November Newsletter
Dear Dreamers,
We write today with kindness in our hearts and sharings about past and present projects, including "In the Community" offerings from our friends at other arts organizations. Now, as ever, we are deeply grateful to be journeying together in community with you.
We also recently learned that some of you have not received our Newsletter for several months. We hope we’ve now corrected the issue! If you were affected by this and are curious about what we've been up to, we invite you to visit our website at https://www.dreamwalkerdance.com/news. We apologize for any interruption in communications and are so glad to be connected with you again.
Image by Ran Zheng, animation by Christy Chan
Chinatown Audio Tours: Roving Conversations Between Intergenerational Pairs
Our Chinatown Stories Audio Tours: Roving Conversations between Intergenerational Pairs is LIVE! There are five audio tours (Lance & Jasper, Lynda & Carolyn, Lori & Ryan, Owen & Bev, Alger & Shon), and they are each approximately 20-25 mins. Journey with our guides as they walk the streets of Vancouver's Historic Chinatown in pairs, sharing stories, sensations and their connections to the people and places there.
You will find all the tours through this link on Dreamwalker’s website, along with more project information + the trailer (animated by Christy Chan, with music by Jasper Sloan Yip and Steve Beddal, and audio production by Jasper Sloan Yip!):
Thank you to everyone who joined us in Vancouver’s Historic Chinatown last weekend as part of Heart of the City Festival 2024.
Photo of Penny Wong Sing, shared by her daughter Lynda Sing. Neon animation by Christy Chan
We were honoured to be in a shared exhibition with Chimerik's Ritual-Spective–RE:turning interactive art exhibition, created by Chimerik 似不像 (Sammy Chien & Caroline MacCaull featuring Jackson Chien 簡志雄). It was so special to get to share this final chapter of the Firehorse & Shadow in Community Public Outreach initiative, generously supported by Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council, and to feel the work rippling and resonating so deeply in community.
Our hearts are bursting with love and gratitude to Firehorse and Shadow in Community co-creators Annie Katsura Rollins, Sarah Chase, Cindy Mochizuki, Andrea Nann; partners Jasper Sloan Yip, April Liu; Audio Tour collaborators Jasper Sloan Yip, Christy Chan, Ran Zheng, Daniel Loan, Steve Beddal, Isaiah Gilson; community partner Strathcona Community Centre, Adrianna Teoh; creative producer Kelsi James; and Tour Guides Lori Chong, Shon Wong, Ryan Iu, Owen Maize, Bev Nann, Lynda Sing, Carolyn Matthews, Alger Ji-Liang, Jasper Sloan Yip, Lance Lim, and Maxi the dog.
Feeling Her Way
Thank you to everyone who attended Andrea's first performance at the AGO on November 6th! There are 4 more opportunities to experience these powerful Dancer Responses.
Image of Andrea Nann 'Feeling Her Way.
Toronto Biennial of Art and Art Gallery of Ontario offer this unique performance experience. For the duration of the exhibition, Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way, an invited dance artist will perform in the gallery, prompted by the sounds and visual elements of Boyce’s installation, This program is a part of Your Timing is Perfect: Moments and Movements of Inquiry, a performance series in which artists investigate the body as a living archive, exploring its extraordinary strength and resilience, as well as its tenderness, vulnerability, and limitations.
Performances are improvised and approximately 30 minutes in duration.
November 6 Andrea Nann
December 4 Jennifer Dahl
February 5 Andrea Nann and Jennifer Dahl
March 5 Jennifer Dahl
April 2 Andrea Nann
*Outside Eye Michelle Silagy
7pm
AGO, 317 Dundas St W, Toronto, ON M5T 1G4
On these evenings entrance to the AGO is Free however registration is required. You can book tickets here: https://ago.ca/events/feeling-her-way-dancer-responses
Image of Andrea Nann 'Feeling Her Way.'
