Kemi Fall Gala: Silent Auction Part 5 - Dance and Theatre tickets

Night out in Cabbage Town
Value $130 min bid $35
Toronto Dance Theatre - Pair of tickets to Christopher House's Petros Tactics at the Winchester Street Theatre in November 2011
“House is a grand master at being an agent provocateur…A piece that mesmerizes the eye while engaging the brain… [with] very strong dancers, an absorbing theme, sly humour and supple choreography.”
The School of Toronto Dance Theatre - Pair of tickets to the school's December production including works by: Julia Sasso, Serge Bennathan, Heidi Strauss, Marc Boivin, Roger Sinha
For over 40 years, The School of Toronto Dance Theatre has been passionately committed to the training and education of young dancers in the art of contemporary dance. We dedicate ourselves to investing in the artistic potential of youth for the development of the art form. 
Cranberries Bar and Grill - Gift certificate.

DanceWorks and Kaeja d'Dance
Value $80 min bid $20
DanceWorks mainstage - Two Tickets to DanceWorks 2011/12 Mainstage Series Events
" The 2011-12 DanceWorks Mainstage Series features world premieres by four of Toronto's compelling contemporary dance companies and welcomes works on tour from Ottawa and Montreal. These programs consider central concepts of our human condition: mortality, spirituality, the urgent need for love and understanding; and a desire to unlock the true nature of artistic expression. Please join us at Harbourfront Centre's Enwave Theatre for each and every one of the Mainstage Series programs. The strength, clarity and authenticity of these artistic voices are sure to delight, challenge and inspire you!

Also on offer are eight CoWorks Series events, highlighting established and emerging dance artists in six different locations: downtown, mid-town and uptown.
In its 35th season, DanceWorks delivers the thrill and intimacy of live dance performance.
Kaeja d'Dance - Asylum DVD
Established in 1991, Kaeja d'Dance is a Toronto-based company that is renowned for creating exceptional contemporary dance work, award-winning dance films and empowering educational outreach programs.
Dancemakers
Value $60 min bid $15
Dancemakers - Two tickets to Dancemakers Winter Season 2011 Choreographed by Benoit Lachambre December 6th - December 18th, 2011
Driven by the vision of Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer Michael Trent, Dancemakers draws on the diverse talents and individual strengths of its artists to create contemporary dance works that provoke and entertain.

Harbourfront
Value $56 min bid $15
Habourfront World Stage - Two tickets to the performance of Break It Down-Enter the Shadow November 24, 2011 at 7pm.
After a stunning 2010-11 Dora award-winning season, World Stage explodes this February with performances that promise to enchant, challenge and electrify your senses. Featuring companies from the U.S., France, England and Canada – and led by the world’s sharpest creative minds – the 2012 season arrives like a thunderclap.
Kaeja d'Dance
Value $50 min bid $10
Kaeja d'Dance - "7 Films" DVD includes Old Country, Zummel. Sarah, 1939, Witnesses, Departure and Resistance.
Tarragon Theatre

Value $90 min bid $20

Tarragon Theatre - Two passes, each valid for one ticket to a performance at the Tarragon Theatre during the 2011/12 season.

Tarragon Theatre’s mission is to create, develop and produce new plays and to provide the conditions for new work to thrive. To that end, the theatre engages the best theatre artists and craftspeople to interpret new work; presents each new work with high quality production values; provides an administrative structure to support new work; develops marketing strategies to promote new work; and continually generates an audience for new work.

Theatre Pass Muraille
Value $80 min bid $20
Theatre Pass Muraille - Two tickets to any show in the 2001/12 season.
Theatre Passe Muraille is devoted to encouraging, enhancing and increasing meaningful interactions between its communities – artists, staff, audience, neighbourhoods and supporters. Theatre Passe Muraille has a special interest in supporting and presenting independent artists and companies, emerging artists, collaborative and multidisciplinary work, ethno specific and ethno diverse work, and marginal voices. Theatre Passe Muraille develops, disseminates, produces, showcases and promotes locally, nationally and internationally, work that represents and forwards these values.

