My new work Meek, Bent, & Wild has its premiere this Friday, April 3 at the Dancemakers Center for Creation. The work was commissioned by the TorQ Percussion Quartet for their New Maneouvers concert of dance + percussion.

Meek, Bent, & Wild is set to a new work by Canadian composer James Rolfe commissioned specially for TorQ, and involves over thirty instruments, four dancers, and a few hundred feet of climbing rope. The movement style is eclectic, influenced by everything from martial-arts wire work to Ukrainian folk dance. (And yes, there’s cowbell.)

It’s going to be an awesome show — there’s more great music (Steve Reich’s Mallet Quartet, John Cage’s Third Construction, a new work by TorQ’s Daniel Morphy) and new dance works by Louis Laberge-Côté, Linda Garneau, and Lauren van Gijn. Hope to see you there!

New Manoeuvers at the Dancemakers Centre for Creation
Friday May 3, 8pm
Saturday May 4, 2pm & 8pm
$30 / $20 Arts Worker / $10 Student
9 Trinity St, Studio 313, Distillery District, Toronto

More Info: http://www.torqpercussion.ca
Buy Tickets: http://torqpercussion-newmanoeuvers.bpt.me

Behind-the-scenes / Concept Videos

Study #1
Study #2
Study #3
Study #4
Study #WellThatMostlyWorkedLetsGoForIt

Production Credits

Director & Choregrapher: Jacob Niedzwiecki
Director of Photography: James Sainthill
Music: ‘Who By Fire’, performed by Buck 65 ft. Jenn Grant, written by Leonard Cohen, used with the kind permission of Warner Music and Sony/ATV.

Cast

Gerald Situ, Adrian Anh Nguyen, Mateo Galindo Torres, Bradley Powell, Marissa Parzei, Tyler Gledhill, Sarah Koekkoek, Luke Garwood, Michael Caldwell, Shannon Litzenberger, Jones Henry, Louis Laberge-Côté, Martine Lusignan, John Ottmann, Johanna Bergfelt.

Swings

Simon Jackson, Jenna Savella, Ji Hong Sayo.

Crew

Production Manager: Pamela Steele
Production Designer: Yannik Larivée
Camera Operators: Rafael Giuliano, Ian McConachie, Simon Jackson Still Photographers: Dean Buscher, Holly Thomas
Hair: Alex Creighton
Makeup: Molly Adey
Production Assistants: Michael Brathwaite, Thaba Niedzwiecki, Margie Niedzwiecki

Sponsors

Witz Education
Vistek
i-technique
Canada’s National Ballet School
The National Ballet of Canada
MediaFontaine
John McLaughlin and Kate Arthur.

Beta testers

Ryan Booth, Krista Dowson, Robert Stephen, James Leja, Sonia Rodriguez, Dylan Tedaldi, Aarik Wells.

Special Thanks

Mentors, advisors, and all-round generous people: Rich Terfry, Phil Strong & John Oswald, Danny Hui, Craig McKay, Brad Copeland, Nick Blasko, Shan Du, Melissa Luu, Khoa Nguyen, Emma Niedzwiecki, Linnea Swan, Aeschylus Poulos, Jeff Morris, and Marc Kirschner.

Who By Fire was made with the generous assistance of MuchFACT.

Chorus and the Ring is the working title for the short film I’m currently working on. It brings me back together together with a few artists I’ve worked with before — National Ballet of Canada soloist Jenna Savella, Toronto Dance Theatre alumnus Luke Garwood, and Director of Photography James Sainthill — and features a few new collaborations, with an original score by Jamie Drake and the TorQ Percussion Quartet, costumes by Krista Dowson, and amazing, sculptural 3D-captured forms designed by painter and VFX artist Matt Crookshank.

We’re heading into the final stages of post-production, and we’re asking for a little help to get this project across the finish line. Your donation will allow us to get the most out of our 3D rendering, sound mix, and colour grading — putting the best final polish possible on the film and supporting Luke and Jenna’s amazing performances. We welcome donations of any amount; even ten or twenty dollars will help. All our supporters will receive a “Special Thanks” credit and an exclusive animated GIF of one of the dancers’ 3D forms, as rendered by Matt Crookshank. Donors of $75 or over will receive a framed and signed production still. So hit that button and give what you can!



We’re really excited to get this project out into the world. Thanks for your help! As a treat, there’s a few more stills below the jump.

Meet Cute is a short, Dadaist romantic comedy. It was first performed at Fresh Blood 2012 at the Enwave Theatre in March 2012, and will be presented for Nuit Blanche 2012 as part of ‘Dada Reboot!’ at the Distillery District.

2012 has been a bit of a whirlwind so far. February saw the premiere of Always Be Closing, my first (but definitely not last!) time collaborating with Montreal’s ferocious Catherine Larocque. In March, I worked with Yvonne Ng to create video for her show Frequency, and then in April I worked for a second time with Esmerelda Enrique, to create projections for her Dora-nominated show Aguas/Waters.

Also in April, I was lucky enough to be asked to create a short trailer for James Kudelka’s new work for Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie, From the House of Mirth. May, I spent all but cloistered, writing code to use 3D video captured by the Microsoft Kinect in a short film.

In August, Val Calam, Luke Garwood and I launched F/, an eclectic, adventurous event series focusing on movement and physical performance. You can read all about it (and check out our rather nifty website) at www.fslash.net.

As far as what’s coming up: two short dance films, a longer version of Always Be Closing, and a brand-new live promenade work. If you’re curious, you can always check out my tumblr, where I am letting some of the more (potentially) interesting bits of my process accrete; or follow me on Twitter.