Get Ready to Move at Nextfest 2023
Are you ready to merge, marvel, and manifest? Here are three dance showcases curated by our friends at Good Women Dance Collective, showcasing emerging choreography and movement.
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MERGE
When?
- Friday, June 2 at 5:00 pm
- Saturday, June 3 at 2:30 pm
- Sunday, June 4 at 9:00 pm
Where? Nancy Power Theatre in the Roxy Theatre
In My Waking Hours
choreographed and performed by Shannon Lin
In My Waking Hours is a visual lullaby, an encapsulated dream experience, and an exploration of the wakefulness of our tiresome thoughts.
Vechornytsy Dance Company presents
Soul
choreographed by Sofi Sydorak
featuring Sofi Sydorak, Anastasiia Savchuk, Lilia Ukhach, Anna Deinega, Myroslava Sliusareva, Daryna Grech, Nadia Baran, and Angela Kostiniuk
The main idea of this piece is to express the true story of a human way to success.
The goal is to motivate people of all ages to take action. Regardless of status and talent, the most important thing is to act and to not give up.
Perennial
choreographed by Samantha Ketsa and Lizzie Rajchel
featuring Kadin Aumentado, Marlo Hepburn, Emily Losier, Sarah Vander Ploeg, and Abbie Brokenshire
Perennial invites you to travel through time, guided by sapphic love and longing.
Inspired by a yearning for sapphic joy in dance and film and supported by queer poetry, Perennial follows one woman on her journey through the ages to discover herself and what it means to joyfully love.
ᑲᓇᒋᒋᑫᐃᐧᐣ Kanacicikewin – Cleanse
choreographed by Skye Demas
“The inspiration for my piece stems from my cultural background and teachings. I am of Cree descent, and this piece focuses on my take on how we cleanse through smudging. Our mind, heart, spirit, and physical being cleanse with our prayers to the Creator. I took a lot of physical inspiration from the way the sage burns, as well as the actual smoke we see moving through the air. Within the smudging, how we ask for guidance from our ancestors and animal brothers and sisters was also in mind while creating movement.”
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Marvel
When?
- Tuesday, June 6 at 8:00 pm
- Thursday, June 8 at 5:00 pm
- Friday, June 9 at 7:00 pm
Where? Nancy Power Theatre in the Roxy Theatre
choreographed by Deviani Andrea Bonilla
featuring the Victoria School Dance Ensemble
This piece explores rhythm and group dynamics. A mass force of dancers shape the stage through unison and variation. Transitioning from one rhythm to another, it’s about collaboration, listening, and waiting. The idea it’s to keep it simple and powerful.
featuring Ava Ballesteros, Ethan Bogner, Sophie Campbell, Autumn Chugg, Maddie Crebas, Connor Ellingson, Greta Ellingson, Angelina Georgiopolus, Hannah Hetlinger, Lida Higham-Sparrow, Katherine MacKenzie, Nicole MacKenzie, Kenya Mayes, Franka McKague Larson, Keira McLeod, Morgan Mitchell, Presley Pearson, Aliyah Peter, Lissette-Andrea Peter, Athena Reyes, Reilly Rinaldi, Mia Sanders, Sureena Usman, and Teagan Woloschuk
Mudweed
choreographed and performed by Max Hanic
featuring Max Hanic, Myles Bartel, and Will Scott
Mudweed is an improvised physical and sonic dialogue between Max Hanic and The Pigeon Breeders.
This exchange will travel a structured score devised from investigating the violence of springtime and personal genesis. How is the body a site for change in spirit and what does this require of one’s vitality?
Baker Miller Pink presents
Visions of Lillian
featuring Cayley Wreggitt, Thomas Geddes, and Nicole Logan
Peter, a down-on-his-luck painter who has hit a creative slump, takes a backpacking trip to Lillian Lake in Kananaskis to reinvigorate his passion. There, he encounters Lillian. She ebbs and flows with wind skimming on the lake’s surface. Peter becomes obsessed with Lillian, sacrificing his relationships and professional opportunities to get closer to her. But, what lies beneath the surface…
Art of Ashtapadis
choreographed by Hemali Boorada
featuring Vismaya Bhagavathi Parambath and, Avani Pallickal Aji
Ashtapadis are Sanskrit hymns composed by Jayadeva in the 12th Century. They are a collection of beautiful love poems, highly revered by Indian Classical dancers as they portray the Navarasas (9 central emotions). As a second-generation Kuchipudi dancer in Canada, I want to restyle how these emotions are portrayed in the cultural context of the West, which I call home. The presentation follows the heroine who describes the yearning for her lover, as she reminisces about the time spent with him. This scintillating presentation choreographed by Hemali Boorada showcases the uncolonized Kuchipudi style.
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Manifest
When?
- Friday, June 9 at 5:00 pm
- Saturday, June 10 at 7:30 pm
- Sunday, June 11 at 6:00 pm
Where? Nancy Power Theatre in the Roxy Theatre
VOLT24 presents
Vibrate
choreographed and performed by Alyssa Favero
featuring Julien Villa, Danielle Mackenzie Long, and Arash Khakpour
The piece explores the multiplicity in one individual’s experience. The intimate work investigates a range of physicalities and a varied emotional landscape to highlight transformation, question binary systems, and dismantle expectations of concert dance.
(her)story
choreographed and performed by Alison Keery
This piece is a personal expression of thirty-two years of living in a female body. It explores themes of gender violence, sexism, and female empowerment through a feminist lens.
Content Warning: This piece depicts a sexual assault.
The Last Goodbye
choreographed and performed by Nudell
The closing of a chapter and learning to rise into a new version of self.