“Relax your eyeballs…”

UNODANZ May 21, 22, and 23, 2009 in Victoria, BC, Canada

Suddenly Dance Theatre’s UNODANZ returns to offer another dynamic program of dance theatre within Intrepid Theatre’s UNO FEST this May 21, 22, and 23rd, 2009 in Victoria, BC, Canada. UNODANZ continues to reflect the spirit of solo dance-based invention within a juried international festival.

This year, we are featuring two distinct dance works in one program:

COLLECTION #3: HEADDRESS (20 mins)
Choreographed and Performed by Yvonne Ng
Tiger Princess Dance Projects (Toronto)

brief intermission

THE WHOLE BEAST (55 mins)
Choreographed and Performed by Lee Su-feh
Battery Opera (Vancouver)

Photo by David Hou

COLLECTION #3: HEADDRESS by Yvonne Ng is inspired and influenced by Chinese opera and street opera. The work features a symbolic headdress decorated with gifts from friends, loved ones, mentors and relatives. As one part of a collection of self-portraits, the dance depicts a balancing act between opposing worlds - traditional and modern, divine and corporeal. In the presence of 14 small mirrors, the autobiographical work reflects a transformation of identity – with the dancer carrying her ‘homeland’ and ‘new homeland’ in her body.

Yvonne Ng, of Peranakan Chinese descent, was born and raised in Singapore and came to Canada in 1983. She is a dancer, choreographer, presenter, producer & teacher. She has been nominated 8 times for a Dora Mavor Moore Award and received the honour in 2000. In 2007, Ng received the Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts – New Talent Award along with Canadian dance legend Peggy Baker. www.princessproductions.ca

THE WHOLE BEAST is a new solo work by Lee Su-Feh. In this work, the dancer is butcher, meat, cook and the cooked. Mining the singularity of her own body, Lee makes connections from bone and tissue to memory, dreams, and desires. With fine precision and startling intimacy, Lee carves the spaces in and around the body, uncovering recipes and stories along the way, offering up a view of a life shaped and affected by food, love and loss. THE WHOLE BEAST had its World Premiere March 2008 at the Festival Les Antipodes, Brest, France.

Lee Su-Feh is a dancer, choreographer, teacher and artistic director of battery opera. Described as “sexy, propulsive, deeply metaphorical” Victoria audiences will remember her work in Spektator (2003) and Storm (2007). www.batteryopera.com