York Dances is an exciting program featuring new choreography created by third-year BFA dance students in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design at York University.
The artists of York Dances 2019
Staged in the McLean Performance Studio, 244 Accolade East Building, Keele Campus, this year’s program Mosaic is inspired by the idea of connection and movement and is performed by rising young artists in the Department of Dance.
Artistic direction for York Dances is by Tracey Norman. Mosaic presents 29 original works in two exciting and dynamic 60-minute programs, March 27 and 28. Admission is $10 for each program.
The first program, Tessellation takes centre stage at 7 p.m. and the second program Montage at 8:30 p.m.
Tessellation – 7 p.m.
An Encounter
Choreographer: Sebastian Oreamuno
Performer: Sophie Dow
Understudy: Sebastian Oreamuno
There are some encounters that are visceral. A charge begins to build and as it gathers momentum it sweeps you up into the moment. Whether you’re in the thick of it or on the periphery, your attention is drawn to the present.
Arrival
Choreographer: Shannon Pybus
Performers: Teagan Ariss, Jordan Gamble, Carly MacDougall, and Aiyana Ruel
Arrival is a work focused on our obsession with what’s next. Often, we find ourselves striving to our next check point but do we appreciate it when we get there?
Xeno-
Choreographer: Rachana Joshi
Performers: Nancy Thavaruban and Purwai Vyas
Xeno-, a prefix that describes the foreign and strange. The connections we make to foreign objects, bodies and ideas have the ability to shape who we become.
The Absence of Presence
Choreographer: Samara Brown
Performers: Emily Duckett, Jada Ricketts, Morgan Stasiewicz and Leah-Renée Young
The Absence of Presence is a collaborative piece exploring the process of how geographies of black Canada are largely absent from Canadian history.
Irresponsible Dependence
Choreographer: Matthew Siu
Performers: Hanna Begovic, Sophie Goyette-Hamels and Maggie Lucas
Irresponsible Dependence is the antithesis to the age-old idiom “there is strength in numbers.” What happens when an individual creates bonds, but is unable to maintain them?
Affects & Effects
Choreographer: Emma Cullen
Performers: Shannon Pybus and Brittney Winnitoy
Music: Figment IV by Elliott Carter, performed by Matthew Eeuwes
Affects & Effects is a collaborative exploration between choreographer and dancers into the evolution of a relationship uniting two distinct beings. Two separate lives brought together by circumstance, leaving each other much different from before they both met.
Amé
Choreographer: Angela Xu
Performers: Jasmine Almaguer Sheldrick, Alondra del Carmen, Samantha Etzel, Sierra Heintzman, Scarlette Hinton, Alyssa Nunziato, Leah Wakelin
Inspired by the notion of falling rain in all its serenity and interpersonal relationships of love and loss, Amé consults the deepest desires we cradle in our hearts.
Lazy Sunday
Choreographer: Ayano Okubo
Dancers: Sarmila Param, Alyssa Passero, Julia Passero and Jopang Simakajornboon
Have you ever had one of those days you simply felt like you didn’t want to do anything? Lazy Sunday invites the audience to the tranquil moment and shares the mental relaxation through the movements.
Hadalpelagic
Choreographer: Hanna Begovic
Performers: McKenzie Foy, Andrea Madore and Matthew Siu
Drawing inspiration from the little knowledge we do have about our oceans, this question of what lies under the surface poses a seemingly never-ending search to understand this powerful force we all know of, but know nothing about.
Un(locked)
Choreographer: Given Kofi Yirenkyi
Performers: Madeline Feist, Sierra Heintzman, Allison Kingsbury,
Carly MacDougall and Megan Millar
Negative thoughts and emotions can become your Achilles heel; a weakness that prevents harmony and peace within oneself. The power of this negative energy can go as far as numbing the soul.
Freud (working title)
Choreographer: Sadie Cahill
Performers: Jordan Gamble, Bianca Pariselli and Natalie Yeung
This piece shows the relationship between the three main sections of personality which together create the overall mosaic representing a human’s character; the id (your instincts), the superego (your moral compass) and the ego (your own individual reality).
Momentous
Choreographer: Julia Passero
Performers: Brianna Finucan, Mackenzie Link, Ayano Okubo, Morgan Stasciewicz and Alysha Wood
Momentous – a decision, event or change of great importance, especially in its weight on the future. A moment in time, which causes a psychological and physiological reaction, has the ability to affect the future.
Long zhong zhi niao (The bird in the cage)
Choreographer: Sixian Li
Performer: Daniel Souvannavong
Long zhong zhi niao, is an idiom that means a bird in a cage. Inspired by an old Chinese tale. This dance is about different states people are in during their working process.