Kemi Fall Gala: Slilent Auction Part 4 - Artisans

Solid Cedar Bench crafted by Alan Page

Estimated Value $200 Minimum bid $75

Aldo Leopold (1887 – 1948) was an American author, professor at the University of Wisconson, and environmentalist. He designed the "Leopold Bench" for use at his farm. This solid cedar bench is based on the original Leopold design using 2x6 and 2x8 solid cedar. Bench is 49-1/2" wide, 30" high and 27" deep (at base).


Jewellery by Jodi McLean 

Estimated value $25 min bid $10

Pottery by Marie Moliner 

Estimated value $50 min bid $20

Meet MO- the  porcelain Meditation Oval . Thrown on a wheel, painted with black slip, and carved by hand. Used   as a paperweight--it  holds its weight! Held in your hands, it offers of  tactile and visual inspiration. Donated by Marie Moliner, a culture-crat who has found her peace pounding clay for over 35 years. 

Rehearsal Images: Dancers Joanie Audet, Emma Kerson, and Ana Groppler

Kemi Fall Gala: Silent Auction Part 3 – Music

Here is the perfect opportunity to update your music library with Canadian artists. This auction item Features musicians who are mostly from the Toronto area, but we did slip in one from Vancouver!
Over 10 disks from 8 artists value $200 min bid $30

Christa Couture - Vancouver
"Sprites, girl-liking-girls, and those who wear DiFranco and Tori Amos T-shirts - this is the audience of Vancouver's Christa Couture, a candour-bent singer-songwriter and acoustic guitarist who enjoys summers, but with one eye on the fall." - Brad Wheeler, Globe & Mail

Janine Stoll (the DoneFors) - Toronto 
“The DoneFors [are] one of Canada’s craftiest indie bands. An instant addiction once you hear… “
- By Robert Everett-Green, The Globe and Mail

Mr Something Something - Toronto 
“…uproariously energetic and politically engaging… Subtle, poetic and funk filled.”- Short and Sweet NYC, New York

Elizabeth Shepherd - Toronto 
“A more adventurous jazz odyssey than anyone might’ve expected… Very impressive.” -NOW

The Strip - Toronto 
"I'm smitten by the dangling banjo, sexy sax and lovely vocal harmonies. Great tunes." Amanda Putz - CBC Radio One

Roman Tome - Toronto 
Roman Tomé has been playing various styles of percussion and drums for nearly half his life. While playing and singing in different bands, his own songs have been patiently simmering. A thick rhythmical feel on guitar with insightfully strong vocals makes for an enjoyable listen.

Brian MacMillan and Eden - Toronto
' The ever-charming Brian MacMillan has a musical presence that is gentle and soulful. Aaaaah. 100% guaranteed…..' Knox Acoustic Cafe 

Kemi Fall Gala: Silent Auction Part 2 – Wall Art

I am touched by the generosity of several Toronto and Montreal based artists, and a few art collectors who have donated selections from their personal collection to this years auction.

3 Original works from Tanzania

Estimated Value $ difficult to say!  min bids $10 - $25/peice

Davian den Otter (one of Kemi’s board members and an active member Of off the mat and into the world has donated three pieces of art from her travels in Tanzania. I may be doing some rather high bidding on these myself. (is that allowed?)

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Catherine Mellinger

Estimated Value $75 min bid $20

We have been lucky enough to have one of Catherine’s larger works in our house for the past few years (it has now been moved to a permanent home) Catherine has donated a fantastic framed mixed media piece to our auction. You can take a look at Catherine’s  ongoing art sale on Face book here.

Catherine Mellinger is an artist, arts facilitator, expressive arts therapist (ISIS-Canada), and creativity coach (Creativity Coaching Association) based in Toronto, Canada. The current focus of her work is the use of image-based narratives founded in fables that tell the story of searching for life, and the experiences of loss and trauma. She is co-founder of the Arts for Social and Environmental Justice (ASEJ) Workgroup; a body of artists, facilitators, educators and activists who join together to create communities of social action using the arts by creating community events that seek to answer distinct questions relating to social and environmental justice as it relates to our collective experience as citizens. She is also an artist with Living Through the Arts (founded by the Royal Conservatory), and co-facilitator of the bi-monthly community art exhibit Octopus Project Toronto with photographer Melanie Gordon.

