Message from NAfro Dance Artistic Director
The first thing a baby does when it is still in his mother’s womb is dance. By dancing the baby communicates with his mother letting her knows that he/she is feeling good. Dance has been there since the beginning of human kind…that’s why even monkeys dance to express themselves. The Moving Inspirations Dance Festival is about celebrating dance as a crucial element of how humans express their
feelings. This festival is not about what flavor your dance is, it is about bringing a dance community together to celebrate the art of dance.
This year NAfro Dance Productions is celebrating its 10th anniversary. As you know NAfro is an inspiring voice of dance in Winnipeg and across Canada & the US. Ten years of existence is a good reason to celebrate. So we are bringing in dance troupes and professionals from across Canada to help us celebrate. We are proud to be hosting this event and are pleased to invite you all to join with us.
This festival is going to move you; physically, mentally & emotionally. It is going to inspire your creative intellect, mind & soul, & will open your understanding about dance in this contemporary world. Ladies & gentlemen, allow me to say “we have a delicious buffet”. We have the best of African Contemporary Dance, Contemporary Dance, Ballet, Flamenco Dance, Afro-Jazz Dance, Afro-hip-hop Dance, Break Dance…..and we have dessert too,… dance classes, master classes, choreographic demonstrations and discussions and world bands… The line-up includes dance companies from Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, New York and many of Winnipeg’s dance companies. Three unique and inspiring dance showcases (6 dance groups per show), six choreographic demos, six master dance classes and three dance classes for all levels. Bon Appetite!!
Hey Winnipegers, It’s been 10 years, 10 winters, 10 snow storms & ten -40 degree cold days and you have been there for us. Even when we built a dance work that wasn’t to your taste, you always said, “If you build it, we will come”…. Big floods came & damaged your homes…, recession came & put some of you into financial trouble, but you counted your pennies and said, “I will be there for you”. Your unconditional love has made us grow and live for at least 10 years. On behalf of NAfro Dance’s artists & staff I would like to thank you and dedicate this festival to you. This is your 10 year anniversary celebration, this is your party…let’s do it.
Casimiro Nhussi
Founder & Artistic Director NAfro Dance Productions
PROGRAMME
Preshow
Young Lungs Dance Exchange
PUNCTURING THE CLOUDS (2009) Part 1 creation + performance: Tanja Woloshen music: Bjork and Tanya Tagaq Gillis ; Keren Ann Nolita w/ Sean Gullette video + sound support: Loc Lu
Opening:
NAfro Dance Productions Band
Music: Six Pack
Musicians: Dave Brown, Roger Cloutier, Tim Church, Ewingi Kiki, Kelly Leveille, Cam MacLean, Casimiro Nhussi, Jay Stoller, Binasio Wani
Young Lungs Dance Exchange
PUNCTURING THE CLOUDS (2009) Part 2 creation + performance: Tanja Woloshen music: Bjork and Tanya Tagaq Gillis ; Keren Ann Nolita w/ Sean Gullette video + sound support: Loc Lu
Theatre Flamenco
SOLEA
Choreographer: Claire Marchand in collaboration with Madrid Choreographer La Cinta. Flamenco Dancer: Claire Marchand Flamenco Guitarist: Jim Shewchuck Palmeras: Kathryn Miller & Shelagh Williamson
INTERMISSION
Drive Dance
LITHIUM FOR MEDEA (1984)
Choreography: Stephanie Ballard Dancer: Kathleen Hiley Music: Kitaro, Phew
Michèle Moss
RIGHT DOWN TO HER BABY FINGER
Choreographer: Michèle Moss Dancer: Tara Wilson Music: Nightmare on Wax
Ballet Creole
PASSAGE THROUGH THE ELECTRIC MIST (excrpt 2nd Section)
Choreographer: Gabby Kamino Dancers: Yuhala Muy Garcia & Benton Morris Music: Talvin Singh
Costumes: Evelyn Bastien
NAfro Dance Productions
THERE IS ROOM FOR ONE MORE DANCE
Choreographer: Casimrio Nhussi
Dancers: Paula Blair, Nicole Coppens, Hélène LeMoullec Mancini, Paige Lewis, Robyn Thomson Kacki
Music: Yala Gogo by Casimiro Nhussi
Musicians: Dave Brown, Roger Cloutier, Tim Church, Ewingi Kiki, Kelly Leveille, Cam MacLean, Casimiro Nhussi, Jay Stoller, Binasio Wani
Costumes: Andreanne Dandeneau (MJAnn Couture)
NAfro Dance Productions
NAfro Dance was established to create and present African- Contemporary Dance productions.
