Dusk Dances has been offering outdoor performances with a community-minded focus for three decades. The 30th season includes performances in Hamilton and Toronto.
We spoke with choreographer Denise Fujiwara and Laurel MacDonald, Musical Director, about Moving Parts, a piece which will close the evening in both locations, about how the piece came together as a work performed outdoors. The piece uses a choir and live musical accompaniment with contemporary songs, including Tears for Fears’ iconic Mad World and Parachute Club’s 1983 hit Rise Up.
Q&A
Denise Fujiwara (DF) has been a professional dance artist for 45 years as a dancer, teacher, choreographer and impresario. In her childhood, she competed for the Canadian Rhythmic Gymnastics team, and formed Fujiwara Dance Inventions in 1991. In 2013 she received the Toronto Arts Foundation Muriel Sherrin Award for international achievement in dance, among other awards.
Toronto-based singer, composer and video artist Laurel MacDonald (LM) has released five albums of her own work, and performed extensively. She’s the recipient of a 2021 SOCAN Award, and a Gemini Award in 2021, among other accolades.
LvT: How did Moving Parts come together — i.e. the idea of using a variety of songs and a choir together with dance?
DF: With the world in difficult times and with people becoming increasingly polarized, taking sides with rancour, and falling for simplistic solutions, I became curious about how to embrace complexity and conflict with skill and grace. We’ve investigated these questions through dance and singing, both uplifting practices that support curiosity, listening, openness and collaboration.
The music team and I listened to a lot of songs over the years looking for relevant lyrics and eventually came up with a song list that takes us on a musical path from lows, through anger, to reflection and agency.
LvT: How did this project come together, including the collaborators?
DF: I collaborated with composer, arranger, Phil Strong, on several dance projects from 2007. He brought his partner, Laurel MacDonald, into this project as Co-Music Director and singer, and they brought Cathy Nosaty in as our Choir Director. Our dream team tragically lost Phil Strong to a rare heart condition this winter, but we’re carrying on buoyed by his beautiful arrangements.
LM: For this our first year performing Moving Parts at Dusk Dances in Hamilton, we have been very much dependent on the Hamilton Dusk Dances team to organize (an ad hoc) and wonderful local community choir for us. Our Hamilton Dusk Dances choir is led by Roland Fix from the Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts, who very generously worked with the singers for several weeks in preparation for the arrival of the Toronto music team to take over direction of the music rehearsals in late June.
Meanwhile, in Toronto this is our third time performing Moving Parts, and we were thrilled to be able to welcome back many of the fine choir members whom we worked with under Cathy Nosaty’s leadership in the previous iterations of the show, in 2017 and 2019.
LvT: How do you approach a dance piece like this, that will be performed outdoors? Does the choreography differ fundamentally from what you would stage indoors, in a controlled environment (and how)?
DF: Working outdoors is definitely more difficult and complex than working indoors. We are at the mercy of extreme temperatures, wind and rain, noise, uneven terrain, which affects the dancing, acoustics, safety, et cetera.
But dancing outdoors also gives us interesting locations to work in and the opportunity to engage with new and larger audiences. It’s also safer from the COVID perspective.
LvT: What are the challenges involved in combining a choir with a dance piece, one that also involves the dancers occasionally joining in (singing)?
DF: For the dancers, the complexity of doing precise choreography, mixed with improvisation, hard physical energy output as well as singing is a cognitive, physical and musical challenge. In the choreography, we’re moving the choir in and around the performance space in simple ways integrating physicality to their singing.
LvT: What do you look for in dancers for this type of performance? Is there a particular quality?
DF: The choreography in my repertoire vary broadly in aesthetic and skill requirements, and always involve improvisation in the creative process and performances. We work with dancers who are interested in creative process, improvisation and performance training, and we usually choose from the dancers who attend our workshops and classes.
LvT: When it comes to the music, the arrangements don’t use the usual SATB format — it’s high-middle-low. Is that part of your approach to choral arrangements?
LM: Along with singing in other styles and traditions, I have had extensive experience singing traditional vocal music from the republic of Georgia. Fundamental characteristics of Georgian folk singing are its use of closely voiced 3-part harmony, and a limited vocal range from high to low.
It was this Georgian folk singing tradition that inspired the basic principle for Phil Strong’s and my musical choices. The closely voiced 3-part harmonies tend to sound consistently musically cohesive, but most importantly also allow untrained singers to work in a natural, comfortable range (instead of the SATB range, our high-mid-low ranges are more analogous to low alto/high tenor/low tenor).