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Darrin Davis

Estimated Value $375 min bid $50

For months last year John (my partner and musical collaborator) worked with a fantastic group of musicians called the Strip.  Darrin Davis fronts the band with a great voice, a banjo and a saxophone. He’s also a fabulous painter and has donated one of his distinct acrylic paintings to the auction.

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Abstract acrylic by Michelle Smith

Estimated Value $75 min bid $20

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The English Muffin

Estimated Value $40  min bid $15

Bess at the English Muffin has donated one of her world map prints I am rather in love with Bess’s whimsical style.

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Chantale Pharand 

Estimated Value $200 min bid $35

Chantale has donated a painting form her collection.

I grew up in a very small town in Quebec and I moved to Toronto in May 2003. Most of my work is inspired by my Irish-Aboriginal background. I paint because I enjoy it and because I have a supportive family and a great group of friends who keep me motivated. I am a fan of the arts and collect it whenever possible.

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Paula Ggurich Shewchuck

Estimated Value $100 min bid $30

Paula of Arneau Blax has donated one of her framed photographs. Arneau Blax is a new contemporary photography space for mid-career artists.

Paula spent 17 years in Western Australia, where she was Founding Director of The Photography Gallery in Perth and also an occasional performance artist, arts publicist, theatre director, radio arts news reporter, and bar-maid, when necessary. She finally received her Bachelor of Communications – Photomedia in 2001 and for the past few years has been making different bodies of work, which explore the themes of gender, identity and memory.

Rehearsal Images: Dancer Joanie Audet

Kemi Fall Gala: Silent Auction Part 1 - Textiles

We have done our best this year to limit our silent auction items to local artists and artisans. Please join us on September 27th at the Winchester street theatre to bid on these items and support Kemi’s 2011/12 season.

Textiles

I have always had a love for textiles, from the time I was very young I can remember playing in my mom’s collection of fabrics, ribbons, buttons and threads. As the daughter of a dance teacher I had access to a room full of costumes to tease my imagination with. So it is not so odd that I would take an interest in my mom’s sewing and eventually find myself up till the wee hours of the morning piecing together an idea for a costume, or ripping apart an old costume and dunking it in a pot of dye.

For this fundraiser I have a collection of pieces made from the various textiles that I adore (I have not even mentioned the larger steamer trunk of wool I have acquired).

Green Chunky Sweater

Estimated value $125 min bid $50

Hand knit with wool from the Maritimes this chunky green sweater is bound will be a great addition to someone’s fall/winter collection.

Red Wool Neck Warmer

Estimated value $50 min bid $25

Hand knit with wool form the Maritimes I was inspired to make this neck warmer by a friend of mine’s chunky neck warmer. Loop it around your neck twice to stay extra cozy or once to add to your style.

Duvet Cover

Estimated Value $100 min bid $40

100% cotton queen size duvet cover made from a piece of fabric collected on my most recent trip to Burkina Faso. I have made several duvet covers over the years from these brilliant patterns and love the way they transform bedroom with their one of a kind flair.

Quilt

Estimated Value $250 min bid $100

Lap quilt hand made by Carol Robertson (my mom) from pieces of fabric collected on various trips to West Africa. %100 cotton with organic bamboo backing, hand cut and pieced. Truly one of a kind!

Quebec City August 2011

I have just returned from four weeks in beautifully charming Quebec City. 

Series 8:08 Choreographic Performance Workshop Audience as Dramaturg

For this particular Series 8:08 workshop I decided to revisit one of the characters from my latest solo work Zetetica. I brought him back in to the studio with the intention to discover a new layer to his character. The movement vocabulary I have been working with comes from the same world in which he exists.

Most of the time when I begin a process I spend days improvising. I give myself tasks or a structure for improvisation, sometimes it’s a prop or a specific piece of music. Often I have a costume in mind and have started creating it before I enter the studio. This time I came to the studio with a 16 foot long branch from a birch tree. I have spent a fair amount of time at Tedd Robinson’s L.A. Barn in the past two years and this particular branch first appeared a short work I created while in residence two summers ago.

