Get a taste of Vancouver's longest running multi-disciplinary showcase of emerging talents and emerging works from established artists.  Join us for works from the 2008-2009 season curated by Tanya Marquardt and Joyce Rosario and featuring choreography from Justine Chambers, Dance Troupe Practice, Rob Kitsos, Brett Owen, Katherine Single-Dain and Amy Tao & Bevin Poole.

Rob Kitsos

Push

PUSH
Rob Kitsos' PUSH is a duet for sisters Vanessa and Meghan Goodman. PUSH reflects on the constant struggle to keep moving forward past obstacles, both internal and external. As described in Plank magazine, the "two sisters explore their relationship to resistance and come head to head with their 'good natured habits.' They created very brave and (I mean this in the best possible sense) unattractive moments. They dared not being correct or pretty. This is a key transformational moment for artists: when they stop pleasing others and start unearthing themselves."-Rachel Scott, Plank Magazine, December 15th 2008

Choreographer Bio
Rob Kitsos is an acclaimed dancer, dance instructor, performing artist and choreographer who has appeared with dance companies across the United States, Europe and Asia. He has a strong grounding in classic and contemporary dance techniques, and continues to experiment with new blends of dance that combine movement and text, digital sound and video and more.

In addition to choreographing and performing, Rob has been teaching dance in universities for eleven years. He was a full time faculty member at the University of Washington from 1998-2002. In 2002, Rob began a two-year Senior Lecturer position at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. In 2004, Rob joined the faculty of Simon Fraser University as an Assistant Professor in the School for the Contemporary Arts. He has taught all levels of Modern/Contemporary Dance, Composition, Hip Hop, Dance Aesthetics, Improvisation in Performance and Movement and Music Collaboration.

He has performed his own and other works at international festivals on four continents, including the Spoletto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, the World Expo in Lisbon, the Grec Festival in Barcelona, the Palais Royale in Paris, and others in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands and Venezuela. Kitsos has also appeared in well-known theaters including the Cultural Center in Hong Kong, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, the Joyce Theater and DTW in New York. Rob received his BA in Theater/Dance from Bard College and his MFA in Dance from the University of Washington in 1997. Rob's full length, WAKE, will premiere September 2009 at the Scotiabank
Dance Centre.

Performers Bios
Meghan Goodman received her degree in dance from SFU and has danced with Justine Chambers, Jennifer Clarke and Co. Erasga. Meghan will be performing in Dusk Dances for DOTE from July 14th-18th.
Vanessa Goodman received her degree from SFU. She dances for
dancersdancing, Justine Chambers and Lisa Hostman. Vanessa is also a cofounder of The Contingency Plan, who will be performing in Edge Two, and Dances for a Small Stage XXI this summer.

Bevin Poole & Amy Tao

The Usual Stuff

The Usual Stuff

Choreographer Bio
Bevin Poole graduated from SFU's Contemporary Dance Program with a BFA in Dance and English Literature. As a company member with Dancers Dancing, Bevin recently performed in Voices in Motion, Bodies that Sing in the VIDF.              

Amy Taois a graduate of SFU with a BFA in Dance and a B.Sc. in Kinesiology. She has apprenticed with Wen Wei Dance and performed for Kokoro Dance in Ghosts and Tabula Rasa.

Katherine Single-Dain

The What If Dance

The What If Dance

Through a hilarious mixture of modern dance and clowning, The What If Dance asks us a series of "what if" questions relating to dance and its role in our daily lives. In many of the scenarios, modern dance is placed as a non sequitor in environments that dance is usually foreign to, thereby questioning its absence from a variety of settings.

Katherine is a dancer, filmmaker, and clown, currently doing all three as choreographer and co-director for The Dusty Flower Pot Cabaret. She has choreographed six full-length theatre productions in the last three years, and is currently on tour with veteran performers Ancient Rugged Revival. The show, Cabaret L'amour Fou, incorporates music, shadow puppetry, mask work, contact dance, tap dance and slow motion mutiny!  It will be at the Russian Hall on July 24th. 

Justine Chambers

Idle

IDLE

This duet is an excerpt of a larger work entitled, Idle.  The work explores the ways in which we are idle in every day life.