We wanted arrangements that are eminently accessible and singable, in the best tradition of true ‘folk’ music, that is, music that can be sung together by folks who do not have extensive voice training, so that the act of performing and sharing it can hopefully be a truly inclusive community experience.
The Details
The outdoor performances take place at Bayfront Park in Hamilton from July 20 to 23, and in Toronto’s Withrow Park from July 30 to August 6.
Hamilton Performances
Sisterhood In Circularity (Choreographer: Shivani Joshi)
The circle represents a joyful interpretation of divine femininity. A Dusk Dances premiere.
- Performers: Mekha Jayakumar, Shivani Joshi, Anisha Manyal, Disha Panchal, Shailee Shethji and Muskaan Singh
- Music: Jhume Re Gori, Dholida and Asvaar
Barely Black (Choreographer: Kiera Breaugh)
“This project stemmed from feelings I have experienced being biracial in a society that does not recognize biracial as a legitimate identity.” A Dusk Dances premiere.
- Music: Kiera Breaugh in collaboration with David Karagianis
Moving Parts (Choreographed & directed by Denise Fujiwara/Fujiwara Dance Inventions)
“Fujiwara is curious about how to embrace complexity and conflict with skill and grace, and how to stay open and kind in the midst of tumult.”
- Performers: Sylvie Bouchard, Jen Hum, Mayumi Lashbrook, Michael Mortley, Lucy Rupert and Brodie Stevenson
- Music and Song Arrangements: Phil Strong & Laurel MacDonald; Music Director: Laurel MacDonald; Sound Designer: Simon Outhit
Lead Singers: Annabelle Chvostek, Mike Evin and Laurel MacDonald; Bass: David Woodhead; Ukulele: Eve Goldberg; Choir Lead: Cathy Nosaty; Local Choir Lead: Roland Fix - Choristers: Priya Bhatia (Soprano), Margot Corbin (Alto), Asher Cuthill (Baritone), Dawn Cuthill (Soprano), Megan English (Alto), Kristi Kemp (Alto), Anne Noble (Alto), Marvin Oldejans (Baritone), Ali Owen (Soprano), Czerny Vanden Heuvel (Soprano), Anya Wassenberg (Alto), Karine Wibrin (Alto)
- ASL Translator: Thurga Kanagasekarampillai
- Aikido Sensei: Greg Angus and Naka Ima Aikikai; Stage manager: Sooji Kim
- Song and composer credits: Mad World – Roland Orzabal (1983); That’s Enough – Thompson Family; 911 for Peace – Anti-Flag; Rise Up – Parachute Club (1983) (Billy Bryans, Lauri Conger, Lorraine Segato and Steve Webster with lyrics contributed by Lynne Fernie); Here Comes the Change – Kesha Sebert; Love Learn Listen – Laurel MacDonald & Denise Fujiwara
These performances are dedicated to the memory of Phil Strong.
Toronto Performances
Rhythm Playground (Choreographer: Rumi Jeraj)
Tap dancing “in a playground of space and sound”. A Dusk Dances premiere.
- Performer: Rumi Jeraj
- Bass: Adrian Russouw
- Saxophone: David Hodgson
- Music Composition: Lester Young, Count Basie and Thelonious Monk
No Return (Choreographer: Michael Mortley)
“A return to self, a return to the place my body called home not just where the heart is.”
- Performer: Michael Mortley; Understudy: Jael Jones Carby
- Live Spoken Word: Jäjé Jones Carby
- Poetry Writer: ‘Door Way of No Return’ by charles c. smith
- Music: ‘War Orphans’ by Charlie Haden
- Outside Eye: Wind In the Leaves Collective through the CRP process
Traditional Hoop Dance
The traditional medicine dance of the Hopi people, the Hoop Dance, which marries storytelling and movement, originates from what is now Southern Arizona.
- Choreographed and performed by LISA ODJIG July 30 to August 2;
- Choreographed and performed by River Christie-White August 3 to 6.
Moving Parts (see Hamilton, above)
More information about all the dances and performances is available [HERE].
Disclaimer: The author is a member of the volunteer choir for the upcoming Hamilton performances.
#LUDWIGVAN
Get the daily arts news straight to your inbox.
Sign up for the Ludwig van Daily — classical music and opera in five minutes or less HERE.
- INTERVIEW | Supervising Music Editor Jack Dolman Talks About Wicked: For Good - December 5, 2025
- PREVIEW | Sinfonia Toronto Baroque & Beyond Celebrates the Season With Guest Artists The Ezra Duo - December 4, 2025
- INTERVIEW | Director Peter Phillips Talks About The Tallis Scholars And Their Toronto Concert - December 4, 2025