Once an artist begins a new creation period, some would argue that we are always creating, everything that we do and interact with feeds and informs the final work.  The images the creator brings into the work stay or eventually become ghosts. The artist must decipher what images the audience will require in order to be invited into the work.

I have spent three hours a day for 10 days in the studio, immersed in the process and on Saturday night at 8:08 I will expose the next layer of the man from Zetetica. I hope you are curious enough now to come.

Choreographic Performance Workshop
Audience as Dramaturg

Saturday June 25th, 2011 - 8:08 pm

Robert Gill Theatre @ University of Toronto
214 College Street, 3rd floor
(St George St. entrance)

Tickets: $15 (advance: call 416-978-7986)
$20 (at the door)

As a partner to the SDHS Conference 2011: Dance Dramaturgy: Catalyst, Perspective, and Memory, Series 8:08 welcomes the notion of the audience functioning as a dramaturg. This performance features 4 choreographers who have shown promising work-in-progress this past season at Series 8:08. The artists selected for this performance regularly utilize the work of a dance dramaturg or outside eye. For this edition, our Resident Dance Dramaturg is veteran dance artist Susan Cash.

Featured works-in-progress:

• Guarded Spaces
  Jennifer Dallas (Kemi Projects)
• NO Vox (from The Depiction on Drifting Islands)
  Marie France Forcier (Forcier Stageworks)
• Locally Sourced Dances
  Susan Lee & Tracey Norman (Lee and Norman Dance Projects)
• HOMEbody
  Shannon Litzenberger

Robert Gill Theatre is unfortunately not wheelchair accessible. If you require accommodation, please contact the Box Office 416-978-7986 to make appropriate arrangements.

For show information contact Tracey Norman at atc[at]series808.ca.

Community Classes: catered to non-professional dancers

Photo taken in Nigeria by John MacLean 

I am thrilled to be offering a series of 4 classes this summer. This particular set of classes is catered to non professional dancers though anyone is welcome, and will be challenged! Come ready to sweat and enjoy yourself.


Monday nights from June 20th – July 11th 8-930pm
Location Bavia Arts: 898b St Clair Ave West
www.baviaarts.com


Class fees:
First class: $10!
$17 – Drop in fee
$50 – for all four classes
$30 – Flex pass for two classes during the session.
All proceeds from these classes will go towards Kemi Contemporary Dance Projects future productions.


Inspired by the non-stop flow of the traditional West Africa dance classes, sessions with Dallas will explore the intimate relationship between music and movement. For the first part of class dancers will participate in an ongoing physical dance practice using movements from Dallas’ West African dance training. The second part of class will focus on the construction of a dynamic dance phrase moving towards a more contemporary style of dance without abandoning the unique physicality felt during the non-stop flow. Classes will end with stretching inspired by Dallas’ Ashtanga yoga training. Classes are conducted using Dallas’ extensive collection of West African and Ethiopian music and are guaranteed to leave dancers feeling energized, and refreshed.

A long birth and quick death

Photo by Andrea de Keijzer

It’s been a month since Longer Than a Shadow premiered and while it feels like a life time ago its still close enough to touch.

A long birth and quick death is how I have often described the performing arts. Marc Boivin once said to me “you have to be in love with the process”, I am. The come down as they say has been gradual which I am grateful for. Bienvenue was here for 5 days after the show, so we had time to celebrate and be tourists together.

I have been costume designing for The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Kaeja d’Dance, and Blue Ceiling Dance. I finally unpacked my suit case from our trip to Burkina. 

Mostly though I find that post show time is about germinating sprouted ideas from what was just created and dreaming up the next ambitious plan. Bienvenue, John, Bema and I will find our way back to the studio, I am quite sure of it, I only hope its sooner than later.

Photo by Andrea de Keijzer

for now I leave you with the review by Kathleen M. Smith posted on line by the Dance Current Magazine. 

