VideoCabaret, in collaboration with Rough House Dance, is presenting the very first Ripe Fruit Dance Festival. The four-day celebration of contemporary dance festival runs from February 12 to 15, and features works by five Toronto based artists and companies.
Ripe Fruit features bold contemporary dance works by Neena Jayarajan, Emily Duckett, Alli Carry, Angela Blumberg, and Justin Fraser. Each dance performance of 25 to 30 minutes will be presented multiple times over the festival scheduled, giving audiences their choice of festival experience.
Here’s a look at what’s in store.
The Line-Up
This Skin is Not My Own by Emily Duckett
Choreographer: Emily Duckett (in collaboration with the performers)
Performers: Emmet Bradshaw, Derek Souvannavong, Zuri Skeete, Millina Fletcher, and Shelby Nilsen
Outside Eye/ Dramaturg: Alli Carry
Music: Conceited- Lola Young
Composition by Ben Yoganathan
Rehearsal Assistant: Robyn Haines
Past Collaborators: Victoria Chadwick, Jordyn Howe, Robyn Haines, Grace Kuster, Irene Leung, Kaprice Myers, Connor McNeil, Annie Spence, Kaitlyn Wood, Jules Vance, Alli Carry, Kaelin Isserlin, Reece Caldwell, Frederique Perron, Kiah Franics, Leelee Oluwatoyosi Eko Davis, Syreeta Hector
Emily Duckett’s This Skin is Not My Own explores and questions gender stereotypes, using dance as a vehicle of escape. The work was created through a queer lens, and looks at the myriad ways that expectations of gender are placed on all of us, and how they can be torn apart and rebuilt.
TEJAS by Neena Jayarajan
Choreographer: Neena Jayarajan
Music Composer: Ed Hanley
Outside Eye- Geneviève Beth Grady, Purawai Vyas, Arrthami Siva- Kuruvinth
Creative Collaborator: Anisa Tejpar
Dancers: Atri Nundy, Rachana Joshi, Nivedha Ramalingam, Nidhi Baadkar & Neena Jayarajan
TEJAS is a Sanskrit word that means radiance and fiery brilliance, a vital and powerful energy. Jayarajan uses and honours the entirety of Bharatanatyam, a South Indian classical dance form that originates from Tamil Nadu, while challenging the traditional aesthetics of the technique. Neena creates a storytelling journey that begins in tradition, and in meeting the contemporary, creates community.
A subject. by Alli Carry
Choreographed by: Alli Carry (in collaboration with the performers)
Performed by: Abby Silvera, Clara Isgro, Meghan McMartin, Micaela Van Rensburg
Composers: Ben Yoganathan and Hanna Mulak
Vocalist: Hanna Mulak
With artistic contributions from: Brianna Clarke, Bryony McCaughey, Eilish 미정 Shin-Culhane, Jessica Germano, Katie Adams-Gossage
A subject. is a contemporary dance work that asks, where does performance begin, and simply being end — and vice versa? Seen through the lens of feminism, and influenced by the writings of Simone de Beauvoir, A subject examines the notion of autonomy, how and where it exists when identity is shaped by other people. What does it mean to move from object to subject, when you’re constantly under someone else’s gaze?
In A Landscape by Angela Blumberg
Choreography: Angela Blumberg
Music, song 1: Augusto Monk
Music, song 2: “In a Landscape” by John Cage performed by Thomas Kotcheff and Bryan Curt Kostors
Dancers: Zachary Cardwell, Sarah Di Iorio, Andrew McCormack, Meghan McMartin
Blumberg’s original conception for In A Landscape was a kind of moving meditation on the perpetual emergence and disappearance of forms. That concept evolved into an exploration of more concrete, physical and rhythmic images. The work emphasizes both the permanent nature of movement and the impermanence of form.
I dreamed all this, and this I’m dreaming
and I’ll dream this again. Everything
will repeat and realize its final form,
and you will dream whatever I dream. — Arseny Tarkovsky
Shapeshift (Excerpt) by Justin Fraser
Mentor / Outside Eye: Heidi Strauss
Sound Design: Jeremy Mimnagh
Vocal Creation & Coach: Fides Krucker
Choreographer & Performer: Justin Fraser
Costume Designers: Micheline Wedderburn (nude harness); Laura Stewart (black dress)
This presentation is an excerpt from Shapeshift, an in-progress full-length solo work. The solo contemporary dance performance examines gender, identity, and vulnerability through a personal perspective. The work moves from resistance to a softening, and from protection to surrender, as expressed by a body in a constant state of transformation. Uncertainty is not a flaw, but a compass for creation. Shapeshift asks: what if the moments of falling apart are the very moments that give us life again?
Ripe Fruit Dance Festival
Performances take place at the Deanne Taylor Theatre at 10 Busy Street in Leslieville.
You can take in one performance for $19.78 or a full evening/matinee program (3 of the 5 festival shows) for $45.60 (tax and fees included). Attending the festival will support these dance creators and their works; the artists will receive direct ticket revenues.
- Performances run from February 12 to 15; find tickets and show details [HERE].
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