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f.stop / let the light in by Alias Dance Project

By Jessica Alley

A body lies curled on her side in the corner of an all-white room and begins violently twitching. A Charles Bukowski poem is narrated by a male voice, ominous at best, over an eerie electronica soundscape. Tense, broken and imbalanced movements evoke loneliness and isolation, while the narrated poem reminds us over and over that people are not good to each other.

These are a few of the chilling moments one can expect from f.stop / let the light in, the title of Alias Dance Project’s upcoming show featuring original and remounted work. Alias Dance Project is a Toronto-based crew of artists from diverse dance backgrounds, led by Artistic Director Lauren Cook, Co-Assistant Artistic Directors Caitlin Amodeo and Francesca Chudnoff, choreographer Troy Feldman, and dancers Catherine Turcotte, Amanda Davis and Nigel Edwards, who also does sound design. Their mission is to bridge different communities and dance forms, and their openness to exploration and interdisciplinary approaches leads to fresh, exciting, edgy work. f.stop / let the light in “reveals the passage through both lightness and darkness, the transformation of shifting states of consciousness, and the transfer of power within a group dynamic.”

Dancer Amanda Davis, working with Alias Dance Project since 2014, is featured in the recent March/April publication of The Dance Current in conversation with Canadian dance veteran Claudia Moore. Through the Canadian Senior Artists’ Resource Network, Davis and Moore were brought together in a recently launched mentorship program, which pairs senior artists with artists in earlier stages of their career. In the feature, Davis and Moore talk about their experiences meeting each other and the benefits of participating in the mentorship program.

f.stop / let the light in runs April 17-19, 8pm, at The Cornerstone Studio in Toronto. Tickets are $25 general, or $20 for student, artist or CADA member. Click here to reserve tickets.

Posted April 9, 2015

Caribana is Our Stage

Themes of becoming, shaping from and returning to are central to Caribbean performance arts. As one of these art forms, Carnival is a nuanced performance art practice rooted in the cultural memory of the lives of Caribbean peoples throughout Canada and the diaspora. But whose story is told (or not told) and in what context? The telling or omission of stories can be traced to a lack of understanding of the complexity of the Caribbean and its Carnival – a performance tradition that is more than the mass commodification, sexuality and “loud music” we often associate it with.

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