Choreographer Bio
Justine A. Chambers is a Vancouver-based independent contemporary dance artist.  She was a principal dancer with Desrosiers Dance Theatre, a member of Diavolo Dance Theater in Los Angeles and has worked in Canada, the United States, Japan, and Brussels with a number of independent choreographers.  Formerly on faculty at Ryerson University, Teacher's Collective, Quinte Ballet School, and Dance Teq, Justine currently teaches at Arts Umbrella and Harbour Dance Centre.  She works actively as a rehearsal director and has notably directed a remount of James Kudelka's Soudain L'Hiver Dernier and the Autumn movement of John Alleyn's Four Seasons. Chambers has been commissioned to create work for the Music Gallery, Ryerson Dances, Quinte Ballet School, Series 8:08 Season Finale, Dances for a Small Stage, and The Contingency Plan. Justine A. Chambers is a Vancouver-based independent contemporary dance artist.  She was a principal dancer with Desrosiers Dance Theatre, a member of Diavolo Dance Theater in Los Angeles and has worked in Canada, the United States, Japan, and Brussels with a number of independent choreographers.  Formerly on faculty at Ryerson University, Teacher's Collective, Quinte Ballet School, and Dance Teq, Justine currently teaches at Arts Umbrella and Harbour Dance Centre.  She works actively as a rehearsal director and has notably directed a remount of James Kudelka's Soudain L'Hiver Dernier and the Autumn movement of John Alleyn's Four Seasons. Chambers has been commissioned to create work for the Music Gallery, Ryerson Dances, Quinte Ballet School, Series 8:08 Season Finale, Dances for a Small Stage, and The Contingency Plan.

Brett Owen

Ready

READY

"Ready" was originally created during the Cultch's Ignite! Youth Mentorship Program with guidance from Ron Stewart, Sarah Chase, and Wen Wei Wang. The work deals with the negativity that comes with putting a piece on stage.

Upon moving to Vancouver from Manitoba Brett began an apprenticeship with MOVE: the company under the direction of Josh Beamish. Brett has an ongoing apprenticeship with Amber Funk Barton's company the response. Most recently this has included his role as the waiter in "MENU," a short improvised work performed during BC Buds at the Firehall Arts Centre and during FUSE at the Vancouver Art Gallery. This year he appeared as a vocalist in BOX4, a work directed by Paraskevas Terezakis of Kinesis Dance somatheatro. Brett has performed choreography created by Vancouver artists Martha Carter and Katherine Single-Dain, as well as David Raymond and Tiffany Tregarthen as a member of their contemporary dance training program Modus Operandi. Brett was recently asked to participate in the Emerging Dance Artist Program at DanceMakers in Toronto this summer. On August 10th he will be performing in a new work choreographed by MaryAnne Wong entitled "Boy Meets Cello," a duet with cellist Cris Derksen, during the Pride In Art Festival at the Roundhouse Community Centre.

Collective creation guided by Christie Watson -The Cycling Club

Hairy Lumps: An Inter-dimensional Allegory

Hairy Lumps: An Inter-dimensional Allegory

A six person movement piece performed to an abstract sound-score, incorporating yarn and all available space. The piece moves from the pedestrian to the atomic level creating a highly focused, reflective atmosphere.

String Theory: The way in which strings interact is by splitting and combining in a smooth way. It is impossible to introduce arbitrary extra matter, like point particles which interact with strings by collisions, because the particles can fall into the black hole, so holography demands that it must show up as a mode of oscillation. The only way to introduce new matter is to find gravitational backgrounds where strings can scatter consistently, or to boundary conditions, endpoints for the strings.

A dance collective formed in 2006, Dance Troupe Practice (DTP) produces new works that combine dance, sound, media and voice. DTP was formed with a philosophy that explores the border zones between dance and life. The group is committed to the deep exploration of each individual's dancing body, and the formation of new works through collective process. DTP is going strong; members meet regularly and continue to create a steady out-put of unique, raw and challenging material.

The Cycling Club is a creation based theatre company who began working together in Ottawa in 2005 where they created Mantis and Cash Bubbles. Since relocating to Vancouver they have created a new work called Entropy, which was presented at BC Buds Theatre Festival at the Fire Hall Arts Centre in 2008.

Monday, July 13 8pm