Up next on our countdown to #DanceWeekend19 is Rock Bottom Movement. Don’t miss them Sunday January 27 at 4:10pm.

INSTAGRAM @rockbottommmovement

TWITTER @RockBottomMove

FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/rockbottommovement

WEBSITE www.rockbottommovement.com

Can you tell us little bit about your company/collective/school?

We are an interdisciplinary performance company based in Toronto, founded in 2012. We spend our time joyfully creating full length works that blend dance, theatre and music to access some psyche-bending, radical, often feminist, self expression. All of our works are choreographed by Alyssa Martin and created in collaboration with a core group of unique artists including Mary-Dora Bloch-Hansen, Drew Berry, David Bernstein, Samantha Grist, Sydney Herauf and Natasha Poon Woo. Often, our works are absurd and surreal in content and form, created in a way that leaves safe open space for imaginative brain-sprinting in any and all directions.

What are showing at DanceWeekend’19?

an excerpt of hollow mountain

We’re showing a short excerpt of a piece we’re currently developing called hollow mountain. We started creating this new work in residence at The Banff Centre. It’s our first forage into live acoustic musical territory with all original songs and music performed by the artists.

Who are the performers/collaborators in this piece(s)?


Choreography/Direction: Alyssa Martin

Musician/Composer: Sydney Herauf

Performer/Collaborators: Mary-Dora Bloch-Hansen, Drew Berry, Samantha Grist, Sydney Herauf and Natasha Poon Woo

 

Can you talk about your creative process? What inspires you?

We started making this piece while spending time in Banff, and truly think the clear air and altitude took a magical toll on our brains. We went on hikes after rehearsal and wondered what the inside of a mountain would look like if it had one. We built and reflected on our sisterhood. We developed alter-egos and invited them into the studio. We wrote, we joked, we got frustrated, we pushed through, we made ourselves sick with laugher, we grew together and found our shared voice through the refinement and coalescence of our individual ones. Now, even as we’re back in Toronto, the names of the employees we befriended on campus creep back into rehearsal and we dedicate parts of this to them. We really cherish the new atmosphere we created for this work to exist and grow within. The creative process for this work is very different from other ones we’ve engaged in because it’s being created almost entirely from the inside without outside material to reference or satirize. We’re trusting the flowers and weeds that grew from a little subconscious digging while we took some time away from the city, and got to look at our work in the company of some pretty fantastic mountains.

Please share your experience performing in a previous DanceWeekend and/or tell us what you are looking forward to at DanceWeekend’19?

Our first performance at Dance Ontario was in 2016. We performed a small excerpt of a piece we were working on called “MANICPIXIEDREAMGIRLS.” We had such an amazing time performing for the warm audiences at DanceWeekend and the work went on to have a much longer life! The next year, we were fortunate enough to premiere “Dolphin” as the creative commission for DanceWeekend and it was such an enriching and valuable experience to be supported by Dance Ontario as we took risks with our new work! We’re so excited to try out some brand new material this year and connect with the dance-loving audiences and other companies and friends making live art!

What is one surprising or interesting fact about your company/collective/school?

In 2012 we made our own full length version of The Nutcracker (to the original score!) in which Clara was a possessed doll. It was only performed two times in a studio in suburban Ottawa to a group of about 50 people.

Do you have any up-coming performances/events you would like to share?

We will be working on the full length “hollow mountain” throughout the Spring at Canadian Stage as part of the Emerging Director in Residence program. Follow us on our social media to hear when it will be performed in its full fledged form!