April 2, 2009- 8pm.  Tickets- $15, The Theatre Centre - 1087 Queen St. West

 Inspired by her Abenakis grandmother and Aboriginal and Taoist ceremonial rituals, Marie-Claude Rodrigue’s contemporary choreographic work, Women’s Territories- Territoires Féminins, brings a new approach to live performance. 

In Women’s Territories - Territoires Féminins, Marie-Claude evokes the contemporary rites of passage that link women to the changing of seasons.  The cycles found in nature - from death to rebirth - are vividly brought to life on stage, with poetry by Judith Duerk, alongside a compelling combination of video, music, costume, scenography, and lighting.  These elements take the spectator on a journey to a meditation state and to the world of Yin energy.

Marie-Claude Rodrigue trained in contemporary dance at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and at the Ateliers de danse moderne de Montréal (LADMMI).  For thirteen years, she worked as a contemporary dancer and teacher with the internationally acclaimed O Vertigo danse company.  Her passion for the performing arts has led her to include voice work, theatre, contact improvisation, tango dancing, and various somatic release techniques.  She is founder and director of “Danse Fragments Libres”, an organization that reflects on inter-cultural dialogue and the sacred aspect of art.

Established in 1993, Native Women in the Arts is a not-for-profit organization for First Nations, Inuit and Metis women from diverse artistic disciplines who share a common interest in culture, art, community and the advancement of Indigenous peoples.  Founded by Sandra Laronde, Native Women in the Arts is an essential anchor organization in Canada, and has fostered the artistic careers of thousands of women and female youth. NWIA produces unique artistic programming while developing, supporting, and cultivating Aboriginal women in the performing arts, literary arts and publishing, visual arts, and community development projects.

Tickets at the door or in advance by phone, 416-598-4078.

For more information, please email us at info@nativewomeninthearts.com.

Posted: March 12th, 2009 under March Newsletter, PCC.
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April 2 – 5, 2009, Toronto, ON…PCC Toronto asks the question “What has changed?”.  The Images Festival, Harbourfront Centre, Small Wooden Shoe, Buddies In Bad Times Theatre, The Theatre Centre, Dancemakers, and SummerWorks Festival come together in April to host the 11^th meeting of the Performance Creation Canada Network.

WHAT IS PCC?

Performance Creation Canada (PCC) is a nationwide network dedicated to the nourishment, management and study of performance creation in Canada, and the ecology in which it flourishes. The meeting is aimed at creating a discussion between artists in dance, theatre, music, film, and visual arts who are interested in the well being of Canadian performance creation. The conference is designed to open conversation, and open minds.

KEYNOTE & SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

The PCC Toronto Networking Event will feature keynote speaker: video and performance artist Jillian Macdonald. Jillian Macdonald is a Canadian artist, currently living in New York. She is Associate Professor of Fine Art at Pace University, where she also curates and co-directs the Pace Digital Gallery. Works in progress include video installations Slasher Cycle and Zombie Field; and an upcoming forest performance in Sweden called Zombies vs Vampires. For more info about Jillian Macdonald visit her online at www.jillianmacdonald.net . A full schedule of panels, performances and events will be available soon at pcctoronto.wordpress.com.

The PCC Toronto Networking Event will be hosted/presented in conjunction with The Images Festival, Small Wooden Shoe’s production of Dedicated to the Revolutions, Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage/Images co-presentation of Make Me Stop Smoking by Rabih Mroué, Native Women in the Arts in association with The Theatre Centre’s presentation of Territoires Féminins by Marie-Claude Rodrigue, hum’s open studio showing of The Bacon Project, Buddies In Bad Times Theatre’s presentation of Fishbowl: a concise, expansive theory of everything, by Mark Shyzer and The Theatre Centre’s 30th Anniversary Celebration: BLOCK ON ONE SPOT.

TO REGISTER:

To register for PCC Toronto, send an email with your name, title & organization (where applicable) address, email address and phone number to pccregistration@theatrecentre.org. Registration fee is $10 and will be payable in cash at the registration table at all PCC events. Discounted tickets for The Images Festival, Dedicated to the Revolutions, Me Stop Smoking, Territoires Féminins, The Bacon Project, Fishbowl and BLOCK ON ONE SPOT will be made available to all conference participants upon registration.

 For more information: pcctoronto.wordpress.com / www.performancecreationcanada.ca

Posted: March 12th, 2009 under March Newsletter, PCC.
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PERFORMANCE CREATION CANADA

APRIL 3 - APRIL 5, 2009

The host/organizing companies for PCC-Toronto ‘09 are Images Festival, Harbourfront Centre, The Theatre Centre, Buddies In Bad Times Theatre, Dancemakers, Small Wooden Shoe, and SummerWorks Festivals. This the first time these organizations have joined together and first time that a film and video festival will be one of the featured attractions.

The Toronto conference will ask the question: What Has Changed? There is a lot of talk of change right now, from Obahama to our own political scrimmage. Politically, economically, and culturally, there’s been a lot going on since PCC came to Toronto three years ago.
We are interested in looking at what has changed, what hasn’t and how these changes (or lack thereof) are manifesting in the way art is made locally, nationally and internationally.

Why These Companies?

At first it may seem a disparate group, however, all seven companies are recognized for their roles in the avant-garde - either as programmers, producers, developers, or creators. This awareness of what is “new” (what are the new trends, who is breaking convention within a local and international context) is a vital attribute in a curator/organizer for Canadian performance creation.  Each organization will curate one of the series of panels and/or events over the three-day conference. This year’s proposed panels  include:

Waffle Breakfast - Can we slow down and just enjoy the coffee and the strawberries. An exercise in our ability to not always be doing something.

The Flipside of Change - The flip side to questions of change, the need to look at history and through-lines of artistic practices and methods of production has never been more important than in these times of information overload and an amnesia of depth.

Dancing With My Parents: a practical guide to inclusion creation. Using “Family” as a metaphor for global community, artists describe their process of creating new performances with strangers in foreign cities/countries.

Isadora: How A Dancer Inspired a Revolution in Video. Practical tips on how to maximize your camcorder and your laptop computer.

Enough About Me, What Do you Think About Me? What kind of perspective and/or advise do the top international presenters of contemporary film, art & performance have to say to us (Canadians) about our work, our process and our attitude?

Contemporary Performance - What Does That Mean? We live in an art system that requires constant written and verval justification from both the artists and the producers. Finding ways to contestualize new work can be a painful process, so what happens when that language gets co-opted by larger institutions?

Check back next month to for a finalized list of panels and workshops.

Daniel Barrow’s Everytime I See Your Picture I Cry (part of Images Festival 2009)

Posted: February 4th, 2009 under Feb 2009 newsletter, PCC.
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