For these performances Andrea is activating a performance practice called Embodying Listening. This is an improvisatory movement exploration for which the dancer softens inward to elicit a heightened state of consciousness and connectivity — opening her body, mind, heart, and spirit for receiving and perceiving herself in harmonic resonance with the world above, below and around her. In this case the world is the myriad sounds, actions, intentions, patterns, sensations, and stillnesses within Sonia Boyce’s installation.
Embodying Listening is a way of practicing being in empathetic and compassionate presence with what is.
Embodying Listening is evolving in collaboration with visual sound artist China Blue for Saturn Walk and is collectively being researched by dance artists Andrea Nann (CAN), Laura Colomban (U.K/Italy) and Jennifer Dahl (CAN/Italy). The artists typically practice within a hexagonal labyrinth replicating the cloud pattern over Saturn’s North Pole with sounds generated from Saturn’s rings as uncovered by China Blue for NASA. They spend time in the labyrinth moving and listening into their own bodies and their unique lived experiences in relationship with the planet, the cosmos and one another. They are interested in ways that embodied listening can impact human experience in the world. This performance practice may take the form of improvised dancing, sounding, music making, stillness, silence, conversation, dialogue or other shared expression. Most recently Saturn Walk: Embodying Listening was performed in conjunction with the 2024 Venice Biennale.
The Canadian presentation of Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way is initiated and organized by the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art.
GYROKINESIS®
7:00-8:30 pm
Thursday November 14
Thursday November 21
Thursday November 28
PWYC at the door
688 Richmond St W (Room 302), Toronto
In partnership with The Practice Room.
Email andrea@dreamwalkerdance.com to register
The Practice Room is a community project stewarded by artist Martha Burns for individuals who wish to gather to engage in a process of practicing together.
Andrea invites you to join her in diving into GYROKINESIS® as a practice to nourish, inspire, restore, reconnect and realign ourselves to a joyful, sensuous, undulating and grateful human experience.
Images of nature and cosmos will support our journey as expansive, breathing, intentional, expressive, fun-loving, caring beings. By moving in circling, spiraling and wave like pathways we will gently and rhythmically soften, support and nourish our bodies, cultivating restoration, mobility and overall well being through the harmonization of body systems, sensations and energy channels. These sessions begin seated and evolve to some floor work and standing explorations. If you have a yoga mat, please bring one along.
Image of the previous One Night Choir (October, Ace Week Edition) by Jess Wong
Dreamwalker's next “One Night Choir” is happening Monday November 25th, from 7:30-9:30pm at Morrow (910 Richards St, Vancouver)! One Night Choir is a by-donation, no-prep-required embodied singing night, where strangers come together and learn a piece of music over the course of an evening. Sheet music is provided, and all music is taught in the room by Dreamwalker Kelsi James. We are so looking forward to singing together again.
One Night Choir will be continuing one Monday every month until September 2025! The next three upcoming are: November 25th, December 16th, and January 20th. Many thanks to Morrow and Ziyian for hosting us.
Wintersongs & Holiday Classics
Laila Biali, Andrea Nann and members of the Venuti String Quartet
Following a celebratory premiere at Toronto's Koerner Hall in 2022, Andrea rejoins Laila Biali for Wintersongs & Holiday Classics in Medicine Hat (AB), Aurora (ON) and Cobourg (ON).
This offering features winter-inspired original material alongside arrangements of beloved secular and sacred classics, in an enchanted experience of snow-swept landscapes, twinkling lights, and the magic of the holiday season. Laila will be joined by her trio, George Koller (bass) and Ben Wittman (drums), as well as GRAMMY nominee and multi JUNO winner Jane Bunnett, and an illustrious String Quartet with guest dance artist Andrea Nann.
December 11, 2024 7:30 PM
Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre (Medicine Hat, AB)
December 14, 2024 7:30PM
Aurora Town Square (50 Victoria St, Aurora, ON)
December 15, 2024 3:00PM
Concert Hall at Victoria Hall (55 King St. W, Cobourg, ON)
Sending you all deep care and great warmth,
Dreamwalker
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