Don’t be shy. Be relevant.
The opening performance of Crimson Coast Dance Society’s 2010-11 season dives deeply into the light and shadow of human experience in the award-winning production, She’s Gone Away, by Toronto choreographer and dancer, Susanna Hood, with music by Nilan Perera, and directed by Jennifer Tarver. The Toronto Star calls it, “A riveting, if disturbing and even repelling performance.”
She's Gone Away is the third in a series of dance creations using dream and memory to touch on themes of sexuality, female power, healing, and loss of innocence. It speaks through the combined language of movement, song, poetic text, instrumental music, and visual design.
The performance on Saturday night will be a presentation of a professionally edited film of She's Gone Away. Due to a recent re-injury, Susanna is unable to perform live. She will be in attendance at all of our related events this weekend.
The work captures a moment of sexual suspension. Caught in mid-flight, a woman in the fragmented home of her mind battles to stay in her body. She spins us through a continuous cycle of animal states that simultaneously provide both the escape from and the clues back to her integrated self. This highly charged physical and emotional journey throws us into the depths of voracity, bravado, dread, despair, and release. Paula Citron, one of Canada’s foremost dance critics, raved, "She's Gone Away is superb... Hood is simply sublime in her portrayal of a woman struggling to find herself.”
As an integrated aspect of the choreographic process, the music and sound for this work have been co-composed by Susanna and Nilan, who performs the score live. They have worked together in this way for over a decade, composing scores that meld live and electronically manipulated voice, live feedback, and live and recorded sound.
She’s Gone Away is 55 minutes in length and begins at 7:30 pm on October 2 at Malaspina Theatre, Vancouver Island University. It will be followed by a post-show panel to further process the experience of the evening. This panel will be facilitated by local artist and art therapist, Mehdi Naimi. The panel consists of local professionals: Carol Matthews, Writers: Lynn Welburn, Melissa Fryer and Valerie Alia, facilitator of healing: Leona Gallant, Vocalist/Songwriter: Kendall Patrick, Dance Artist/Curator: Holly Bright and Susanna Hood, herself.
On Thursday, September 30, 7pm at Bowen Park Complex, Rm 1: join us for Sisters and Secrets. You can participate in this sacred circle event which validates the experiences and stories of women as they grow into their embodied sexualtiy. Write your story or secret on our blog:www.crimsoncoastdance.blogspot.com These stories will be woven into the experience of the evening. The evening will include contributions by Sacred Songweaver, Danielea Castell, Dance Artist, Holly Bright and Susanna Hood will be in attendance.
On Sunday, October 3 from 11 am to 2 pm, at Malaspina Theatre at VIU, Susanna Hood will offer a workshop to nurture exploration, personal discovery, and delving deeply into the unknown. This workshop will be open to dancers, actors, teachers, therapists and the general public 15 years of age and older and at any level of experience. See our website for more details (CLASSES page)
Susanna Hood is familiar to Nanaimo audiences. CCDS first introduced her work in 2007 when she led a week-long residency with Nilan, Voice/Movement integration and Interdisciplinary Creation. This was followed by a performance of still, another extraordinary example of Susanna’s method of mining the full potential of the body as an instrument, interweaving her voice and movement to communicate on a powerful and visceral level.
In 2009 and 2010, Hood created a new solo work on local dance professional, Holly Bright. Costing Not Less Than Everything premiered at InFrinGinG Dance Festival ‘10. It is a demanding work exploring the resilience of the human spirit. The experience of creation and performance of this work has been one of Bright’s most profound career opportunities.
A compelling and virtuosic performer in dance and music, Susanna Hood is the Artistic Director of hum, an interdisciplinary performance company whose work draws on an integration of movement, voice, live music, and theatre. Independently, as both a dancer and vocalist, Susanna has performed the works of, and collaborated with, various Canadian choreographers, filmmakers, and composers. Her collaborative projects as well as her own choreography and music compositions have been presented throughout Toronto, nationally, and internationally on stage and in film since 1991.
Susanna has been the recipient of numerous awards for choreography and performance and most recently, she received the 2008 Victor Martin Lynch-Staunton Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Dance. Susanna has been teaching and coaching individuals and groups since 1999 and currently teaches Improvisation at the School of the Toronto Dance Theatre. Having recently received her certification in Open Source Forms (OSF) from Stephanie Skura, Susanna offers this method through which to explore the moving, sounding, creative self in a workshop setting. See www.humdansoundart.ca for more information.
Nilan Perera has been a part of the improvised and art music community since the mid 1980s. He has since performed and recorded with John Butcher, Evan Parker, William Parker, Jandek, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Glen Hall, John Oswald, David Toop, Sarah Peebles, Eddie Prevost, Rainer Wiens and Michael Ondaatje among many others. He has worked in 2009 with performance artist Allison Cummings and has recently been a collaborator in two new works with choreographers and performers Susanna Hood (premiere in April 2010) and Andrea Nann (premiere in June 2010).
Nilan currently leads the experimental blues sextet, holyblueghost; a country trio, faint praise; electric improvising funk octet, rEDwIREaRCHaNGEL. He is a music critic with the national music paper 'exclaim!' as well as with the Toronto weekly 'NOW' and sits on the board of directors of the Association of Improvising Musicians of Toronto.
For information, tickets or workshop registration call The Crimson Coast Dance Society at 250.716.3230 and / or look online at www.crimsoncoastdance.org