DUSK DANCES INC. PRESENTS DUSK DANCES 2018

TORONTO – DUSK DANCES proudly presents its 24^TH annual season. Dusk Dances is a renowned and beloved outdoor dance festival presented at Withrow Park each August. This year, for the very first time, a Guest Curator was invited to program the Withrow Park event: Michael Caldwell. Dusk Dances 2018 features some of Canada’s top choreographers and dancers, including Peter Chin, Allison Toffan Carmen Romero, Karissa Barry, andTina Fushell, in a diverse program of dance featuring contemporary, flamenco, tap, Bharatanatyam, and West African forms and styles.

“I am pleased to announce the Dusk Dances Withrow Park program, celebrating the festival’s 24th annual season. Each dance work uniquely responds to the natural park environment in imaginative ways, and reenvisions the idea of contemporary performance. These five stellar choreographers, along with their dancers and musicians, represent a variety of ‘collisions’ – the percussive strikes of tap and flamenco, the direct interaction with the audience, and the thematic mix of forms, styles, and experiences – that truly reflect the energy, pulse, and beauty of the city we live in. Be prepared for an engaging, contemplative, explosive, relaxed, energetic, and fun outdoor summer experience!”— Michael Caldwell, Guest Curator Withrow Park 2018

DUSK DANCES will be hosted by Allegra Charleston (aka Susie Burpee, a Dora Award-winning choreographer and dancer), who will lead the audience to various sites throughout the park. The performance will also feature live music by acclaimed Jazz musicians Sophia Perlman and Brendan Davis, and FREE Swing Dance classes with master teachers from Joy of Dance Centre.

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A BIT MORE ON THE DUSK DANCES 2018 PROGRAM

NEW WORK (A festival commission and a world premiere)
CHOREOGRAPHY BY PETER CHIN
Performance: Pulga Muchochoma and Nivedha Ramalingam

A collision of three distinctly unique dance artists, arriving at a strikingly original and compelling dance work.  A metaphor for the world we live in, this new work explores the ways in which different people come together, to find commonalities and a space for collaboration, while maintaining the particular attributes that make each of us special. A Dusk Dances commission and a world premiere.

PETER CHIN, Artistic Director of interdisciplinary dance company Tribal Crackling Wind, has been called a “renaissance man” based on his work as a dancer/choreographer, composer/musician, writer, designer and director. Chin was born in Kingston Jamaica, and is based in Toronto and Phnom Penh. Chin’s performance works have been presented across Canada at major dance and music festivals, as well as in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Taiwan, India, Singapore, Holland, Jamaica, Mexico, Columbia and the United States. Chin is the recipient of numerous awards including five Dora Mavor Moore Awards for dance, as well as the Muriel Sherrin Award for International Achievement in dance, a Gemini award for his performance in the film Streetcar, among others.

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NEW WORK (A festival commission and a world premiere)
CHOREOGRAPHY BY ALLISON TOFFAN
Performance: Cori Giannotta, Tanya Knights, Julia LeClerc, Kylie Somerville, and Allison Toffan
Live music performance: Brendan Davis and Sophia Perlman

A brand new contemporary tap dance work, set to live music. This work delves into the origins of the form – a time when dancers and musicians jammed in cabarets and night clubs, and improvised nightly to create original performances.  Five dancers interact with a jazz vocalist and a bass player to create a magically wondrous work that connects to the rhythm and energy of the city we live in. A Dusk Dances commission and a world premiere.

Proudly based in Toronto for over a decade, ALLISON TOFFAN has been busy stirring up momentum in the Canadian tap dance community. Her mentors include world-renowned tap dance artists Heather Cornell, Brenda Bufalino, and Max Pollak. Career highlights include: Eight (8) years as a principle dancer with Turn on The Tap (Paula Skimin), featured tap dancer at the 2010 Olympic Opening Ceremonies, Warehouse 13 Series Finale (Jeff Dimitriou), Festival Dance Encore (Tasha Lawson), TD Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival, TapCity’s Tap Internationals (Lisa La Touche, NYC), Montreal Tap Festival’s Rhythm Lives! – with living legend Arthur Duncan, and establishing the Toronto Rhythm Initiative – a platform Toffan created to voice the artistry of Toronto’s tap dancers in collaboration with live music.

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UNO DOS Y TRES
CHOREOGRAPHY BY CARMEN ROMERO
Performance: Carmen Romero
Live music performance: Benjamin Barrile, Alejandro Céspedes, and Stephanie Pedraza

Based on a poem by Manuel Benitez Carrasco from the 1920s, UNO DOS Y TRES is a visual metaphor of the internal conflicts we deal with in life. This physical and emotional work offers the audience a flamenco performance that goes beyond the traditional presentation, shifting audience expectations and demanding an open mind and heart. A Dusk Dances premiere.

