End of Year Message
Image by Michelle Silagy
Seasons Greetings dear Dreamwalkers,
You are in our hearts as we reflect upon this passing year before transitioning into the next. We wish to share artistic offerings, and to express our deep gratitude to all of you, our inspiring and wide community of friends, family, supporters, collaborators and partners. We are profoundly grateful for all who have Dreamwalked with us this past year.
We honour the lives lived of so many who have passed including family, colleagues and friends
Kaylynne (Kate) Lowe January 23, 1947 - January 27, 2023
Danny Grossman September 13, 1942 - July 29, 2023
Barbara Jane Maize June 2, 1925 - October 8, 2023
Norman Armour February 19,1959 - November 19, 2023
We love you, we honour you, we celebrate you, and we will miss you always.
We wish all of you love, kindness, caring relationships, abundance, softness, and the delight of wonder in the hours, days and months to come.
WINTER 2023
Nightswimming Pure Research
In January Andrea was honoured to join Anne Wessels and Nightswimming’s Brian Quirt, Gloria Mok and Associate Dramaturg Nathaniel Hanula-James, sharing Conscious Bodies Practices with Anne for their Pure Research project, The Getting Better Part: Gesture Experiments in Stroke and Story, a partnership with Tarragon Theatre. You can discover more about their experiences here.
Branching Roots Moon Meetings
The new moon in February completed our cycle of 13 new moon gatherings which brought people together online to share Teachings On The Moon, Reflective Curiosities, and Facilitated Dives into the Conscious Bodies Cycle of Activations. For us, this practice was a gift of care to celebrate the uniqueness of our individual embodied stories, and experience kind connections to ripple out into our broader communities and Lands we call home. Monthly Moon Activations and Reflections continued through 2023 with offerings by Michelle Silagy, Danielle Denichaud and Kelsi James on our socials.
How I Loved You (Jenn Grant)
Also in February Andrea choreographed and performed with singer songwriter Jenn Grant in her video “How I Loved You” featuring Amy Millan and directed by Kevin Drew. You can enjoy the song and video here.
Jenn Grant and Amy Millan in “How I Loved You” video directed by Kevin Drew
Wild Soma
In March Wild Soma core members Julia Aplin, Shannon Litzenberger, Andrea Nann and Roula Said spent time in retreat on the Sunshine Coast, Lands of the shíshálh Nation, sharing embodied practice methodologies and applying them toward world-making. Supported by advisors Phil Davis, Michelle Silagy and Danielle Denichaud, Wild Soma is a platform to research, design, prototype and experiment with interventions that centre new ways of being through aesthetic embodied participatory experience.
Conscious Bodies practice in Community
We were honoured to share Conscious Bodies practice with Jaberi Dance Theatre in person at 509 Dance, and to create a video for their Master Workshop Series, Virtual Edition. And to share our practices with high school students attending Soulpepper’s March Break Intensive.
SPRING 2023
Firehorse and Shadow live performances
In early May were overjoyed to produce live performances of Firehorse and Shadow hosted at Left of Main, located on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples, in the room that was formerly Park Lock Dim Sum restaurant, in a building previously owned by Andrea’s maternal grandparents, making this event deeply resonant for all present. Performers Andrea Nann and Annie Katsura Rollins were masterfully guided by director Sarah Chase with dramaturge Cindy Mochizuki, and supported by composer Ben Grossman, lighting designer Jennifer Lennon, production and stage manager A.J. Morra and technician June Hsu, with animation and projections by Elysha Poirier, Henry Mak and Eric Chan. Dance, paint, shadow, music, video, dim sum dumplings and gestures of care awakened deeply felt sensations, bringing the personal stories of Andrea, her mom, grandmother and great-grandmother into the living present. This production of ‘Firehorse and Shadow’ was co-presented by plastic orchid factory, Chinatown Storytelling Centre (CSC) and ExploreAsian.
“Firehorse and Shadow” at Left of Main, Vancouver B.C.
