Saturday June 9, 2012 from 6PM – 10PM

Jackson Triggs Estate Winery (2145 Niagara Stone Road, Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON)

General Admission: $55

VIP admission: $150 – includes a 4 course Barrel Cellar Dinner, After Party and Special Gift

Celebrate 10 years of doors Open Niagara and launch of the Binational Heritage Peace Garden Trail!

Aer Time is an aerial workshop performance series produced by Femmes du Feu. Following the performances there will be an artist/audience talkback session to gain insight/feedback into the performances.

When: Saturday, May 26, 2012 @ 2pm

Where: Centre of Gravity West, 213 Sterling Road, south entrance

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Royal Ontario Museum
100 Queen’s Park, Toronto

Celebrate Iranian culture and heritage with a full day of live music and dance performances, hands-on activities for kids, storytelling, film screenings and much more!

Daily schedule:

* Main Stage Performances

11:00am to 3:00pm
Currelly Gallery, Level 1
Live music and dance including performances by: Music – Arya Saaber – Baarbad Ensemble – Zhouwan Ensemble / Puppet Show – Vida Ghahremani
Dance – Aftaab Dance Group – Beeta Jafari – Gisoo Dance – Ladan Lotfi – Mayn-zard Kurdish Group – Odlar Dance Group – Sashar Zarif Dance Theatre

12:50pm – Special Presentation: Traditional Persian Wedding
Discover the history and tradition of a Persian wedding with presenter Leila Moslemi. In this performance, a narrator tells the story of an Iranian’s girl’s traditional marriage, step by step, from the proposal to the celebrations that take place after the couple move to their new home. Listen to her story and experience the traditional customs and ceremonies through visual demonstrations and a traditional table setting.

* Kids Activities

10:30am to 4:00pm
Queens Park Rotunda, Level 1
Iranian themed hands-on crafts and activities for kids! Join us for face painting, storytelling and more. Special puppet show performance by Vida Ghahremani at 10:45am!

* Special Curator Lecture
1:30pm to 2:30pm
Theatre, Level B1
Join Dr. Ed Keall, ROM Department of World Cultures, for a thought provoking lecture, Persian War-Lord’s Fortress on the Silk Road.

* Theatre Performances
2:30pm to 5:00pm
Theatre, Level B1
Live music and dance including performances by:
Music – The Circle / Puppet Show – Vida Ghahremani / Presentation – Ms. Faghani / Dance – Ida Meftahi – Sashar Zarif Dance Theater – Gisoo Dance – Odlar Dance Group / Films – Afarin Mansouri – The Persian Piano

* Music and Dance Performances in the Galleries
3:00pm to 5:00pm
Currelly Gallery, Level 1
Level 1, Rotunda: 3:00pm to 4:00pm – Music performance by Mehrava Ensemble – Puppet show with Vida Ghahremani – Dance performance by Beeta Jafara with music by Ehsan Ghaffari, Tar
Level 3, European Rotunda: 3:00pm to 4:40pm – Music performance by The Circle – Solo Tar performance by Ehsan Ghaffari – Duet of violin and violoncello by Vira Burmenko and Mario Gonzalez – Solo Tar performance by Shahrokh Saeedi
Level 3, Wirth Gallery of the Middle East Entrance: 3:00pm to 4:50pm – Music performance by Daf Ensemble – Storytelling by Ariel Balevi – Music performance by Mehdi Rezania and Saleh Lavee

* Iranian Art Display
10 am to 4pm
Chen Court & Spirit House, Level 1
Special display of paintings by Iranian artists: Alijan Alijanpour, Abdollah Kiaier, Farzaneh Nazerian, Mohammad Reza Sharifi, Shamsi Shahrokhi

* Iranian Artifact Display
10 am to 4pm
Chen Court, Level 1
Special display of Iranian artifacts. On display for one day only!

* Music & Dance Workshop for Kids
2 pm to 5pm
Classroom 1, Level 1
Learn more about Iranian dance and music!

* Music & Dance Workshop for Adults
2 pm to 3:30pm
Classroom 3, Level 1
Learn more about Iranian dance and music!

* Gallery Tours
2 pm and 3 pm – English
Wirth Gallery of the Middle East, Level 3
The rich history and culture of the Middle East will be brought to life!

