Offerings, an eclectic program of creative new dance pieces, will unfold in the Joseph G. Green Studio Theatre on Saturday, Feb. 26, exhibiting a contemporary landscape of beautiful movement, spirited music, emotional journeys and a cross-cultural mosaic.
Produced by York University dance student Roopa Cheema, Offerings comprises 10 engaging dance works by York University’s current undergraduate and graduate dance artists Sheelah Brouwer, Susan Cash, Roopa Cheema, Sara Klaiman and Su-Lin Tseng.
The line up of dance vignettes on the program includes the following:
Missing examines the intense loneliness that follows the end of a passionate love, utilizing the emotions of loneliness and sorrow felt deep within a broken heart.
- Dancers: Lindsay Roden, Amber Yates, Heather Young
- Choreography: Sheelah Brouwer and dance artists
- Music: Missing by Evanescence
- Lighting: Gavin MacDonald
- Costumes: Sheelah Brouwer
Forgive Me?! tells the story of the aftermath of betrayal, and how guilt can consume the soul.
- Dancers: Meghan Cafferky, Jamie Wilder
- Choreography: Sheelah Brouwer and dance artists
- Music: Forgive Me by Evanescence
- Lighting: Gavin MacDonald
- Costumes: Sheelah Brouwer
Going Under is about utilizing anger as a strength to conquer emotional turmoil, refusing to be emotionally beaten down by external forces.
- Dancers: Robyn Alfonso, Lindsay Roden, Amber Yates, Heather Young
- Choreography: Sheelah Brouwer and dance artists
- Music: Going Under by Evanescence
- Lighting: Gavin MacDonald
- Costumes: Sheelah Brouwer
Let Me Love You is a love story of how psychological need becomes so desperate that conflicts develop and love cannot be embraced properly.
- Dancers: Sheelah Brouwer, Paul Olijnyk
- Choreography: Sheelah Brouwer, Paul Olijnyk
- Music: My Immortal by Evanescence
- Lighting: Gavin MacDonald
- Costumes: Sheelah Brouwer
Cold November is a narrative about a mother facing the loss of her child, as she goes through angry outbursts and contained internalized emotion of shock.
- Dancers: Robyn Alfonso
- Choreography: Robyn Alfonso, Sheelah Brouwer
- Music: October by Evanescence
- Lighting: Gavin MacDonald
- Costumes: Sheelah Brouwer
Eternal Happiness is a celebration of being beautiful, being women, and enjoying who we are – dancers.
- Dancers: Robyn Alfonso, Sheelah Brouwer, Lindsay Roden, Amber Yates, Heather Young, Jamie Wilder
- Choreography: Sheelah Brouwer and dance artists
- Music: Eternal by Evanescence
- Lighting: Gavin MacDonald
- Costumes: Sheelah Brouwer
Secretly Unfolding is an expression of and an exploration into mental illness and artistry.
- Dancers: Nicole Leon, Jillian Coullis, Sara Klaiman, Christina Pielow, Marli Barbarosh, Melissa Noventa
- Choreography: Sara Klaiman
- Music: Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins, J.S. Bach; Comptine D’un Autre Ete: L’apres Midi, Yann Tiersen; Immature, Bjork; Momentary Introspection, Carter Burwell.
Haunted is part of PinPoints, a dance in eight movements. The music expresses the ‘permanent emotions’ of Indian traditions and the choreographer explores through dance, a single emotive quality inspired by each new musical movement.
- Dancers: Rebecca Bolden, Nicole Rose Bond, Sara Burgess, Grace Ching Lin, Stephanie Cressman, Lauren Davidson, Kim Floyd, Janine Holton, Morgan McKenzie, Jamesy Patrick, Nadine Russell, Candice Spykers
- Choreogapher: Susan Cash
- Music: John Cage, Sonatas, Interludes (1948) (excerpts)
- Costumes: Meghan Bennett
Through My Veins is based on and inspired by the British occupation of India, creating a fusion of the choreographer’s ethnic roots – Canadian and Indian.
- Dancers: Shirin Yousefi, Heather Ball, Diana DePalo, Cara Spooner, Alicia Grant
- Choreogapher: Roopa Cheema
- Music: Holy Water, a new composition by York University music student Graeme Cornies
- Dancers: Shirin Yousefi, Heather Ball, Diana DePalo, Cara Spooner, Alicia Grant.
Silence Dialogue redefines the choreographer’s notion of Eastern and Western movement vocabulary, incorporating movement from Chinese dance, tai-chi, modern dance and ballet in addition to the use of “chi” – breathing.
- Dancers: Nicole Roe Bond, Sara Burgess, Lauren Davidson, Janine Holton, Morgan McKenzie, Nadine Russell, Candice Spykers
- Choreography: Su-Lin Tseng
- Music: A Question to God by Wei-Liang Zhang
- Costumes: Karrina Hooper
Offerings will be performed in the Joseph G. Green Studio Theatre in the Centre for Film & Theatre on York’s Keele campus, at 2pm, with a repeat performance at 8pm.
Tickets which are available at the door are $8 and $6 for students. Proceeds from this concert will go to the York University Dance Students’ Association, UNICEF for Tsunami Relief and the Heart & Stroke Foundation. For more information, call 416-650-8030.