Artist Residency with China Blue - Embodying the Unheard
In late May, Andrea joined sound and visual artist China Blue in Saugerties, NY for a collaborative exploration into China Blue’s exhibition of paintings, sculptures and sound installations called Listening for the Unheard at the Jane Street Arts Centre from May 13 - June 18. As part of the artist residency they presented “Gravity Cloud”, a live music and dance collaboration. This is an extension of embodied deep listening work with long-time collaborator Anne Bourne.
Image by China Blue from Gravity Cloud at Jane Street Arts Centre, Saugerties N.Y.
Walk With Amal Luminato
On June 7, Little Amal arrived at Union Station and walked through the streets of downtown to Nathan Phillips Square. She was greeted with ceremonial dances and drum songs, banners, butterflies, flowers, and with Dreamwalker Welcome Gestures. Indigenous leaders honoured Amal with a poem and a round dance, honorary grandmothers offered words of advice, and the community rejoiced with music in the excitement of Amal’s arrival in Tkarón:to.
Our part of Amal’s extraordinary journey was dreamt into being over many months by the Dreamwalker Conscious Bodies Ensemble: Andrea Nann, Danielle Denichaud, Isaiah Gilson, Joshua Classic Roots DePerry, Kelsi James, Mayumi Lashbrook, Michelle Silagy, and Philip Davis with Shelby Wright. We were honoured to have been joined on June 7th by so many wonderful people, including many members of our extended Conscious Bodies Constellation. Thank you ALL for sharing your love, kindness, inspiring offerings and deeply resonant presence. ‘Walk with Amal Toronto’ was produced by The Walk Productions and Luminato Festival Toronto in association with Handspring Puppet Company.
Little Amal with Dreamwalker Dancers on Bay Street, Toronto, ON
All in Good Time Luminato
Also from January to June Luminato Festival engaged Dreamwalker’s Conscious Bodies Core Ensemble to share and activate All in Good Time Practices and Ceremony, offering an extensive series of embodiment activations with staff.
SUMMER 2023
Firehorse and Shadow in Community
F&S in Community Activations spanned the full calendar year as an extension of our live West Coast performances of Firehorse & Shadow. The community activations were designed to support an embodied process of re-membering, and integrated dancing, eating together, shadow play, visual art creation, writing, storytelling, singing and walking through Chinatown. These activations included in-person gatherings, as well as anonymous story gathering opportunities such as the Giant Dumpling’s Sealed Secret Keeper Tour and the Historic Chinatown Hotline.
For these activations, F&S In Community creative producer Kelsi James coordinated and devised alongside community activation artist partners and contributors Andrea Nann, Sarah Chase, Cindy Mochizuki, Annie Katsura Rollins, April Liu, Jasper Sloan Yip, Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, Cherry Wen Wen Lu, Rosa Cheng, A.J. Morra, Isaiah Gilson and Philip Davis. Partner organizations included Chinatown Storytelling Centre, plastic orchid factory, Left of Main, Dumb Instrument Dance/Morrow, Richmond Community Centre, Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Roundhouse Community Centre, Sunset Community Centre, and Strathcona Community Centre.
We are so grateful for those who joined us and offered their stories for us to hold and ‘re-member’ in community and honoured to continue to connect with the Chinatown community through story, gesture, food and art. F&S in Community was generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts Public Outreach Program.
Giant Dumpling Sealed Secret Keeper at Light Up Chinatown Festival Sept 11/12 as part of Youth Forum for Asian Representation Chinatown scavenger hunt, Vancouver, B.C.
Wild Soma at Hollyhock
In October Wild Soma core members were hosted at Hollyhock on Cortez Island, B.C. to research and plan their June 2024 Hollyhock program “Being and Becoming: Embodied Practices for Collective Thriving”. A small number of scholarships are available https://hollyhock.ca/scholarships/
International Choreographic Interlink: Toronto-Taipei
In August our international artist exchange and creative residency continued between Canadian artists Heidi Strauss (adelheid), Michael Caldwell (SummerWorks), Andrea (Dreamwalker) and Taiwanese artists WuKang Chen (HORSE), Su PinWen (Kua Bo Dance Theatre), Fangas Nayaw (Fist and Cake), with creative producers Wen Huang and Norman Armour. After meeting online for 3 years we finally greeted one another in person and spent 15 days eating, talking, resting together, visiting many artists, touring creative spaces in and around Tkarón:to/Toronto, seeing shows and engaging in events hosted by SummerWorks Festival.
