Get a taste of the Festival before it all begins when dance meets visual art at the MacDonald Stewart Art Centre.
Saturday April 26th and Sunday April 27th | 4pm
Pay-what-you-can
MacDonald Stewart Art Centre, University of Guelph
HELEN HUSAK [Calgary] laughter/forgetting (2006)
Choreographer: Helen Husak
“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” ~Milan Kundera
Inspired by Milan Kundera’s The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, this dance piece reflects the novel’s form: the individual parts or chapters of the piece follow each other like discrete stretches of time and memory, culminating in a journey that leads to “litost.” As Kundera explains, “litost is a Czech word with no exact translation into any other language. It designates a feeling as infinite as an open accordian, a feeling that is the synthesis of many others: grief, sympathy, remorse and indefinable longing. Under certain circumstances however, it can have a very narrow meaning, a meaning as definite, precise and sharp as a well-honed cutting edge.”
Photo by John Huh
Photo of Helen Husak
Since completing her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Calgary Dance Program in 2002, Helen has studied with a variety of local and national artists, explored numerous artist residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts and participated in two dance collectives (VIA, with artistic director Tonya Lockyer, 2000-02, and Raw Gloss, with co-collaborators/performers Natalie Poissant and Lori Duncan, 2004-05). The Raw Gloss Collective produced a successful show featuring commissioned works from Helen, Serge Bennathan and Robert Abubo. She had the privilege to be mentored by renowned Canadian choreographer Tedd Robinson (2004), and more recently, with accomplished dance artist / creative facilitator Susie Burpee, and dramaturge Katherine Duncanson. In February 2007, she was given a three - week creation period in Ottawa’s experimental dance lab, Le Groupe Dance Lab’s Studio A Series, under the mentorship of Peter Boneham. Helen’s solo works have been presented in five consecutive years of Alberta Dance Explosions Festival of Choreography (2002- 2006), at the National Arts Centre’s Alberta Scene Festival in 2005, and at Ottawa’s Canada Dance Festival in 2006. Her newest solo work “”A Story of Reconstruction” premiered in October 2007 at Calgary’s Dancers’ Studio West Theatre.
MARIE-JOSÉE CHARTIER [Toronto] Mata Hari Terbenam (1999)
Choreographer: Peter Chin
Mata Hari Terbenam or The eye of the day drowning evokes a world at dusk whose beauty, as the day passes into night, heightens feelings of loneliness in the witness.
Some Reviews:
“….Chin’s drowning day is a time to be emotionally naked, and Chartier takes great risks. Vocally she runs from piercing screams to lyrical chants, while her body tortures itself through an articulation of gestures, lunges and balances that demand excessive feats of control.”
-- Paula Citron, The Globe and Mail, November 2, 2002
“...Chartier delivered a gut-wrenching and brave performance.” Voted as one of the top 10 shows of 2002
--Glenn Sumi, Now Magazine, January 1, 2003.
Photo by David Hou
Photo of Marie-Josée Chartier
Peter Chin is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist born in Kingston, Jamaica and based in Toronto. He is active as a musician/composer, dancer/choreographer, performance artist, designer and director. Peter recently received the Muriel Sherrin Award for International Achievement in Dance and is a co-winner of the inaugural Interdisciplinary K.M. Hunter Award. He received a Chalmers Fellowship and a prestigious Gemini Award for “Best Performance in a performing arts program” in Nick de Pencier’s film Streetcar, for which he choreographed, performed and composed the music. Peter has received four Dora Mavor Moore Awards: “Outstanding New Choreography” for Stupa in 2005, “Outstanding New Choreography” and “Outstanding Performance” for Bite in 2000, and “Outstanding New Choreography” for Northeastsouthwest in 1997. He has also been nominated twice: once for Language in 1998 and once for Ghost Train in 2001.
COMPANY KAREN ROSE [Toronto] Helen (2007)
Choreographer: Karen Rose
Helen is a testament to the women of war – mothers, daughters, grandmothers, brides-to-be, wives, widows and survivors. We portray their stories of loss and separation, of death, dehumanization and despair, as well as their stories of resilience, perseverance and resistance. We speak of their experience of grief, struggle, survival; and of their never-ending belief in hope and love. Helen is dedicated to the ones who lost those whom they loved, and to those who lost themselves.
Photo of 4 local Guelph performers
Karen Rose is a choreographer, dancer, actor, director and teacher. Born in Regina Saskatchewan, she studied Film and Video at the University of Regina for three years before moving to Vancouver to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance from Simon Fraser University. West-coast dance companies she has performed with include Kokoro Dance, Jennifer Mascall Dance, La Compaigne de Monique Giard, Haraupin Hai, as well as other independent choreographic artists in Vancouver and Montreal. In London, England she worked with the William Louther Dance & Theatre Corporation. Her choreography has been presented at the Dancing on the Edge Festival for 5 seasons, as well as other festivals in Calgary, Ottawa, Montreal and The Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Her first full evening work was presented with Tangente in Montreal. In Canada, Australia and Europe she has choreographed for musicals, plays, films, and videos. This includes Much Music (Canada) and The Boys in the Bar, an off-Westend London musical. Her last directorial was The Complete Works of Shakespeare, with The Harrison Hot Springs Shakespeare Festival.
Mata Hari Terbenam or The eye of the day drowning evokes a world at dusk whose beauty, as the day passes into night, heightens feelings of loneliness in the witness. 
Helen is a testament to the women of war – mothers, daughters, grandmothers, brides-to-be, wives, widows and survivors. We portray their stories of loss and separation, of death, dehumanization and despair, as well as their stories of resilience, perseverance and resistance. We speak of their experience of grief, struggle, survival; and of their never-ending belief in hope and love. Helen is dedicated to the ones who lost those whom they loved, and to those who lost themselves.