* Shahnama – The Persian “Book of Kings”
Wirth Gallery of the Middle East, Level 3
Completed about 1010 in Northeastern Iran, this great epic poem tells the story of Iran’s kings and their faithful paladins from the beginning of times up to the Arab conquest in 644.
More information http://www.rom.on.ca/exhibitions/special/shahnama.php

* Dining
11:00am to 4:30pm
Food Studio, Level B1
Tempt your taste buds with a special selection of Iranian treats and enjoy delicious meals made from the freshest organic and seasonal ingredients at Food Studio, the ultimate family destination for healthy menu options in an earth-friendly environment.

* Shopping
10:00am to 6:30pm
ROM Museum Store, Level 1
Find unique gifts for that special someone or take home a memento of your ROM visit at ROM Museum Store.

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Cost: Included with Museum admission. http://www.rom.on.ca/visit/index.php

For more information visit: http://www.rom.on.ca/programs/rom_kids/weekends/index.php?ref=showinfo&program_id=7785

Or contact:

Tel.: 416-586-8000

E-mail: info@rom.on.ca

May 25-26, 8 p.m. at the Fleck Dance Theatre

Tickets: $22.50 to $38;
Harbourfront Centre Box Office: 416-973-4000, www.harbourfrontcentre.com

Premieres by Sylvie Bouchard, Colin Connor and Deborah Lundmark Premieres by three acclaimed North American choreographers will highlight CCDT’s appearance in Harbourfront Centre’s NextSteps 11/12 season at the Fleck Dance Theatre, May 25th and 26th at 8 p.m.

Internationally accomplished dance artist Colin Connor completes a trilogy of dances for CCDT with his duet The Breath of Rivers, following his ARENA (2009) and Against the Dark (2010). Connor says of his latest work; We can never fully explain the energy that happens between two people. It has its own mysterious life that can ebb and flow. Sometimes it can emerge like the way, out of a cold winter, the snow slowly melts, streams start to flow, and rivers rush, fill, and pour into oceans. A former dancer in the Jose LimÓn Dance Company, now a prolific international choreographer, Connor has won both the Sarasota Ballet’s International Choreography Competition and the Charleston Ballet Theatre’s Fountainhead Choreography Competition. His ARENA, a fierce study in urban social combat, reads like a premonition of The Hunger Games condensed to a ten minute cage fight of dance.

Sylvie Bouchard, CCDT’s 2011/12 Artist in Residence, premieres the delicate and multi-layered L’envol. She relates, There is excitement in being in a new place, but also a sense of missing the familiar. In our walk forward, our memories travel with us. L’envol is a celebration of life, a visit with memories, and also a remembrance of people who have traveled on this path, walking uncertainly towards the light, much too
soon. Bouchard’s first work for CCDT, Passade, dates back
to the mid-eighties during her outstanding performance career
with Toronto Dance Theatre. Since then, Bouchard has launched
several companies – CORPUS, Dusk Dances and most recently,
BoucharDanse toured the world, and impressively received
a Dora nomination for her solo, Cassiopeia.

CCDT’s Co-Founder and Artistic Director Deborah Lundmark tackles the challenge facing young 21st century women who find themselves expelled without a map from the doll-house certainties that confined earlier generations in her yet to be titled premiere. Lundmark will also remount her While We Were Walking (2009), a leisurely, old-world stroll in the town square inspired by Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins in B Minor. In 2011 the company celebrated its 30th anniversary and won the Toronto Arts Foundation’s prestigious Arts for Youth Award.

A sumptuous 1992 work by Carol Anderson, CCDT’s most prolific guest artist with ten commissions to her credit, completes the program. Exploring the complexities of political drama and perceptions of nationhood and identity, the creation of Sephardic Songs coincided with the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ 1492 voyage to America, the same year in which Jews were expelled from Spain. Anderson writes, On a trip to Spain, I saw a group of girls dancing in the old Jewish quarter of Seville. I was struck by the irony of the world celebrating Columbus’ voyage, while ignoring the tragedy of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. A founding member of Dancemakers and the author of dozens of articles and books on Canadian dance, Anderson currently teaches the next generation of dancers at her alma mater, York University.

