Our City, Our Stories powered by Canon
Sometimes a photographer’s story is just as interesting as the pictures he or she takes. That’s definitely the case with Our City, Our Stories powered by Canon, a youth photo contest initiated by Toronto’s Economic Development and Culture division and Canon Canada, produced in association with Arts Etobicoke, Lakeshore Arts, the Scarborough Arts Council and the UrbanArts Community Arts Council.
This community arts project has tapped into the wealth of young talent across the city. Entrants were encouraged to tell a story that reflects who they are and where they come from. The work of the 10 finalists, including Dance with the Shadows, above, by Kevin Graham) is being shown in Toronto City Hall’s Rotunda from February 16 to 21; the exhibit then moves on to the Etobicoke Civic Centre from March 11 to 25 and to the Scarborough Civic Centre from April 12 to 21.
Pteros Tactics: Eros is a Verb
Artistic Director Christopher House can’t wait to get to rehearsal of his new Toronto Dance Theatre piece, Pteros Tactics. “This process of exploration is so necessary,” says House. “There isn’t a typical day at this point in the process!”
He clears his head of worries about tomorrow night’s opening, about grants or box office and focuses on the real time rehearsal. “Everything else goes out of focus when you’re dealing with the business at hand of working on the group. As a choreographer, you respond to what the performers do. You’re challenging each other, and the audience will help in crafting this, by the end of the five performances.”
The starting point for Pteros Tactics is an essay by Canadian poet Anne Carson, Eros the Bittersweet. House explains, “The piece is about desire—the instant of desire rather than the history of a personal love affair.” Carson writes about how desire moves between the lover and the beloved, like a ball being thrown from one person to another: “Desire moves. Eros is a verb.” READ MORE
ahdri zhina mandiela: Mentorship Matters
Toronto-based playwright and director ahdri zhina mandiela has discovered that being the founder of a protean arts group like B Current is a double-edged sword. She’s thrilled to see the work paying off – “so many of the young black artists you see in the city now have come through the B Current training programs” — but she’s also discovered that if she wants more variety in her own creative world, she has to go out and drum up the work herself. “People think I’m so busy with B Current — and I am — that they don’t call me. But they can call me,” she says with mock emphasis.
Which is not to suggest that mandiela isn’t in demand. She directed El Numero Uno, now playing at the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People (until February 25) and she’s presently in rehearsals at Factory Theatre working on who knew grannie: a dub aria (opening March 18), a play she wrote and is directing.
Bookmarks: National Ballet’s Backstage Pass
The websites of Toronto’s major arts organizations have come a long, long way and the National Ballet of Canada is no exception. With performance videos, ballet notes, interviews and behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage, the site is a multimedia feast for ballet fans. I’m especially impressed with the National’s blog, Backstage Pass, which provides lots of insider dish, even photos of newly arrived ballerina babies. If you’re a season subscriber, this site should definitely be in your list of web “favorites”.
Remember those adorable little lambs I featured in my Nutcracker post back in December? Backstage Pass reveals that one of the girls is Ava, daughter of principal ballerina Xiao Nan Yu, below left, and another is Michaela, little sister of Elizabeth Marrable, who danced the role of the Snow Maiden.
Yesterday, the National Ballet announced its lineup for the 2010/11 season; it’s a mostly modern affair featuring the company’s first co-pro with Britain’s Royal Ballet of choreographer Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (composed by Joby Talbot). Rock band the White Stripes have written the music for another contemporary piece, Chroma from British choreographer Wayne McGregor, part of a mixed program with George Balanchine’s Serenade and Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite’s Emergence. The winter season features a program of Russian Seasons by Moscow choreographer Alexei Ratmansky paired with Balanchine’s Theme and Variations and Apollo. Other 20th century offerings include Twyla Tharp’s In The Upper Room, along with Maurice Béjart’s Song of the Wayfarer and Balanchine’s Mozartiana. James Kudelka’s Cinderella returns as does Don Quixote and of course, The Nutcracker, which reached the $3 million sales plateau for the first time in 2009/10.
Photos: Top pic by Cylla von Tiedemann; Xiao Nan Yu and Ava by Catherine Chang; Elizabeth Marrable and Michaela by Wendy Liebner.
A Literary Carnival for the Midwinter
An underground food court in downtown Toronto may be light years from the Venice Carnival but that was the atmosphere being conjured last Wednesday at BCE Place where Diaspora Dialogues set up shop during the lunch rush to promote A Midwinter Night’s Dream, happening Thursday and Friday at the Park Hyatt’s Roof Salon. Writers, musicians and performance artists will converge on the swish watering hole in an effort to banish the winter blahs.
“It’s an attempt to get out of the drudgery that we usually experience in mid-winter and to just let our minds go,” says artistic manager Philip Adams, “if you can’t physically take your body away, let your mind go.”
At the press preview last week, literary fortune teller Antanas Sileika, above left, had the punters lined up five and six deep to receive a private reading focused on advice gleaned from literature; poet Andrea Thompson, top pic, was composing poems on demand. Both writers will be doing their thing at the Salon this week.
Andrea composed the following poem for me in a minute or two and was adamant that I say as much in this post. “The poem is from you to Toronto,” she explained, as she wrote. “You can’t stop the muse, Christopher, you can’t stop the muse.”