ICI: T-T artists Fangas, WuKang, Andrea, Heidi, Wen, PinWen and Michael in Washago, ON
Conscious Bodies Practice in Community
We were honoured to guide workshops for Nova Dance Deep End Week(end) at The Theatre Centre, ON.
FALL 2023
CB Ensemble Reflection Pool Process:
In October 2023, we invited a group of artists from various Dreamwalker projects to come together for a reflection process with the Conscious Bodies Core Ensemble. Over one month, we gathered weekly over Zoom for both shared embodied practice, and shared silent reflection time. Thank you Crystal, Anne, Lynda, Naomi, Sid, Sonia, Danielle, Michelle, Isaiah, Mary Jo, Phil, Classic Roots, Andrea, and Kelsi. Your presences and deep reflections continue to move and resonate so strongly. Through this process, we collectively generated ‘imprints’ (text, images, sounds, movements) that we are now transforming into a report to share with you, our wonderful extended community.
International Choreographic Interlink: Taipei-Toronto
In October the ICI: Toronto-Taipei artists continued our creative residency and international exchange over 17 days traveling around Taiwan. Andrea guided a Conscious Bodies workshop hosted by Our Theatre in Chiayi and Andrea, Heidi and Michael each performed solo works in the We Island Dance Festival in New Taipei City November 4-5th. WuKang, PinWen, Fangas and Wen will return to Toronto to perform at SummerWorks in August 2024.
ICI: Toronto-Taipei artists with Caroline McCaul and Sammy Chien visiting Vera Lai at the National Theatre and Concert Hall Taipei, Taiwan
The Build
Research with Brendan Wyatt began for a new production by DJ Me Time. Thank you Sahara Morimoto for joining us for this exploration process.
Brendan Wyatt and Sahara Morimoto in the research process for a new production
Dumpling Burning Ritual
After almost eight months of journeying, on December 10th, Andrea and Kelsi brought ‘Dumpling’ to Vancouver Island (carried by hand on the ferry, to many wondering glances!) for her final ritual. Together with Marshall, Clare Downie, and filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nick de Pencier, Dumpling completed her burning ritual oceanside. Thank you to each of you who entrusted your secrets, stories and wishes to Dumpling – know that they were released by fire, to the sky and to the ocean, and were witnessed with full hearts by the six of us while they burned.
Cherry Wen Wen Lu and Kelsi James with Dumpling outside Kam Wai Dim Sum on E. Pender Street, BC.
Conscious Bodies Practice in Community
We were honoured to guide workshops for Moonhorse Dance Theatre’s Dancing into Winter at Eastminster United Church, ON, and for Company 605 Winter [less] Intensive at SFU Goldcorp Center for The Arts, BC.
Gratitude Offerings:
this is where i find myself today
this is where i find myself today was created in the Fall of 2020, and exists as an unassuming collective record of discrete experiences captured by the individual dancers of the 3rd year Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson U) School of Performance Dance Program — within various spaces, places and states of being — during a time when remote collaboration offers distance for observing, and opportunity for self discovering and interrelating in unexpected ways. We still find it profoundly inspiring to witness, feel, hear and watch these dancers, to marvel at the intimacy of their offerings and how they invented, created and expressed from places of deep feeling and sensation. The question of finding our self resonates even more as we struggle today with so much human conflict.
Here, we offer both the collective record video (link below), as well as a writing prompt from its creation process.
To access the collective record, we invite you to go to this link.