CARMEN ROMERO is the Artistic Director of Compañía Carmen Romero and the School of Flamenco Dance, recognized on the national and international flamenco scene as an artist who’s body of work is sophisticated, steeped in tradition, and emotion yet full of inquisitive risk. Romero is recognized amongst her peers as an artist whose skill and physical power is dominating and unrelenting. Having been featured in every flamenco festival in Canada, she is known as an artist that has fostered deep creative relationships and has sewn the flamenco quilt across Canada’s flamenco communities.

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ALPHA COMPASS
CHOREOGRAPHY BY KARISSA BARRY
Performance/Collaboration: Christoph von Riedemann
Music: Moonlight Sonata, Beethoven (slowed to 800%), M-theory text, True Detective
Edited by Karissa Barry
Original performance/collaboration: Scott Fowler

Alpha Compass is inspired by themes of solitude, mortality, ego, and the human response to change. Using the physics-based “M-Theory” as a creative influence, this solo explores physicality motivated by what our existence may mean when applied to multiple dimensions of time, grasping to reality and identity. A Dusk Dances premiere.

For 15 years, KARISSA BARRY has worked as a freelance contemporary dance artist, performing the work of choreographers and companies such as Serge Bennathan, Vanessa Goodman, EzDanza, Science Friction, Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, JoeInk, LINK Dance, Mascall Dance, Out InnerSpace Dance Theatre, Anne Plamondon, Raven Spirit Dance, Sylvain Émard Danse, The Vancouver Opera, and Wen Wei Dance. Performing works for these companies has taken her touring to Asia, Europe, New York, South America, The U.K., and throughout Canada. Barry has created site-specific works as well as contemporary dance for the stage. Her work has been presented at the Ballet BC mentor program, BC Buds, Brief Encounters, Cecchetti Dance Theatre, Dancing on the Edge, Dance Deck Cinq, Dusk Dances, Expanse Festival, Fluid Festival, Small Stage, la Petite Scène, Modus Operandi Training Program, Twelve Minutes Max, Small Stage Point 5, and the self-produced, full-length evening STRATEGY THREE.

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WAVING IS FUNNY 
CHOREOGRAPHY BY TINA FUSHELL
Performance: Tina Fushell, Luke Garwood, and Molly Johnson

Waving is Funny explores the many different reasons why and how we wave. The absurdity of waving and how quickly it can shift from a recognized gesture to something else; the jazz hands of Bob Fosse or the instruments in a marching band, resonate in the work and demonstrate the complexity of this simple gesture. The result is a distinctly human work – thoughtful, cultural, and relatable, tied together with this very funny gesture that we all know so well. A Dusk Dances premiere.
Born and raised in St. John’s, NL, dancer, teacher, producer and choreographer, TINA FUSHELL, lives and works in Toronto where she has been based since 1999.  As a performer, she has collaborated and originated roles in the works of numerous choreographers including Susie Burpee, Valerie Calam, Jesse Dell, Kate Franklin, Luke Garwood, Ame Henderson, Brendan Jensen, Sebastian Mena, Matjash Mrozewski, Darryl Tracy, among others. Her work has been presented across the country, including performances in Porch View Dances, Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, Festival of New Dance, dance:made in Canada, Nuit Blanche and SummerWorks.

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ABOUT DUSK DANCES
Founded by Festival Director Director Sylvie Bouchard in 1993, DUSK DANCES is an outdoor dance festival that brings high quality contemporary and traditional dance to public parks. As dusk descends, a theatrical host leads the audience – which invariably includes children, dog walkers and local residents – to eclectic dance pieces that unfold in different areas of the park.
Choreographers from various backgrounds are invited to perform a ten-minute piece inspired by the park’s natural environment. Audiences are invited on a pay-what-you-can basis to an innovative site-specific festival, which is not only an artistic event but a social and cultural one as well.
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DUSK DANCES 2018
WITHROW PARK, Toronto
South of Danforth between Logan and Carlaw (Chester Subway Station)

Nightly Performances: August 5-12, 2018
Preview on August 5 / Opening night on August 6
Opening Band and Joy of Dance class start at 7:00pm & dance performances start at 7:30pm

+ Matinée Performance: August 12 at 2:00pm
Opening Band and Joy of Dance class start at 2:00pm & dance performances start at 2:30pm

$15 per person suggested / Pay-What-You-Can
More info: http://duskdances.ca / or call 416.504.6429 X24

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Press Contact: Ashley Belmer – B-REBEL COMMUNICATIONS / Ashley@ashleybelmer.com, 514-627-5151