Alison Denham in DIRTY LAUNDRY at Romp! 2007 / photo by: Chris Randle

Suddenly Dance Theatre is pleased to announce Victoria's 10th ROMP! A Festival of Independent Dance will take place November 1 - 4, 2007, at the Metro Studio Theatre in Victoria, British Columbia. There are 8 shows over 4 days!

This M-Award winning Festival draws professional independent choreographers and performers from across Canada. Multiple programs feature a tightly packaged combination of live performances and dance films from around the world, with touring partner: Dance Films Association, New York.

The works we present in ROMP! often explore dimensional, political, and artistic messages direct for independent artists, reflecting a pulse in the Canadian dance scene. We support work from emerging and established choreographers, some of whom we also see on the Royal, McPherson and Belfry stages; on television; in other cities; as independents or as part of established companies.

This year's program features choreographers:

Josh Beamish / Move: the company : Vancouver
Cori Caulfield : Vancouver
Alison Denham : Vancouver
Marie France Forcier : Toronto
Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg : Vancouver 
Ingrid Hansen / SNAFU Dance Theatre : Victoria
Lynndsey Larre / Crazyfish Collective : Toronto
Nicole McSkimming : Victoria

Thursday, November 1st - 8pm

8pm - One show only! 
PRESENT/TENSE 2
Dance meets the Spoken Word
80 mins

Tickets: $25 Students / $35 General 
*SPECIAL - Buy a Present/Tense ticket and receive 1/2 price off any other show!

Josh Beamish in THE ELECTRONIC SERIES at Romp! 2007

Present / Tense 2 is our special opening night performance featuring 10 writers and 10 dancers!  A sequel to last year's sell-out show, this laboratory seeks to nourish a collaborative process between improvised dance and the spoken word. Beloved resident writers read selections of their work while guest dancers receive the impetus to respond - to the sound, syllables, intent and multiple meanings.

including:

immediately followed by:
9:30pm - Opening Reception!
CAKE ON THE STAGE  
Free!

Treena Stubel in CAKE ON THE STAGE at Romp! 2007 

Join us at our opening reception to celebrate the 10th ROMP! A Festival of Independent Dance and to welcome our guest artists. At CAKE ON THE STAGE you can stand, dance, or mingle on the stage and eat a piece of our delicious Romp! Festival cake, introduced with song by TREENA STUBEL! Featuring VICTOR DOLHAI on piano and cake by CELINE STUBEL.

Friday, November 2 - 7pm

Mixed Program A: 
SILVER SPACES
65 mins
Tickets: $15 Students / $20 General 
*SPECIAL - See both Program A  and Program B! - $25 Students / $35 General

Cori Caulfield in BOUGHT AND $OLD at Romp! 2007 / photo by: Daniel Collins

Philippe Combes (FRANCE)
MINOTAUR-EX (9 mins)
Directed by Bruno Aveillan, 2001

Inspired by the Greek myth of the Minotaur, this cine-dream brings us into the struggle of a three-faced monster attempting a metamorphosis of his being. From choreographer Philippe Combes of Compagnie Cave Canem, FRANCE with a score by Herve Taminiaux, MINOTAUR-EX uses a dynamic focus and an abandoned warehouse-setting to animate living sculpture.

Cori Caulfield (Vancouver)
BOUGHT AND $OLD (8 mins)

“It became a bank and not a country” - William Cody Mahler

Cori Caulfield has performed her meticulously crafted solos throughout the world, displaying her trademark ability to move her statuesque body with precision and with infinite vocabulary. In BOUGHT AND $OLD she is a bionic seductress - dressed in a period gown with platform shoes, she consumes the space with assured and conscious sexiness. Audiences in Victoria may remember Caulfield's mesmerizing performance in Crystal Pite's FIELD:FICTION in ROMP! 2002.