To prompt you into writing, we invite you to:
Locate the seed of your ‘divine’ self deep inside your body, your physical being. Begin with an image of this seed in the center of your pelvic bowl region. Soften the backs of your knees, and allow the pelvis to feel a little bit of freedom from the top of your legs. Invite an image of the seed glowing and pulsing with light, listening and feeling as this aspect of your true self emanates its message. Listen for the ‘hum of our inner universe’, the sound that is emanating from our seed centre, the sound of your ‘life force energy’. The vibration of your vocal chords sends a message back to the seed. Hum and arrive. Sit and write this prompt at the top of our paper, “This is where I find myself today…” and spend 5 minutes writing.
This is where i find myself today was created in collaboration with: Abby Hopper, Allison Carry, Alysis Davis, Andrea Bennie Levick, Annika McCabe, Bailey Allems, Cailin Teranishi, Celeste Chiappetta, Chrystal Tam, Gaby Jean, Jewell Cormier, Karly Benson, Kathryn Ledvinka, Liam Woodvine, Maddison Eby, Madeleine Rose Hiscocks, Meghan McMartin, Monique Pascall, Morgan Carroll, Noelle Natale, Noy Vanir, Sierra Kellman, Taylor Collis, Vanessa Piselli, Zachary Bastille, Zoe Kwan. Conceived and directed by Andrea Nann with video artist Henry Mak and composer Joshua ‘Classic Roots’ DePerry
Kathryn Ledvinka in “this is where I find myself today”
In February 2023, Erica Sherwood’s gorgeous film The Welcome Project: Revive was featured in Suitcase in Point’s Metanoia: The Immersive Experience. Audiences journeyed through a guided tour to site-specific audio, visual and performance installations that momentarily re-imagined a variety of public spaces in downtown St. Catharines. The Welcome Project: Revive features Erica Sherwood, Deanna Jones, Tamara (Eve) Atoms, Roselyn Kelada-Sedra, Dienya Waboso, Shannon Kitchings, Mayumi Lashbrook, Danielle Denichaud, Philip Davis, Andrea Nann. Thank you Annie Wilson, and Sara Palmieri. We offer you Erica’s film here.
Shannon Kitchings and Dienya Waboso in The Welcome Project: Revive by Erica Sherwood
Winter Solstice Activation
With this short guided practice we invite you to feel in to your relationship with Earth, Moon, Sun, Self, Others and All that Is as we welcome the return of light to our days. With this offering, we hope you will find time to pause locate, notice, soften, reach, receive, acknowledge and rest.
Click here to watch the video. Solstice text video prepared by Kelsi James
UCPOMING EVENTS - SAVE THE DATES!
Thank you:
Branching Roots Moon Series Facilitators
Danielle Denichaud, Kelsi James, Phil Davis, Michelle Silagy, Isaiah Gilson, Joshua DePerry, Sid Ryan Eilers, Shannon Kitchings, Kate Lowe, Crystal Castellan, Mary Jo Mullins, Mayumi Lashbrook, Hemantika Mahesh Kumar and all the luminous individuals who joined in.
All of Our Dreaming website creators and collaborators
Elysha Poirier, Omar Faleh, Sarah Chase, Joshua Van Tassel, Henry Mak.
Conscious Bodies Core Ensemble Danielle, Isaiah, Joshua, Kelsi, Michelle, Phil.
And Dreamwalkers Adina, Karen, Randall, Diane, Mary, Jane, Tom, Kasia and Gillian, Sarah, Brendan, Elysha, Andrew, Peggy, Michael, David, Veronica, Sandra and Jim Pitblado, Harry and Lin Chin Foundation, Ottawa Community Foundation, the Pitblado Family, the McAllister/Deluzios, the Nanns and Maizes, the Butterfields, Roz and Andrew Heintzman, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts and to our many friends and supporters.
We are grateful to practice on and with the Lands and Peoples of:
Hamilton, St. Catherine’s, Toronto/Tkarón:to
Traditional Lands of the Erie, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe and Mississaugas of the Credit Peoples; within the Dish with One Spoon Covenant
Vancouver the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Peoples.
Tu Łidlini (Ross River), Yukon: the unceded territories of the Dena and Kaska Peoples
With kindness and continuing commitment to action and nurture caring relationships in the coming year,
Dreamwalker Dance
