Video
Julio Hong: Yemayo
By Julye HugginsThe Dancing on the Edge festival in Vancouver, running July 5th through 14th, has a great lineup of artists this year. Among them is Julio Hong of Montréal, whose show Yemayo runs July 10th and 11th. The work is inspired by Yemaya, an orisha (spirit manifestation of god) that is the essence of motherhood, creation and the ocean. Hong explores how, in projecting male identities onto the female deity, one may find Yemaya’s attributes in a man: Yemayo. The four male roles are played by Jacob William Cino, Yadil Suarez Llerena, Geosmany Perez Pulido and Josue Exposito Sanchez.According to the festival’s website: “In this contemporary choreography filtered through ballet and Cuban folkloric dance, music, religion and daily rituals, Julio questions pervasive notions of masculinity in Hispano-American culture and the contradictions of metro-sexual man. A mutual understanding and shaping of a new equilibrium materializes within this intercultural and intergenerational duality of the sexes.”
Learn more:Julio HongDancing on the Edge
You May Also Like...
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.
Perpetually in Motion
Principal dancer and resident choreographer with The National Ballet of Canada, composer, creator and, again this summer, artistic director of the Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur – an inspired meeting point of Canadian and international dance and music – Guillaume Côté describes himself as neurotic about dance.
