Atlantic Canadian choreographers take the spotlight as Halifax dance presenter Live Art Dance and local dance studio Kinetic co-present Coastal Currents at the Sir James Dunn Theatre on May 16 & 17
The four short works, ranging from mystical and ethereal to vulnerable and playful, demonstrate the breadth of choreographic skill in Atlantic Canada.
From Nova Scotia choreographer Jayden Gigliotti comes Coffee Project, a contemporary juggling and movement piece that shares a “peculiar mixture of complexity and simplicity. Inspired by daily habits, morning routines, and caffeination”, the piece is a journey full of “playfulness, struggle, quirkiness, trial, and unforgiving error.”
Newfoundland choreographer Sarah Joy Stoker brings Stay staying – repeat offenders, a solo work that “lives in the physical rigor, bizarre calm and freeze state that arrive with rage and devastating grief over where we find ourselves and our world.”
Drawing on her Bahamian roots, Prince Edward Island’s Reequal Smith dances Caribbean Flamingo, which pulls from Afro Contemporary, Jazz, and Caribbean folk dance. Reequal’s flamingo “stands alone amidst the salty embrace of the warm Inagua Sea, feeling the cool breeze on its feathers … reclaiming balance and preservation”.
Finally, Nova Scotia’s Jessica Lowe presents Enchantress, featuring local dancers Marrin Jessome, Sarah Hopkin, and Meredith Kalaman. The piece explores “the intricate tapestry of a woman’s mental landscape in a study of lineage and the passage of time, echoing the modern Pagan tradition of The Triple Goddess.”
Coastal Currents plays at the Sir James Dunn Theatre (6101 University Ave, Halifax) on May 16 & 17. Visit liveartdance.ca for tickets and information.