Nova Bhattacharya and Jacob Zimmer Open Dancemakers’ Winter Home Season
Dancemakers’ 2011-2012 season officially kicks-off at the Dancemakers Centre for Creation, in the Distillery Historic District, with two new works by Jacob Zimmer and Nova Bhattacharya. Jacob and Nova mixed bill will feature the Dancemakers resident company of dancers, Robert Abubo, Amanda Acorn, Kate Holden and Simon Renaud, and guest artist Pierre-Marc Ouellette.
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Jacob and Nova
Jacob Zimmer is a director, writer, dramaturge and performer who has shown work across the country. Born in Cape Breton, he grew up in Halifax and now lives in Toronto. Jacob is the founding director of Small Wooden Shoe, a theatre company bent on relieving alienation by proving that good ideas are entertaining, and that pleasure and critique require each other. Zimmer was the first-ever dramaturge in residence at a Toronto dance company – Dancemakers – and will be making his choreographic debut with the company.
In Story Dance Radio, Zimmer tells a simple story framed by the sound and music of the 70s; rebellion, liberation and death, with looks that might, now, undermine all the seriousness. “This could be the most character driven, narrative work I’ve made in a long time – with lifts and jumps, which is also new” explains Zimmer.
Acclaimed as a dance innovator, Nova Bhattacharya creates powerful and humanistic dance works. She began her career as a dancer with the Menaka Thakkar Dance Company and is Artistic Director of her own company Ipsita Nova Dance Projects. Eager to explore the scope for innovation within bharatanatyam and seeking to create works that utilize classical vocabulary in a contemporary aesthetic, Bhattacharya began choreographing in 1997. Her work has been commissioned by Canada Dance Festival, Danceworks, Dusk Dances and others.
In her Dancemakers choreographic debut, Bhattacharya takes us on a journey through an abstract physical world of imagined stories, private legends and shared mythologies. “Like looking at an abstract painting for the first time, I am attempting in my new work to create a world where dancer and audience can imagine their own stories” says Bhattacharya.
"Nova is actually my middle name, given to me because I was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia and my parents were happy immigrants who wanted to acknowledge their new home. Yes, its true – I have a sister named Scotia" she adds.
This is the first time a choreographer from a South Asian dance background is creating a work on one of Toronto’s oldest contemporary dance companies, Dancemakers.
In January Nova is going to England to take part in Dance East’s Rural Retreats – an international think tank for leaders in the field of dance. She is one of 26 chosen from 65 nominees.
Where: Dancemakers Centre for Creation, 55 Mill Street, The Cannery, Bldg. 58, Studio 313
When: Dec. 14 - Dec. 18, 2011
Time: Wednesday – Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 4pm
Tickets: $20 - $25
For more information or to book your tickets call 416.367.1800, EMAIL or click HERE.
Comments
Prabhjit K Banga 5 months ago
I would like to go because I love dance and seeing diverse dance styles. Also because this the first a South Asian choreographer is creating a piece for one of Toronto's oldest dance companies!