We are 17 days away from Dance Ontario’s DanceWeekend’20! On today’s countdown we are featuring Jera Wolfe and the Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre.
DanceWeekend’20 is happening January 25 & 26 at the Fleck Dance Theatre, Harbourfront Centre.
Connect with CCDT:
Instagram @ccdtcompany
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CanadianContemporaryDanceTheatre
Can you tell us a little bit about your company/collective/school?
Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre is a Toronto-based repertory company of exceptional young artists founded in 1980 by Artistic Director Deborah Lundmark and Managing Director Michael deConinck Smith. Highlights include appearances at Toronto’s Princess of Wales and Royal Alexandra Theatres, five invitations to the Canada Dance Festival, and tours to Singapore, Malaysia, China, Scotland and NYC. CCDT has introduced over 400,000 young people to dance through its Ontario Arts Access program. CCDT performed at the 2015 José Limón International Dance Festival, and was recently featured at Toronto’s Junior international children’s festival and Canada’s premiere international dance festival Fall For Dance North.
CCDT’s dancers perform about 30 performances a season in three different annual mixed repertoire productions. The Company has commissioned over 100 works in its 40-year history by such dance luminaries as David Earle, Carol Anderson, Danny Grossman, and Tedd Robinson, and more recently by Toronto creators Hanna Kiel, Ryan Lee, Sylvie Bouchard, and Apolonia Velasquez, in addition to international artists Colin Connor (USA), Jennifer Archibald (NYC), and Alexander Whitley (UK), among many others.
What are you showing at DanceWeekend’20?
CCDT will perform our latest commission, Embers by Jera Wolfe (Red Sky Performance Associate Artist), fresh from its recent world premiere as part of CCDT’s production of WinterSong in December 2019.
Who are the performers/collaborators in this piece(s)?
Embers is choreographed by Jera Wolfe and performed by CCDT Company Dancers Paris Forbes, Lola Rose Jenkins, Jeffrey Lapira, Kaiya Lee, Jaedyn Richards, Sydney Runions, and Melodie Yeung. The piece is set to music by composers Luke Howard, Lior, and Shards, with costume design by Angel Wong, costume production by Krista Dowson, and lighting design by Arun Srinivasan. CCDT’s Rehearsal Director for the work is Natasha Poon Woo, with Stage Management by Tara Mohan.
Can you talk about your creative process? What inspires you?
Choreographer Jera Wolfe says of his process:
“Choreography is my greatest passion. I want to tell relevant stories that move audiences. Stories of love and loss, fear and ecstasy all of which, explore our connections to the earth and humanity. I am influenced by music, as it is a catalyst for my work. Music takes me to a time and place that invites tragedy, fear and intimacy alongside a plethora of emotions. As a choreographer, I envision shapes more than physical bodies. My creative process does not evolve around steps but rather the intention of the movement led by the musical score.
For my creation with Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre titled Embers I reflected on winters spent in Winnipeg. With the weather’s unforgivingness we found shelter, comfort and warmth in each other.”
Please share your experience performing in a previous DanceWeekend and/or tell us what you are looking forward to at DanceWeekend’20?
CCDT has had the pleasure of performing in DanceWeekend every year since 2009. The festival is always a highlight of our season, both in having the opportunity to perform for both faithful and new audience members, and being able to share the stage with so many other esteemed Ontario dance artists.
DanceWeekend has also served as an incredible platform for CCDT to grow our network and expand our reach beyond Toronto. We have been fortunate to garner interest from young dancers who aspire to train with us, choreographers keen to create on our Company, and arts presenters who have offered CCDT new touring and performing opportunities.
For DW’20 we are honoured to partner with the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance in our presentation of Embers by Jera Wolfe, a contemporary choreographer of Métis heritage.
What is one surprising or interesting fact about your company/collective/school?
The start of 2020 sees CCDT on the eve of its 40th Anniversary!
Do you have any up-coming performances/events you would like to share?
CCDT will be embarking on an extensive tour of Northern Ontario in spring 2020 — we’ll be visiting Sioux Lookout, Red Lake, Dryden, Deep River, and Kirkland lake to perform our latest refreshed mixed repertoire program Teasing Gravity and conduct dance workshops at local schools. Following that is a week of performing at the Milton Performing Arts Centre, and finally closing off the 2019/20 season with a return to Fleck Dance Theatre for a new mixed repertoire program, May 22-23, 2020.
For young dancers, we will be hosting our 2020 Auditions for CCDT’s Company, Apprentice Programs, and SunDance summer intensive on February 24 & March 1. July and August sees us hosting 3 different summer programs for dancers ranging from age 4 to pre-professional: Summer Arts, SunDance, and IGNITE! (in partnership with TOES for Dance).
Our full season of events can be found at www.ccdt.org/calendar.
Photo: CCDT from Jera Wolfe’s Embers, by David Hou