Meredith Kalaman | Dancing on the Edge

Description
Ode to Tonya Harding and a middle finger to institutional control, censorship, and the deteriorating health in care homes.

Tonya Harding was banned from figure skating for life by the justice system for her supposed involvement in the attack against Nancy Kerrigan by her ex- husband that attempted to eliminate Nancy from claiming a spot on the USA Olympic Team.

Tonya Harding became a boxer after being forced out of figure skating.

Gratefully acknowledging the support of the Canada Council for the Arts supporting the creation of this work.

Performer: Meredith Kalaman

Director/Dramaturg: Raïna von Waldenburg

Music: Laura Branigan

Lighting Design: Raïna von Waldenburg + Meredith Kalaman

Meredith Kalaman
Meredith Kalaman is a two time Chrystal Dance Prize recipient, dance educator and enjoys both performing in and creating new works. She has created pieces about; giraffes, girl guiding, exploring constellations, superheroes, female identity and the impacts of gender socialization. She is originally from Vancouver and now grateful to reside on the land of the Mi’kma’ki in Nova Scotia.

Past presentation highlights include sharing the stage with the Good Women Dance Collective, Dance in Vancouver 2017, Dancing on the Edge and New Works. Her first full length work Femme Fatales toured to Victoria, Edmonton and was presented at Uferstudios in Berlin in 2017.

Choreographers that have left a particular influence on her include; John Ottmann, Noam Gagnon, Farley Johansson, Karen Jamieson, Peggy Baker, Judith Marcuse, Judith Garay, Julie Lebel and Kate Franklin. Her company credits include: MovEnt, Judith Marcuse Projects, Dancers Dancing, Joe Ink, Foolish Productions and Mocean Dance. Meredith is a graduate of the Ballet BC Mentor Program.

In 2022, Meredith began a speakeasy arts event called The Underground in Dartmouth with co-producer Dan Baird. Together they have supported and presented the works of 47 multidisciplinary artists in new venues for new audiences.
Before Meredith moved to Nova Scotia in August 2020, Raïna was the last person Meredith worked with and the beginning of a new trajectory for her work.

Raïna von Waldenburg
Former full-time faculty at NYU Tisch School of the Arts where she taught Grotowski-based physical acting at the Experimental Theatre Wing for 17 years, Raïna moved to BC in 2012 and taught acting at SFU School for Contemporary Arts and UFV Theatre Department. For 35 years Raïna has been performing, directing, writing, devising, teaching workshops in embodied performance, and serving as mentor/dramaturg for theatre and dance companies in the development of original material.

In BC, Raïna has worked with EDAM, Ne.Sans Opera, O.Dela Arts, The Biting School, Fight With A Stick, Kinesis Dance, Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, The Falling Company, Generous Mess, The Assembly, New (to) Town Collective, James and Jamesy, Tomoe Arts, rEvolver Festival, Vancouver Fringe Festival, Helen Walkley, Sto:lo Research and Resource Management Centre, Boombox, UFV, and Scotia Dance Centre’s Mentorship Program “12 Minutes Max”.

Raïna performed in the experimental downtown NYC theatre scene for decades. In 2012, she received a Distracted Globe Grant Award and the New York Innovative Theatre Award nomination for “Outstanding Solo Performance” for her one-woman show, Oysters Orgasms Obituaries, LaMaMa Experimental Theater (NYC). Raïna also received the 2014 Persephone Award for “Innovative solo performance and development of the physical work of Grotowski”. She received her MFA in creative writing from Goddard College, and her BFA in acting from New York University where she trained under Stephen Wangh, and Grotowski’s principal actor and protégée Ryszard Cieslak. She served as research assistant and editor for Stephen Wangh’s book An Acrobat of the Heart: A physical approach to acting inspired by the work of Jerzy Grotowski.

Instagram: @merekaldance