Lynndsey Larre / Crazyfish Collective (TORONTO)
ALL THESE THINGS WE MUST NOT MENTION (16 mins)

Set to recordings of arias performed by the great Enrico Caruso, All These Things We Must Not Mention is a haunting and intimate journey into the inner-lives of three women using simple, nuanced movements and iconic design: a chair, a sweater, a spotlight. The dancers in uniform white shorts and tank-tops are radiant under the interrogative light, evoking themes of loneliness, longing, and violation - yet reveal the power inherent in the act of laying bare one’s weakness.

David Ferguson & Jung-ah Chung (VICTORIA)
AISLING - WE SAW A VISION (in preview, 4 mins)
Directed by Miles Lowry and David Ferguson, Canada, 2007, 4 mins

This is a preview of AISLING - WE SAW A VISION, Suddenly Dance Theatre’s new Bravo!FACT dance film, created by David Ferguson and Miles Lowry. Choreographed and performed by David Ferguson and Jung-ah Chung, who starred in the recent success OPIUM, the work is inspired by Irish author Liam Mac Uistin's peace poem. The song AISLING  is written and performed in Irish by Miles Lowry, with string arrangement by Joanna Hood and performed by Eclipse Quartet.

Marie France Forcier (TORONTO)
ONE TOO (10 mins)

This duet has a sense of sisterhood and suggests not all relationships are visible. Choreographed by Marie France Forcier, ONE TOO explores the paradox: One is always alone, even amongst others. And when physically alone, there is always the presence of others within oneself. With an original score by James Bunton.

Josh Beamish / MOVE: the company (VANCOUVER)
THE ELECTRONIC SERIES (19 mins)

THE ELECTRONIC SERIES is a fast-paced deconstruction of an electronic music sample in four movements. Each movement utilizes a unique fusion of dance genres to highlight the various sounds and instruments embedded within the score. Set to music by DJ Shadow, Aphex Twin, and Boards of Canada, the work uses ballet, jazz, hip hop and contemporary dance influences to present an ultimate marriage of movement and music.

Friday, November 2 - 9pm

Mixed Program B:
AS SHE'S LEAVING
65 mins
Tickets: $15 Students / $20 General 
*SPECIAL - See both Program A  and Program B! - $25 Students / $35 General

Katy Harris-McLeod in Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg's as she's leaving at ROMP! 2007 / photo: Steven Lemay

David Ferguson & Jung-ahChung (VICTORIA):
AISLING - WE SAW A VISION (REMIX preview, 4 mins)
Directed by Miles Lowry and David Ferguson, Canada, 2007, 4 mins

This unreleased version of Suddenly Dance Theatre's upcoming Bravo!FACT dance filmAISLING - WE SAW A VISION offers a techno-driven musical remix by writer/performer Miles Lowry. Contrasting the television version previewed in Program A, the film dances to the language of Liam Mac Uistin's poem through an entirely different musical incantation.

Nicole McSkimming (VICTORIA)
INAMORATAS (15 mins)

Nicole McSkimming's INAMORATAS features 3 veiled dancers who celebrate the strength and courage of women who choose to conceal themselves. Constructed is a series of sections clearly inspired by the music, the work steps around the possible status of oppression of veiling within today's western society. The syncronized movements and plaintive confrontations of the dancers add weight and light to their celebration.

Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg (VANCOUVER)
as she's leaving (13 mins)

This PREMIERE solo commissioned by Katy Harris-McLeod is choreographed by Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, who Victoria audiences will remember from her recent hit show BANGER. True to Friedenberg's ability to split the performer in half, this theatrical solo is about a woman/creature who is battling with her inability to say what she really wants to say. as she's leaving travels from moments of humour to moments of theatrical and physical intensity.  Featuring a soundscore designed by Marc Stewart.

Shona McCullagh (NEW ZEALAND)
BREAK (14 mins)
Directed by Shona McCullagh, 2006  

BREAK is a moving tribute to a family’s dynamic from the perspective of a young boy that plays inventively with rhythm and narrative. From the director of wildly popular dance short FLY and the choreographer for KING KONG and the THE LION, WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE. 2007 JURY WINNER at the 35th Dance on Camera Festival 2007, New York.

