03/05/2024
Throw back to the late nineteen nineties. Photo taken at The Launch Pad, Toronto, 1998.
Back in my final year at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre I created something outside of my tendency to express intensely dark and dramatic themes through dance. Submitting a piece for the student run Coffee House was my raison d’être and I was squeezing my creative juices dry to come up with something. I resorted to the adage “start where you are” while I stood in Val and Sarah’s kitchen and came across a Johann Sebastian Bach CD that was laying around. The truth is I was bored. So that’s where I started. What do you do when you’re bored, alone at home? You repeatedly open the fridge door and gaze blankly at the lack of exciting things in it and then you make your way over to the TV etc etc. And you pray for a creative idea in what seems like a world where everything has already been done. That’s how “Lactose Intolerance” was born. It was my first comedic piece where I found myself bravely blending clown-like character work with modern dance, not knowing how it would be received. I was taken aback by the warm response from both students and faculty. Later that year I had the opportunity to perform the same piece again at “The Launch Pad”, which was the brain child of my ambitious pals: Holly Treddenick (The Bank Art House, Welland ON) and Sally Morgan (Eastward Moving Somatics, Halifax NS) who remain pioneers in the realm of movement education and contemporary dance performance to this day. The Launch Pad was an amazing venue for performances of all kinds, not to mention a highly successful monthly booze can at King and Spadina just before all the artists were kicked out of their lofts in the downtown core to make room for the swanky open concept office spaces of the budding internet tech industry.
The highlight of my performance at The Launch Pad was using the actual fridge door light of their loft apartment to move towards as angels drew me towards the cure for all my woes, dramatically speaking.
So, here I am, 26 years later at a full circle moment where this piece resonates with me again quite profoundly, with the opportunity to perform again, thanks to the invitation from A Sea of Gold and Burgundy and their generous encouragement of my work after hiring me to choreograph (and co-direct!) a video from their new album “Golden Horizons”.
It’s been an extraordinary year for me. I’ve had some profound lows yet balanced by such amazing highs. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunities I’ve had in Niagara to continue doing creative work that’s kept me afloat, thanks to the open hearted people who helped make it possible.
Please join me if you can for the Video Release Party of “Golden Horizons (That’s Alright)” and my remount of “Lactose Intolerance (Prayer for a Cure)” at The Niagara Artists Centre on Saturday March 16th at 7pm (6:30 doors). Link for tickets ($15) here: https://nac.org/event/a-sea-of-gold-and-burgundy-video-release/
My dear friend and uber talented songstress, Chantal Barette will be opening up the evening with a set of original songs before I perform, after which we will show the video, then relish in the sweet sounds of A Sea of Gold and Burgundy while we chill on the couches in the unique Microcinema Lounge at NAC.org and maybe even kick off our shoes and dance a bit.
If you haven’t seen the band before (or even if you have), you’ve gotta come and check them out. Their music and vocals are soul soothing gold and so are their hearts.
