Happenings And Performances

Dear Friends,

Summer is finally here, and with every shift in season we have news to share. We would like to start with the sad news that our longtime friend and advisor Jim Wong-Chu passed away on Tuesday July 11th. Jim was a celebrated poet, literary pioneer, editor, historian, community leader, founder of Ricepaper Magazine and a dedicated supporter of Dreamwalker Dance. We wish to send love and condolences to Marlene Enns and to Jim's family and friends. There is a wonderful article about Jim on the Ricepaper website. Jim will be greatly missed.

And, on Monday July 10th, August Holden Van Tassel was born. Congratulations Kate Holden and Joshua Van Tassel, grandparents Sheelagh, Tom, Odette and Howard, and the Holden/Van Tassel families. Welcome August!

We hope you will enjoy catching up on some of our current projects below. Thank you for reading.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful and safe summer. From all of us at Dreamwalker Dance

Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop 1980 Photo of Rick Shiomi, Robert Kikuchi, Sammi Yakima to, David Henry Hwang, Jim Wong-Chu, Vancouver, BC

Dual Light

photo by Jeremy Mimnagh

Premiere performances have been announced! Our new full length work featuring collaborators Brendan Wyatt, Yuichiro Inoue, Kristy Kennedy, Simon Rossiter, Cheryl Lalonde, AJ Morra, Joshua Van Tassel and Andrea Nann, will be presented October 19 – 21 at the Harbourfront Centre Theatre as part of DanceWorks 40th anniversary season. The seeds of Dual Light were planted in June 2013 when Brendan, Yuichiro, Simon, Josh, Peter Mettler, Souvankham Thammavongsa and Andrea stepped into the studio together with support from Soulpepper Theatre's Discovery Lab program. This work has benefitted greatly from a long incubation process which could not have been possible without institutional support from Soulpepper, Canada Council for the Arts and Toronto Dance Theatre.

We can't wait to share this work with you. Please mark the dates!

A Crazy Kind of Hope

photo by Eve Schifman

Thank you Guelph Dance for inviting us to be part of the19th annual Guelph Dance Festival in June. It was wonderful to share this deeply personal work, crafted with care by Sarah Chase, with friends, new and old, many of whom were part of The Ontario Shebang. We’ve been invited to perform A Crazy Kind of Hope again in the Fall so Andrea and Jennifer Lee will be at the 27th Festival of New Dance, October 3-8 in St. Johns, Newfoundland & Labrador.

New Planes

Thank you Design Fabrication Zone, Ryerson University and Stable, Montreal for hosting core collaborators Brendan Wyatt, Elysha Poirier, Tom Bessai, Michael Fohring, and Andrea Nann in our second New Planes research process. This rich process, supported by funding from Ontario Arts Council Multi and Inter Arts Program, began last November at 918 Bathurst with Brendan, Elysha, Andrea, Tom Kuo, Tom B, Duncan Sabiston and Daniel Wagner Cash. We continued in the new year at the DFZ, Ryerson University in Toronto, where Michael joined the team, and recently travelled to the Stable in Montreal to spend a week with outside eye Dana Gingras, whose sophisticated gaze opened new possibilities in our continued quest to test, develop and articulate new concepts and theories, challenging and exploring how our cross-disciplinary collaborations change the ways we practice and the methods we use to create.

Someone Between

photo by Romina Julian

Now in the final days of rehearsal with playwright/performer Chantria Tram, director/dramaturge Paula Wing, and contributors Andrea Nann, Alexandra Lord, Michelle Tracey, Cristina Hernandez, Romina Julian and Garnet Willis. Apsara Theatre Company, in association with Dreamwalker Dance, brings this powerful work to the stage this summer. Opening night in Hamilton is this Thursday July 20. ”Beginning with the story of her family’s escape from Cambodia, Chantria chronicles her struggle to balance the traditional values of her Khmer parents with her own emerging beliefs. Someone Between is a humorous, emotional, and vulnerable contemplation of cultural adaptation, migration, and the place between who we are, who we were, and who we are becoming.”

Someone Between at Hamilton Fringe from July 20-30th Venue: Hamilton Theatre Inc. Tickets: $10 (Fringe Backer Button Required) Tickets available here.

Someone Between at Summerworks from August 3-12th Venue: Factory Theatre Studio Tickets: $15, $25, or $35. Tickets available here.

TDSB Creates

Congratulations to the inspiring TDSB Across Experiences Arts Co-op students and facilitators whose hard work and deep commitment to one another is so beautifully evident in their co-created production Water Stories which toured and was enjoyed by more than 3000 fellow students in May/June. This 4-month journey, guided by Debbie Nicholls-Skerritt, Nikki Coleman and Virginia Barter, culminated with 2 performances on June 13 at Young People’s Theatre. Dreamwalker was fortunate to work with these passionate young artists and their guides, and to participate in two TDSB Creates Artist Residency programs with hosts and the students at Walter Perry Public School and Fairglen Public School.

Carving Creative Spaces

Carving Creative Spaces is a new dance incubator project initiated by Dreamwalker Dance in partnership with 918 Bathurst (Centre for Culture, Arts, Media and Education), with Aria Evans (The Go To Company) and Lua Shayenne (Lua Shayenne Dance Company), and in association with Gerry Trentham (lbs/sq”). The incubator project is supported with funding from Canada Council for the Arts Equity Office Cultivate: Sector Development program, and provides opportunities for artistic development, and questioning and conversation relating to the spaces where dances are made, and how, when and why certain conditions can directly influence and shape the work that is being created. This project provides an environment that fosters open communication, and cultivates learning, awareness and exchange between diverse individuals. We will be sharing online content and information about public events as the project gets underway – so stay tuned!

Also Upcoming

From our friends: 7th Cousins is an automythography by Erin Brubacher and Christine Brubaker. In the summer of 2015 Erin and Christine walked 700km from Pennsylvania to Ontario. A stranger asked if they were walking to learn how to work and be together: This was certainly part of it. They made a show. And now it's happening.

photo by Erum Khan

Upcoming Performances in association with Nightwood Theatre Monday July 31st, 8pm, inaugural performance at The Royal Canadian Legion Branch 344 September performance location to be announced... Collaborators: Christopher Stanton, Andrea Nann, Kaitlin Hickey and Erum Khan. 7th Cousins UNPACKING at Summerworks A ONE TIME ONLY performance for the Summerworks Festival. This summer Erin and Christine have been invited back to Pennsylvania to perform alongside other Brubach/kers of note: Republican politicians, left wing non-profit leaders and expert quilters to name a few…. The gathering will draw hundreds of Brubakers/ Brubachers and Mennonites from all over the continent. Takes family reunion to the next level… There will be a lot to unpack. During the seven-hour car ride home, a distance that took them 32 days on foot, Erin and Christine will create a new performance for a Summerworks audience.