The NAfro Vision: We at NAfro Dance Productions aim to contribute to the development of performing arts and set the standard for excellence in African Contemporary Dance.
The NAfro Way: We are dedicated to the creation and presentation of African-Contemporary Dance productions. Our mission consists of three interrelated parts:
Social Mission: We are committed to bringing dance to the community, not only as entertainment, but as a tool to provoke reflection on different issues and as a catalyst for social change. Artistic Mission: We believe in the artistic vision of founder, Casimiro Nhussi. We aim to create multi-disciplinary dance and music works that are based on African Dance and incorporate Contemporary, and other dance forms. Our art reflects the modern, multi-cultural and global society of today.
Audience Mission: Our goal is to make our works accessible to people of all backgrounds and to blur the boundary between artist and audience by producing works that insist on interaction with the audience.
DANCE COMPANY BIOS & PROGRAMME NOTES
Ballet Creole – Toronto
Committed to creating opportunities for African and Caribbean traditions to interact with European dance traditions, whether it be in the Company repertoire, Ballet Creole School’s Professional Training Program (PTP) or community classes. Consistently, what emerges are unique and diverse dance interpretations. For many of the dance works it is the strong presence of the drums that provides a rhythmic structure within which dance socialization takes place. Dancers, musicians and listeners are drawn together in the experience. In this work, Ballet Creole’s Associate Choreographer, Gabby Kamino, a noted master of architectural dance makes a statement through simple movements that continue to build somehow seamlessly; a journey complete with depth and humanistic idiosyncrasies. (www.balletcreole.org)
Drive Dance – Winnipeg
Drive Dance was founded in 2010. Since their debut of Rouge at the 2010 Winnipeg Fringe Festival, Drive has continued to be active in the community. In April 2012 Drive Dance produced and performed their fourth show to a sold out house at the Rachel Browne Theatre. Drive Dance features works gifted to them by internationally renowned choreographers Stephanie Ballard and Gaile Petursson-Hiley. Lithium for Medea was created for Margie Gillis one year before Kathleen was born. Ms Ballard is pleased to gift this dance to Kathleen as a part of her Living Legacy Project. Kathleen Hiley Kathleen is a founding member of Drive Dance, recently performing in “Flashback”. She was featured in Gaile Petursson-Hiley’s “Bronte” & “Faeries” and Stephanie Ballard’s “A Christmas Carol” & “Homeagain”. Kathleen graduated from SCD in affiliation with the UofW with a BAHonors in Dance receiving the Gold Medal in Theatre & Film. (www.drivedance.ca)
Michèle Moss – Calgary
A choreographer, dancer and educator. She is currently a tenured Assistant Professor in the Department of Dance at the University of Calgary. She is a co-founder of Decidedly Jazz Danceworks,a professional concert dance company whose mission it is to preserve and promote jazz dance. She continues to find great pleasure in exploring the nature of jazz from its roots to its innovative futures. She enjoys a diverse career in dance from choreographic commissions to international teaching assignments and conducting ethnographic research -presented on the page and the stage- in such far-flung locales as Cuba and Guinée, West Africa. This solo features the body in full flight and in groove-state both deconstructed and in-time. Michèle would like Tara for her hard working nature, groove capacity and loving spirit. It is always a pleasure working with an artist with such a big heart. I reflect back to you, love and respect as well as admiration. I always learn something important about life when we dance together. Thanks for the inspiration Casimiro.