Production Week

Production week is one of my favorite parts of creating a new show. While there always seems to be one more thing to do on the list and inevitably I get pretty under-slept the week can be compared to that beautiful moment before sunset in which your whole life is drenched in gold for one hour.

The construction and bones are complete, layering of additional elements has begun. Lighting and set designs come together to create the worlds that up till now existed only in my imagination. Two years of conceptualizing moments and accumulating them in series all being realized at last!

The production team: Longer Than a Shadow

Roelof Peter Snippe

Lighting Designer

Roelof Peter Snippe began his professional lighting design career with Toronto Workshop Productions under the direction of George Luscombe. In 1973, he began a long working relationship with Toronto Dance Theatre, creating designs for over 150 works in the repertoire. Over his long, distinguished career as a lighting designer, stage manager and technical director, Mr. Snippe has worked with major dance, theatre and opera companies across Canada and abroad. They include the National Ballet of Canada, The Danny Grossman Dance Company, Dancemakers, and numerous other Canadian companies and independent artists, including Denise Fujiwara. In 2010, Mr. Snippe was awarded the Dance Ontario Lifetime Achievement Award.

Cheryl Lalonde

Costume Designer

Born and raised in Toronto, Cheryl Lalonde began her career in the arts with Act IV Theatre at Adelaide Court. After two years backstage at Toronto Workshop Productions, her design debut was for the premiere production of Tomson Highway's The Rez Sisters under mentor and director Larry Lewis. Splitting her time between design and stage management has allowed her to travel the world as well as collaborate with many companies, including: Desrosiers Dance Theatre, Danny Grossman Dance Company, Fujiwara Dance Inventions, Eclectic Theatre, Alberta Ballet, Dreamwalker Dance Company, Theatre Smith Gilmour, and Kaeja d'Dance. Ms. Lalonde has been nominated for four Dora Mavor Moore Awards for design and was honored in 1997 for her design of Eclectic Theatre's Chutzpah a-go-go. She has served on the faculty of Theatre Arts at The Banff Centre for seven summers, and recently participated in a panel of Canadian Stage Managers to establish a DACUM occupational analysis for Stage Management.

Andrea Roberts

Rehearsal Director/Artistic Advisor

Andrea Roberts is an active member of the dance community in both an artistic and an administrative capacity. She graduated from The School of Toronto Dance Theatre in 1997, where she currently works as both Professional Programs Co-ordinator and rehearsal director. Over the past decade, she has become increasingly interested in discovering her artistic voice through improvisation and theatre training. She has recently completed a Masters degree in dance at York University, with research focusing on the dance-theatre work of Murray Darroch.

Home

We are home from Burkina Faso, and while the air is chilly and the snow is not red sand I am happy to be here.

The last few days in Burkina were mostly spent in the studio, marrying the music and dance at last. It’s a wonderful feeling when the two art forms start to line up. In our last run through on Saturday afternoon I was conscious to savour the environment the work was created in. The warmth, the children watching through the open door, the visual artist working on the other side of the space and of course the beautiful African wood under my feet.

My French is still terrible but Bienvenue and I have found a way to understand each other. Converse is a testament to the power of communication through the body. This creative process has been an exercise in giving up control, letting the work evolve through a long series of responses and counter responses. Most days we worked for 6-8 hours with short breaks for ‘fuel’ as Bienvenue would say, usually bananas and ground nuts!  There’s undeniably something encoded in the day to day manners of the Burkinabè. Like Bienvenue the average person we talked to placed great importance on acknowledging and taking the time to greet and ask about one another.

Most of the collaborative work John did to create the score was done with Ndoula-speaking griot musician Bema ‘Balafon’ Konaté and members of his family. I think they enjoyed themselves and one another’s company building the layers that would make up the score. This meant travelling around Ouaga on motorcycles to get the various instruments and musicians involved on tape. There were plenty of good ideas to choose from that’s for sure.

Bienvenue arrives tonight and will go directly from the airport to our first rehearsal at the theatre. We are very lucky to have made this work in Burkina and be performing it in Canada, to have had the opportunity to be plunged into each others’ worlds in back-to-back order. Now that the project has unfolded so positively and fruitfully, and staging starts today, I can’t imagine it any other way. Besides I will always jump at a chance to be in West Africa, I am admittedly in love.