For Ahmed
Choreographer: Amy Hull
Performers: Jasmine Almaguer Sheldrick, Hayley Hamlin, Scarlette Hinton, Kayla Shaw and Angela Xu
What is the artist’s role in today’s international political climate? What value does art have in liberating our communities suffering under colonial occupation? What is artistic justice in the age of globalization?
Diverging Outcomes
Choreographer: Taylor Zeller
Performers: Phylicia Browne-Charles, Grace Kingston and Maggie Lucas
Music: Performed by Josh Buckley
Diverging Outcomes is inspired by the Butterfly Effect, a theory in psychology suggesting how a small, seemingly irrelevant change in initial conditions can create a different outcome of larger significance.
Montage – 8:30 p.m.
Erlebnisse
Choreographer: Brittney Winnitoy
Performers: Madeline Feist and Mackenzie Link
Erlebnisse (Ar- ‘lEb-nis-e): the experiences, positive or negative, that we feel most deeply, and through which we truly live. Throughout life, we are faced with various circumstances that affect us, change us, and mold us into the people that we are on a continuous path of becoming.
Followers
Choreographer: Olivia Craft
Performers: Paige DeCastro, Ashley Kotva, Megan Millar, Aiyana Ruel,
Leslie Woo and Alysha Wood
How do we relate as humans in a virtual world? What are the impacts of social media on our society? In what ways does technology govern our daily lives? Followers is inspired by a society that relies on technology and social media.
But I Digress
Choreographer: Maisie Ryan
Performers: Hanna Begovic, Mckenzie Foy, Emma Gray Lamont, Grace Kingston and Hannah Petrie
Driven to explain as much as we can, to ourselves and to others, over-complication is a habit and coping mechanism, firing hundreds of questions each moment to try and lessen that in the world which we do not know.
Exile
Choreographer: Leah-Renee Young
Performers: Bianca Pariselli, Jordan Gamble and Sierra Heitzman
To be banished away from home, while threatened with death upon return, Exile reveals that in acceptance lies peace.
Immured
Choreographer: Nicole Hillier
Performer: Jamie Morrow
Immured: To enclose within walls, is a piece that revolves around the idea of feeling trapped within ourselves.
Repercussion
Choreographer: Abigail Birtles
Performers: Tegan Ariss, Madeline Feist and Rowen Mcbride
Repercussion is based on the theory of the butterfly effect. In short, this theory states that everything happens for a reason, every little thing has an effect on the course of your fate.
Photosynthesis
Choreographer: Jessica Stuart
Performers: Maggie Lucas, Shay Flaicher and Morgan Stasiewicz
Photosynthesis explores the definition of beauty as a response to our evolution within nature; whether or not the appearances and structures we find appealing are linked to an innate response to our environment.
Planes of existence
Choreographer: Jada Ricketts
Performers: Kenyatta Brown, Emily Duckett, Sarmila Param, Bianca Pariselli, Leslie Woo and Leah- Renée Young
What makes a person unique or different from the rest? The qualities we carry which come together and create us as peculiar beings. The way we look, the way we think. These things that make us individuals also make us unlike anyone else on this earth.
Acquiescence
Choreographer: Kelly O’Rourke
Performers: Breigh Harrison, Emma Owens and Julia Passero
Acquiescence explores the idea of identifying with a group, yet yearning to maintain one’s unique and specific individuality.
Connect The Dots
Choreographer: Grace Kingston
Performers: Sophie Goyette-Hamels, Maisie Ryan, Matthew Siu and Jessica Stuart
Connect the Dots explores the concept of perception and how particular forms can relate to one another to create new perspectives.
School. Work. Sleep. Repeat.
Choreographer: Phylicia Browne-Charles
Performers: Olivia Craft and Alysha Wood
School. Work. Sleep. Repeat. explores the endless repetitive aspects of a schedule, and how a schedule can vary from one to another by utilizing free writing prompts to generate material.
In Haste
Choreographer: Sarmila Param
Performers: Andrea Madore, Ayano Okubo, Jada Ricketts and Given Yirenkyi
Timing is everything, but everyone has different timing. Everyone has their own clock. In Haste invites the audience to speculate on how timelines impose a sense of haste. Everyone is on their own journey, it is not a race. Be patient.
The Lift
Choreographer: Aiyana Ruel
Performers: Paige deCastro, Emily Duckett, Emma GrayLamont, Allison Kingsbury and Alyssa Nunziato
We experience life’s awkward moments each day, discounting them as part of our daily routine. Occurrences like getting stuck in a jam-packed subway, meeting someone new and shaking their sweaty hand, or even riding in an elevator with someone you don’t know often leave us with feelings of unease.
Solo
Choreographer: Hannah Schallert, in collaboration with McKenzie Foy
Performer: McKenzie Foy
Solo is comprised of two distinct studies exploring the visual experience of movement in relation to the space of the stage, or alternatively, the space of the image.