The WINTERSONG Program
WINTERSONG – dances for a sacred season showcases choreography inspired by the rich variety of solstice traditions, celebrating the holiday season with the breathtaking tapestry of dance. The program of four dances has been carefully selected to engage Grades 2-8, and their teachers, with the beauty and magic of mid-winter solstice themes set to commissioned and traditional music.

Kaha:wi – New to WINTERSONG, Santee Smith’s critically acclaimed piece features dance from Iroquois traditions. Two excerpts from the piece show a young woman celebrating her welcome into adulthood, and a community coming together in dance with powerful group movement. This very gestural and organic dance features spellbinding and haunting music also produced by the choreographer.
Nowell Sing We – Driven by the celebratory briskness and poignancy of medieval carols, arranged by composer Kirk Elliott, Nowell Sing We sets two-dimensional shapes and imagery of medieval painting into motion. Nowell Sing We was created in 1988 by Carol Anderson, one of Canada’s outstanding choreographers, and has become WINTERSONG’s signature dance.
Ceremony of Carols – Last season, when choreographer Deborah Lundmark returned to her original 1988 work set to Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, her impulse was to replace its “dirty thirties” images and themes with a contemporary city setting. This work explores the contradictions between the comfortable melodies of the festive season and the harsh realities we see around us everyday.
Doyne Suite – In the 19th century, Jewish Klezmer musicians traveled Eastern Europe mingling with gypsies and absorbing their musical influence. A doyne is an out-of-time, soulful piece of music embodying this influence. In Doyne Suite, choreographer Kim Frank imagines a village’s welcome to the musicians. Under the winter night sky they dance to keep warm, to forget their hunger and for the sheer joy of life.

The TEASING GRAVITY Program
TEASING GRAVITY – dances for the young and fearless is a thrilling adventure in movement that features dances by some of Canada’s leading choreographers. The program includes dances that are fun and whimsical and others that address more serious themes and subjects.

Platform Blues choreographer Deborah Lundmark places six people and a musician on the waiting platform of a train station. We watch their relationships develop as they interact with each other to the accompaniment of blues harmonica player Jerome Godboo.
Attack of the Small Ones is choreographer Holly Small’s humourous answer to the ages-old problem of the schoolyard bully who spoils the fun of an innocent (and very comical) group of playmates. Everyone - except the bully - cheers the surprise ending that the “small ones” have in store.
Nine Person Precision Ball Passing is a dazzling “dance of the hands” created by New Yorker Charles Moulton. The choreographer challenges 9 dancers to pass brightly coloured balls in a kaleidoscope of musical patterns – a one-of-a-kind feat of hand-eye co-ordination and perfect team timing.
Oh Mary Don't You Weep was created by New York choreographer Keith Lee for five young women in Lexington, Kentucky. He was inspired by the music of Aretha Franklin and the strong characters of his dancers. Lee parallels their strength with that of four monumental Marys from history, who, through the power of their belief, raise Lazarus from the dead.
Musical Chairs is choreographer Gerry Trentham’s comic take-off on the popular children’s game where too many characters chasing too few chairs make for some of the funniest moments in dance. As if such worldly problems were not enough, the choreographer gives the chairs a mischievous personality of their own. The bizarre result, while not so funny for the players, is a great delight for audiences everywhere.

The TILT sound+motion Program
Slept Away (red dream, blue dream) is choreographer Louis Laberge-Côté's journey into the world of dreams. Through a series of short vignettes, archetypal images and characters are suggested to the audience, and - much like in dreams - brought together in a non-linear, episodic way: falling asleep leads to the sinking of the Titanic, which then turns into a Romeo and Juliet duet on a sea of love; Ophelia, running away from Hamlet, ends up in the world of Dracula; the killing of Medusa brings us into a Museum of classical mythology, where the statues come to life to the surprise of the tour guide.
     Humourous, touching or frightening, the work takes us through a vivid kinetic and sensory journey, and creates a clever parallel between entering the dream state and experiencing contemporary dance. From its opening moments when the dreamer tentatively steps from her familiar place among us in the audience, to the choreographer�s use of clear voice-overs on the nature of dreaming, as well as live and recorded text spoken by the dancers, this piece links the familiar experience of dreaming with understanding contemporary dance, contemporary art and popular culture.
     This commission was made possible with generous assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts.

FULL TILT is a fast-paced 60 minute production designed for young adult audiences and combines music, video, theatre and dance in a visually and aurally stunning presentation. Improv sessions are incorporated within each performance, and all performances are followed by a Q&A with the dancers.
Earth dance, wire dance: Originally created for and inspired by the students of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre, this piece by choreographer Sasha Ivanochko is a tribute to youthful physicality and desire. Danced to the complex and imaginative music of Matmos, this piece is kinetic, flirty and exuberant. Through various groupings and couplings, the dance explores modern day tribal dynamics in a tongue-in-cheek manner. Deeply physical, this piece pushes
and plays and ultimately takes both dancers and audience on a ride that makes the heart
race.
Elegant Heathens is a choreographed set of questions revolving around western dualities, including the mind/body, the past/present and the strained relationship between pleasure and progress. Choreographer Deborah Dunn’s five characters are stylish subversives, using their bodies as fearless vehicles through which they ask questions about themselves, each other and the world.
Kuere is the Anglo-Saxon root of the word ‘question’. The foundation of Lesandra Dodson’s piece was drawn from The Book of Questions, by Pablo Neruda. These brief poems, finished only months before the author’s death in 1973, are composed entirely of questions. His passion lies in finding and improvising upon basic rhythms of perception to reveal unspoken and unspeakable truths. The text in this piece, spoken in both English and Spanish, provides a vocal counterpoint to a repetitive sound score built to musically represent the passing of time. This highly gestural piece follows four women on their quest for understanding, a process initiated by asking questions.
jack combines random and somewhat awkward movements to create a feeling of anxiety, and to reflect the unpredictability of the world. This unpredictability could be a traffic accident, a chance meeting, a robbery, or winning the lottery. Choreographer Jasmine Inns examines how individuals deal with this sense of randomness. Through highly athletic movements and unpredictable dramatic movements, the two dancers must deal with their expressed anxiety on an individual level.