Alison Denham (VANCOUVER)
DIRTY LAUNDRY (16 mins)

This PREMIERE solo - in four sections, four minutes each - is a semi-biographical impressionistic portrait of women in the choreographer's life. As recipient of the 2006 Isadora Award for Excellence in Performance, DIRTY LAUNDRY has been recently created during a residency on the Sunshine Coast. Dancer Alison Denham wowed Victoria audiences in Wen Wei Weng's UNBOUND last season, and it is clear she has an inspired choreographic identity: She will be returning for ROMP! 2008!

Saturday, November 3

Program B @ 7pm
Program A @ 9pm
Tickets: $15 Students / $20 General *SPECIAL - See both Program A  and Program B! - $25 Students / $35 General

Sunday, November 4 - 6:30pm

One Show Only!
MOVEMENT (R)EVOLUTION
A SPECIAL DANCE-FILM PROGRAM
90 mins

Tickets: $7 Students / $10 General

Company TchéTché (Côte d'Ivoire) in MOVEMENT (R)EVOLUTUON at ROMP 2007 /  photo: Alla Kovgan

These two films, along with others throughout the Festival, were brought to Victoria with touring partner Dance Films Association, New York. In early 2007, Suddenly Dance Theatre Artistic Directors David Ferguson and Miles Lowry introduced their dance film OPIUM at Lincoln Center in New York, as part of Dance Film Association's 35th Dance on Camera Festival. Here, they were able to attend the emotional screening of MOVEMENT (R)EVOLUTION AFRICA (A story of an art form In four acts) and immediately wanted to share it with Victoria audiences. It is a riveting documentary showing a cross section of contemporary dance artists from across Africa and reminds us how geography, poverty, war, and cultural practices influence the creation of dance.

Heddy Maalen (Belgium/Nigeria)
BLACK SPRING (28 mins)
Directed by Benoit Dervaux, 2002

This film is a raw juxtaposition of dance interwoven with street scenes in an African shantytown. Movement creates a sonic rhythm, through the use of hand held shakers, whisks and other items. The film challenges the viewers to keep their eyes riveted to the screen - sometimes because the lead dancer speaks directly to the audience and challenges them to do so. Danced by Simone Goris and Serge Anagondu of Compagnie Ivoire; produced by Heure d'Ete. 

Various Choreographers (AFRICA)
MOVEMENT (R)EVOLUTION AFRICA
A story of an art form In four acts (65 mins)
Directed by Joan Frosch & Alla Kovgan, 2007

In an astonishing exposition of choreographic formentation, nine African choreographers tell stories of an emergent art form and their diverse and deeply contemporary expressions of self. Stunning choreography and riveting critiques challenge stale stereotypes of “traditional Africa” to unveil soul-shaking responses to the beauty and tragedy of 21st century Africa.

Sunday, November 4 - 8:30pm

One Show Only!
INGRID HANSEN / SNAFU DANCE THEATRE (Victoria)
BLiNK
55 mins
Tickets: $15 Students / $20 General

Fresh from the Victoria Fringe Festival, BLINK is a raw, all-encompassing  experience from Victoria's newest dance company, SNAFU Dance Theatre. Choreographed by Ingrid Hansen, SNAFU’s work challenges audiences to observe the exposed human body with aims to calm the analytical brain, yet awaken the audience to a sensual, primal, intuitive experience. In BLINK, six near-nude chalk-white dancers awake in a new world and slowly discover themselves, each other and their surroundings.  When relationships mutate into desperate parasitic revulsion, they must find a new way to fulfill themselves.

WINNER: Pick-of-the-Fringe Best Dance/Physical Show (Victoria) “Fresh and daring . . . BLiNK is a mesmerizing and truly unique performance” MONDAY MAGAZINE

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