The studios: Burkina Faso

Recording space, a popular concert venue during the revolution which established Burkina Faso as separate from Upper Volta on August 4th, 1984

The dance studio is shared with a visual artist. It can be converted to a black box theatre.

Day Three: Burkina Faso

Bienvenue bazie, in rehearsal

Day three – The third day in the studio is always the hardest. I find there’s a hump to climb over every time I begin a process. The body is sore from trying new material, the mind is cluttered with ideas not yet realized and without clear direction of how to explore them. For Bienvenue and I it was also a day of repeat trips to the Embassy to finalize his visa and that meant rehearsal started 2 hours late.


It is easy to walk away or to choose to end a rehearsal early when you’re working alone, in a sense giving up. We managed to stay in the room, as they say, and poke around at some new phrases, though I will admit I am looking forward to the day after the hump.

Burkina: We Begin

It is hot a dry this time of year in Ouagadougou. Red dust hovers in the air the way humidity does on a hot day in July in Toronto. Coming back, there is a kind of is a kind of familiarity allowing us to step in where we left off and deepen relationships quickly.

Day 01: Studio

I remember now the first time Bienvenue brought me here. The complex was built by a French woman a few years ago, it is enviable, three studios built around a courtyard with tables and a café.

We work from 1-6pm in the largest studio/theatre. Next to us a painter prepares a 30 foot canvas. Doors are open, people come and go, keeping us from being too cloistered or precious about our work.

Bienvenue’s physicality is refreshing.  The sounds of other rehearsals surround us, making their way into our rhythms.

John and Bema creating sounds for use in the score at a compound 10 min away.

John MacLean, Sibema Konate, Ouagadougou Burkina Faso

Images of Burkina: As we depart

John MacLean and Bienvenue Bazie, photo by Jennifer Dallas

The market, photo by Jennifer Dallas

Court yard of the auberge in Ouagadougou, photo by Jennifer Dallas

Always a community, photo by John MacLean 

The studio, photo by John MacLean 

It's snowing in Toronto, though the sun is shining and the air is not a cold as it has been. We are close to departure and as I finish my preparations I take a moment to glance and the world I am about to enter.

Dusty red streets, and motorcycles will replace the crunchy snow and my bicycle. I remember the first time I went back to a familiar place in Africa, its a wonderful feeling to return. We will be staying in the same auberge and frequenting the same markets, we did however bring our own coffee this time! Seems ridiculous.

Most of our time will be spent in the studio creating Converse, but I am also looking forward to deepening relationships, speaking more french, and catching inspiration from all directions.

More soon from south of the equator! xo

Lalibela: Ehtiopia

Lalibela Ethiopia, Photo by Nadine McNaulty

Between preparations to travel to Burkina Faso on Saturday I have have spent time with Andrea Roberts and Fiona Griffiths on Zetetica my new solo for Longer Than a Shadow. I have gained and new understanding and curiosity for the work after performing Zetetica at Danceweekend last Saturday. 

I find myself returning to these images of the ancient and spiritual city of Lalibela. 

 Priest Lalibela Ethiopia,  Photo by Nadine McNaulty

Pilgrims Lalibela Ethiopia,  Photos by Nadine McNaulty

 Lalibela is a town in northern Ethiopia. Lalibela is one of Ethiopia's holiest cities, second only toAksum, and is a center of pilgrimage for much of the country. Unlike Aksum, the population of Lalibela is almost completely Ethiopian Orthodox Christian. Lalibela was intended to be a New Jerusalem in response to the capture of Jerusalem by Muslims, and many of its historic buildings take their name and layout from buildings in Jerusalem.

Pilgrim Lalibela Ethiopia,  Photo by Nadine McNaulty 

The Church of Saint George,  Photo by Nadine McNaulty

This rural town is known around the world for its monolithic churches which play an important part in the history of rock-cut architecture. Though the dating of the churches is not well established, most are thought to have been built during the reign of Lalibela, namely during the 12th and 13th centuries. There are 13 churches, assembled in four groups.