Monday, April 9, 2012

Preview: Dancemakers Presents THE ADAPTATION PROJECT



Dancemakers presents
THE ADAPTATION PROJECT
"Confronting our past, with love. A re-imagined performance by Michael Trent based on Mitchell Rose's Following Station Identification. (1974)"

For the Dancemakers' 2012 Spring Home Season, Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer Michael Trent re-imagines a dance from the Company's 100-plus repertoire, a body of work amassed over its 38-year history and created by noted Canadian and international artists.  We have been talking about this one for awhile, and we are so excited that it is almost here.

For this work Trent is returning to the company's infancy, coming to new terms with Mitchell Rose's Following Station Identification - working from historical rehearsal videos and the recollections from early Dancemakers performers of the work and pioneers of independent dance in Toronto including Carol Anderson, Peggy Baker, Pat Fraser and Pat Miner. Trent also conducted Skype conversations with Rose himself.

Wanting something other than a traditional remount where original intention, choreography and design are re-created as faithfully as possible, Trent and the company, including composer Christopher Willes and musician Thom Gill, will re-imagine Rose's 1974 Following Station Identification, a 'satirical dance on middle-American values', for today's Dancemakers.

"We all face looking back at our past and wondering what to make of it. We face it as individuals, as families, as communities, and, not surprisingly, as dance companies," explains Trent. "I am curious about this dance in particular because, although my work broadly addresses the way we are in the world, it has never done so through the lens of satire. I am also curious about confronting the status quo and its relationship to social values from the 'middle'."

Former choreographer and performance artist, Ohio- based Mitchell Rose is now an award-winning comedic short filmmaker. Over the course of his dance career, 1973-1991, he created 75 works, set pieces on 20 repertory and university dance companies, was awarded five Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and was referred to as the "dance world's Woody Allen."

THE ADAPTATION PROJECT
Confronting our past, with love.
A re-imagined performance by Michael Trent
based on Mitchell Rose's Following Station Identification (1974)

Performed by Robert Abubo, Amanda Acorn, Kate Holden, Benjamin Kamino and Simon Renaud

DANCEMAKERS CENTRE FOR CREATION
The Distillery Historic District, 55 Mill Street, The Cannery, Bldg. 58, Studio 313
April 19 -29, 2012, Preview April 18, 2012
Wednesday - Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 4pm o Tickets $25, Student/Senior, CADA, Artsworker $20
For ticket information please call 416.367.1800 or book online here.

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