Theatre Flamenco – Winnipeg
Claire Marchand is a guest artist at many festivals across Canada and internationally. In 2004 she was part of the first Flamenco dance performance at the Canada Dance Festival. She has opened for Flamenco icon Isabel Bayon, recently worked alongside Flamenco greats Domingo Ortega and Maria Bermudez, and toured Canada with Flamenco guitar virtuoso Javier Conde as a dance soloist. The tour was the first Flamenco dance recording to be broadcast on CBC radio and Concerts on Demand. She has done interdisciplinary work with TRIPdance company, and with companies across Canada including Rosario Flamenco. Claire has worked as a collaborator for many full- length works with Theatre Flamenco Dance Collective. SOLEA is a central musical form in the Flamenco repertoire, known as “the mother of all Flamenco forms.” (www.theatreflamenco.ca)
Young Lungs Dance Exchange – Winnipeg
Young Lungs Dance Exchange is a network of artists committed to promoting and contributing to professional dance in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. This network facilitates a range of projects centered on new dance creation, offering opportunities for professional development of dance artists, and promoting interdisciplinary and dance collaboration, thereby enriching the community of independent dance artists. It is through these opportunities that we hope to support the growth of performers, choreographers, educators, and the arts community at large. Young Lungs has chosen Tanja Woloshen to participate in this festival. Tanja Woloshen is a live artist, choreographer, and teacher, a Winnipeg born Ukrainian mermaid, and traveler by heart. Her practice looks at butoh, queerness, shapeshifting, and dimensions of recognition, with recent projects including: “Room for the Underdog” (Alternator Gallery), and “gesturing between utopia” (Young Lungs’ LINK, & UBCO’s Borders and Border Crossings Conference). She is a U Winnipeg Honours Alumni, and is a MFA in Performance Studies candidate at UBC- Okanagan, where she was also a sessional instructor. She is now delighted to be home again, in Pegaliciousness. (www.younglungs.ca)
PUNCTURING THE CLOUDS (2009) Part 1 creation + performance: Tanja Woloshen music: Bjork and Tanya Tagaq Gillis ; Keren Ann Nolita w/ Sean Gullette video + sound support: Loc Lu
SOLEA
Choreographer: Claire Marchand in collaboration with Madrid Choreographer La Cinta. Flamenco Dancer: Claire Marchand Flamenco Guitarist: Jim Shewchuck Palmeras: Kathryn Miller & Shelagh Williamson
LITHIUM FOR MEDEA (1984)
Choreography: Stephanie Ballard Dancer: Kathleen Hiley Music: Kitaro, Phew
RIGHT DOWN TO HER BABY FINGER
Choreographer: Michèle Moss Dancer: Tara Wilson Music: Nightmare on Wax
PASSAGE THROUGH THE ELECTRIC MIST (excrpt 2nd Section)
Choreographer: Gabby Kamino Dancers: Yuhala Muy Garcia & Benton Morris Music: Talvin Singh
Costumes: Evelyn Bastien
THERE IS ROOM FOR ONE MORE DANCE
Choreographer: Casimrio Nhussi
Dancers: Paula Blair, Nicole Coppens, Hélène LeMoullec Mancini, Paige Lewis, Robyn Thomson Kacki
Music: Yala Gogo by Casimiro Nhussi
Musicians: Dave Brown, Roger Cloutier, Tim Church, Ewingi Kiki, Kelly Leveille, Cam MacLean, Casimiro Nhussi, Jay Stoller, Binasio Wani
Costumes: Andreanne Dandeneau (MJAnn Couture)
Production Credits
Lighting Coordinator & Stage Manager: Gabriel Cropley Sound Operator: Ian Phillips
Crew: Cari Simpson
House Manager: Treasure Waddell
Graphic Design (posters, festival logos & website design): URBANINK
Festival Staff
Artistic Director: Casimiro Nhussi
Festival Coordinator & Administrator: Helene LeMoullec Mancini Project Manager: Esther Argyle
Production Manager: Hugh Conacher
Volunteer Coordinator: Paula Blair
Media Relations & Webmaster: Jan Cmela
Gas Station Arts Center Staff:
Executive Director: Nick Kowalchuk Technical Director & Lights: Todd Drader
Special Thanks to…
The School of Contemporary Dancers
for their unwavering support through the years.
All of the Ushers, Tannis Zimmer, Clay Blair, Charlene Kulbaba, Treasure Waddell, Andréanne Dandeneau, Gail and Bill Zimmer, T’ai Pu, Dangerous Goods, Lise McMillan, Alexandra Garrido, The Osborne Street Dance Club, Nick Kowalchuk and The Gas Station Arts Center, as well as all the volunteers who have helped make this festival a reality.
NAfro Dance Productions
Board of Directors:
Chrispin Ntungo
Esther Argyle
Casimiro Nhussi
Kathy Gough
Elizabeth Luzige
Raymond Kazadi
Mwaka Kaonga
Staff (Volunteer)
Casimiro Nhussi, Artistic Director Esther Argyle, Project Manager Paula Blair, Dance Centre Coordinator & Assistant to Artistic Director
