaugural CPW with their duet Geometry of the Circle. “I was nervous to be showing something that wasn’t finished. Receiving notes from the audience was intimidating but it worked out really well. It inspired us to take the piece in a more exaggerated direction.” (The tradition and format of the CPW is for each audience member to write an anonymous response. Choreographers ask specific question or for general feedback before or after their work is shown).

Baker notes how the feedback received from 8:08 challenged her and Hassan to make the work they were envisioning. “We wanted to create a whimsical duet, one that traced the courtship of an unlikely couple but, the audience at 8:08 perceived our dance as serious. We realized we had to find more ways to be clear about our idea,” commented Baker. “I think the wheelchair (which Hassan used due to multiple sclerosis) made people a little uncomfortable and think the piece was sober, even though we were going for something kind of zany.”

After their CPW, and for the duet’s premiere in Quebec City (March, 1993), designer Janet Morton created a circular set of vibrantly coloured Dr. Seussian plants to illustrate the work’s playful nature. Lighting design by Marc Parent and costume by Caroline O’Brien also contributed to the essence of the work.

In its finished state, Geometry of the Circle went on to be performed in Vancouver, Toronto, Halifax, St. John’s and Ghent, Belgium. It was remounted on dancer Alison Denham and musician Mark Brose – with big efforts by Baker and Fides Krucker, who reconstructed the vocal score – for the cultural celebrations surrounding the 2010 Paralympics in Vancouver.

And now, nearly twenty years since its first showing at 8:08, Geometry of the Circle will be shared again as part of The Neat Strange Music of Ahmed Hassan in Toronto. Sahara Morimoto will be performing the duet alongside Brose at the Betty Oliphant Theatre, October 21 and 22, 2011. Baker has been preparing the performers as well as many other aspects of this show to honour Hassan’s great life in music and performance. “It will be a beautiful show,” says Baker “for those who knew him and those just meeting his work now.”

Abilities Arts Festival, in association with Peggy Baker Dance Projects, presents
The Neat Strange Music of Ahmed Hassan – October 21-22, 8pm
Betty Oliphant Theatre, 400 Jarvis Street
Tickets and information available online at http://www.abilitiesartsfestival.org

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♦♦♦ Who were the other choreographers that also shared work that very first CPW in 1993? ♦♦♦

Do you know? Can you guess? Be the first to leave a comment and, if you’re right, you could win!

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Announcing – Series 8:08’s Alternative Training Classes (ATC) scholarship winners for 2011/2012: Angela Blumberg, Andrya Duff and Julia Male. Stay tuned for some writing from these three and their experiences in the ATC program.

Allen and Karen Kaeja in "Auro Choreola" (1993), presented work in 8:08's inaugural year - photo by Cylla Von Tiedemann

Directorship changed hands in 1995 allowing Susan Lee, Jessica Runge and Yvonne Ng to steer the series forward. Over the years Alternative Dance Technique Classes (ATC) and an annual Season Finale were added to the 8:08 mix. In 2004, Ng became sole director and continues to work away with 8:08’s staff and board of directors to support new dance and learning.

To take a look at numbers, nearly 800 works-in-progress have graced the CPW platforms and over 80 ATC workshops have been offered to Toronto, as well as visiting, dance artists. What started as a simple mission – to build a strong sense of artistic community; and to build a knowledgeable, appreciative audience for new dance – has remained; 8:08 continues to support Toronto and Canada’s professional dance community.

Susie Burpee and students during a 2010/2011 ATC - photo by Andréa de Keijzer

Now a year away from its 20^th anniversary, Series 8:08 takes the opportunity to look back and celebrate its range of artistic activity while simultaneously laying the groundwork for twenty more years and more of Canadian dance in the making.

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 Brittany Duggan is an independent contemporary dancer, choreographer, teacher and writer in the Toronto area. She is Production and Office Coordinator at The Dance Current magazine and keeps meaning to improve her sewing skills so that she can dabble in costume design. Along with the Series 8:08 team, Brittany will be bringing you monthly blog updates leading up to, and in celebration of, 8:08′s 20th anniversary in 2012. Enjoy!