WHEN: Evening shows – Thurs June 14 – Sat June 16; Thurs June 21 - Sat June 23; 8pm
Matinee shows – Sun June 17 & Sat June 23; 2pm

WHERE: The Winchester Street Theatre, (80 Winchester St./near Carlton and Parliament)

COST: Evening shows – $25; Matinee shows – $20
You can purchase tickets from the dancers directly or online at http://pushpulldance.eventbrite.ca/

PushPULL Dance is very excited to be celebrating it’s 8th season and we have a great show lined up for you! We’ve been working hard to put together our company’s 8th annual production, titled ”Heroes & Villains: Dance Another Day.”

True to the nature of the company, this year’s show delivers a variety of accessible dance works and conveys an infectious joy and love of dance. In this show, PushPULL’s choreographers portray heroes, villains and the relationships between them to entertain, invigorate and move its audiences through a variety of dance styles including Jazz, Tap, Ballet, Hip Hop, Modern, Chinese, Musical Theatre and Bollywood. As “Dancing Professionals, not Professional Dancers” who are passionate about what we do, we are very excited to share this show with you and hope you are able to make it to one of our 8 performances.

DIRECTIONS:
The Winchester Street Theatre is located at 80 Winchester Street, Toronto. That’s east of Parliament and north of Carlton on the corner of Winchester and Metcalfe.

TTC:
The theatre is within easy walking distance of the 506 streetcar or the #65 Parliament bus.

PARKING:
Parking is tight near The Winchester Street Theatre. There is plenty of street parking in the neighbourhood on small side streets, but you may have to look around a little bit for it. There is a ’Green P’ parking lot at 51 Aberdeen, that’s 1 street south of Winchester but west of Parliament.

ACCESSIBILITY:
The theatre is wheelchair accessible but the washrooms are not (they’re on the 2nd floor).

Preview: July 24, 8:30pm $15
Performances: July 25, 26, 27 8:30pm $30 (Students/Seniors/Arts Workers $20 at door only)
Closing Night Gala: July 28, 7:30pm Reception/Artist Talk/Show/After Party $125
Show and catered after party 8:30pm $75

Venue: Bata Shoe Museum (327 Bloor Street West, Toronto)

Anandam Dancetheatre, under the direction of choreographer and Artistic Director Brandy Leary, will present her latest work, Divergent Dances for Windows and Walls, a choreographic installation for the unique setting of the Bata Shoe Museum’s interior and exterior architecture. The work will combine dance and aerial arts and will include performances on the exterior walls of the Bata Shoe Museum.

This work is the second of three instalments in The Precipice Project, a multiyear choreographic project with the Bata Shoe Museum exploring our relationships to each other through the lens of public space, urban architecture, participatory arts practices and gravity using post modern dance techniques and contemporary rope based aerial work.

Divergent Dances looks at the risks of engagement; of relating to another, of exposing vulnerabilities, of intimacy, and of trust. The work travels through the internal and external spaces of the Museum; telling stories on the roof and walls of the building, the street windows, the grand atrium staircase and in the external street spaces in front of the Museum. The audience will travel along with the performers, sometimes as spectators and sometimes as active participants in the creation of malleable environmental sculptures and choreography. The performance arises from the exquisite collision of the planned and the spontaneous.
The closing night on July 28th is a fundraising Gala for the company in partnership with the CreatiVenture Collective of Toronto (www.creativenture.ca), a new philanthropic organization in the city’s cultural scene. The evening will feature an opening artist talk, a catered cocktail reception and an intimate meet and greet with the artists afterward.

Please join us for an exciting evening of contemporary performance from the choreographer whose work has been called “soulful and sensuous” by the New York Times, “fascinating” by Now Magazine and “more than thrilling” by the Times of India.

Choreography: Brandy Leary in collaboration with the Dancers
Composition: James Bunton
Dramaturgy/Assistant Direction: Audrey Dwyer
Lighting Design: Siobhan Sleath
Production Management: JP Robichaud
Featuring: Natasha Danchenko, Amy Hampton, Louis Laberge-Cote, Brandy Leary, Ryan Lee, Kevin O’Connor, Jennifer Robichaud, Lucy Rupert, Mark Segal

Box Office: TOTIX @ 5 Dundas Square East Toronto
in person Tues-Sunday 12pm-6:30pm or online at www.totix.ca (credit card sales)
or at the door on performance nights (cash only)
for more information about the company www.anandam.ca

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