NEWS RELEASE
GUELPH DANCE
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The 19th Annual Guelph Dance Festival, May 31-June 4, 2017, once again brings the best in Canadian contemporary dance to Guelph.
This season, this extraordinary festival hosts 15 companies in eight performances in four venues. From large-scale outdoor work to intimate studio performances, as well as five workshops, there is sure to be something for everyone – virtuosity, athleticism, multiculturalism, and beauty. Ticket prices range from free to $30.
The wildly-popular, pay-what-you-can In the Park series features five companies this year. OURO Collective travels from Vancouver to perform “Pace,” a unique hybrid of street dance forms such as breaking and popping with contemporary dance. Two-time world champion hoop dancer Lisa Odjig, from Toronto, performs the North American Native Hoop Dance in which she spins and twirls 17 hoops! KasheDance, also from Toronto, performs “Facing Home: Love & Redemption,” which draws on Jamaican culture while exploring important social issues of misogyny and homophobia. The Young Company of Halifax Dance travels from Nova Scotia to join forces with Guelph Youth Dance Company in the performance of “Together We Rise,” 15 one-minute dances performed by 40 young dance artists. These companies perform in Hanlon Creek Park, 505 Kortright Road West, on Friday, June 2, 6 p.m. and in Exhibition Park, 81 London Road West, on Saturday, June 3 and Sunday, June 4, both at 12 p.m. The performances will be augmented by a performance of the colourful “Fut Shan Lion Dance” by Robin Young of Guelph. On Saturday, June 3, the interactive Dance Market and the family-oriented Creativity Picnic follow the Park performance.
The On the Stage show takes place on Saturday, June 3, 8 p.m., at the River Run Centre, 35 Woolwich Street. Artist-in-Residence Suzette Sherman (Guelph) and her company will perform “Three Musical Reflections,” which looks at ever-changing relationships, and “Falling into Footsteps,” inspired by a walk on an icy path. Dreamwalker Dance Company (Toronto) brings “A Crazy Kind of Hope,” an intimate solo performance by Andrea Nann that combines hypnotic movement patterns with stories of hope and heartbreak. Belinda McGuire(Mississauga/Brooklyn, NY) performs Sharon B. Moore’s stirring, mysterious, and tremendously physical “Anthem for the Living,” which synthesizes dance, theatre, and circus. Ticket prices range from $20-30.
Throwdown Collective (Toronto) is featured at the In the Studio event, taking place at the Guelph Youth Studios, 42 Quebec Street, on Wednesday, May 31, 7 p.m., Thursday, June 1, 8 p.m., and Friday, June 2, 8 p.m. A wine and cheese reception follows the Friday performance. The three members of Throwdown will perform “Various Concert,” in which space and time are sculpted in a constantly shifting dynamic of action and reaction, and “Ylem (3 Eggs Ago),” a display of magical realism by Montreal choreographer Lina Cruz. Ticket prices range from $15-20.
Festival favourite, Youth Moves, features seven youth dance companies -- six from Southern Ontario and one from Halifax -- in a professionally-produced performance at the River Run Centre, Sunday, June 4, at 4 p.m. Youth Moves is the place to see the next generation of dance artists in action, before they’re famous! Tickets range from $5-20.
There are several educational opportunities throughout the Festival, including post-show talkbacks (free) following the Thursday, June 1 In the Studio performance and the Saturday, June 3 On the Stage performance; three masterclasses ($10 each) with Artist-in-Residence Suzette Sherman on Wednesday, May 31, Friday, June 2, and Sunday, June 4, all at 10:30 a.m.; a hoop dance workshop (free) with Lisa Odjig following the Sunday, June 4 In the Park performance; and an urban dance workshop for teens ($20) with OURO Collective on Sunday, June 4.
For more information about the Festival, visit www.guelphdance.ca, email [email protected] or phone 519-780-2220. All performance tickets are being sold through the River Run Centre, www.riverrun.ca or 519-763-3000; registration for masterclasses can be done online at www.guelphdance.ca.
About Guelph Dance
Established in 1998, Guelph Dance—formerly the Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival—is a nationally recognized leader in contemporary dance, offering a platform for professional, new-generation, and youth dance artists to share their vision, push creative boundaries, and engage community audiences.
Guelph Dance gratefully acknowledges the support of its funders: the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Guelph, the Guelph Community Foundation, the Community Fund for Canada’s 150th, the Good Foundation, and the Rotary Club of Guelph-Trillium.
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