{"id":30110,"date":"2018-09-14T03:55:55","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T10:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=30110"},"modified":"2018-09-12T16:05:30","modified_gmt":"2018-09-12T23:05:30","slug":"never-still-kicks-off-season-36","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2018\/09\/14\/never-still-kicks-off-season-36\/","title":{"rendered":"Never Still kicks off season 36"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alexa Mardon is part of the creative team of Never Still<\/em>, which is at the Firehall Sept. 26-29. (photo by Ben Didier)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It is fitting that Firehall Arts Centre is launching its 36th (double chai) season with a new work by Jewish community member Vanessa Goodman, artistic director of Action at a Distance Dance Society.<\/p>\n

Never Still<\/em> is described as \u201ca highly physically piece that dives into the distinctions and overlap between three different systems of circulation: global water cycles, communication technology and fluids within the body.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe initial ideas for Never Still<\/em> really began to emerge in 2013, when I made two separate works inspired by similar themes. Both dealt with our relationship to water, either in our environment or our bodies,\u201d Goodman told the Independent<\/em>. \u201cOn a very basic level, we are all between 50% to 70% water, depending on our age, and the earth\u2019s surface is covered by roughly 70% water. There is some nice symmetry and, the deeper I dug into these themes, the more they revealed. Social, political, personal, environmental \u2013 no matter where I went with these themes, it checked all the boxes of what inspires my work.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it was just a matter of time before I began to focus on these ideas as a full-length. But it wasn\u2019t until 2015, when I met Scott Morgan (Loscil) through Small Stage, where we first collaborated together, that I could imagine this work growing into what it is today. Each project requires the right collaborators to bring it to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goodman\u2019s research began in 2016 during a creative residency in New Brunswick hosted by Connection Dance Works. \u201cLoscil and I also made Floating Upstream<\/em> that same year, a shorter piece that explored these ideas and worked out some staging concepts,\u201d said Goodman. \u201cIn 2017, I continued the research through a local choreographic residency at EDAM.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always knew I wanted this to be a group piece and, in the spring of last year, I finally had the whole performing team together: Shion Skye Carter, St\u00e9phanie Cyr, Bynh Ho, Alexa Mardon and Lexi Vadja. The work would also not be complete without my longtime collaborator, lighting designer James Proudfoot, who is a master of painting space with light.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sound and projection design for Never Still<\/em> is by Loscil, with costumes by Lloyd clothing. EDAM\u2019s Peter Bingham is listed as the piece\u2019s creative mentor.<\/p>\n

While the work has evolved since conception, Goodman said, \u201cThere\u2019s not necessarily one element I can point to that\u2019s different. When I began working on this piece, it was just me alone in the studio imagining all the elements, so being able to work with five incredible dance artists, lighting, sound and projections definitely pushes everything forward quite rapidly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is always exciting how a work takes shape in each unique venue, too. Ideas that you may have thought would work sometimes don\u2019t and other new elements reveal themselves, so it\u2019s important to stay flexible. The work is constantly evolving, even through the final performances. That is one of the many exciting parts of live art: it is constantly being transformed by those who inhabit it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This idea ties in perfectly with the themes explored in Never Still<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn a molecular level, liquid water is never truly still, which acts as a beautiful metaphor for dance. It offers myriad avenues to explore anatomically and thematically,\u201d said Goodman.<\/p>\n

About Never Still<\/em>, she said, \u201cI feel like it\u2019s very easy in a developed urban setting to take water for granted and overlook its true value, so, if anything, parsing so many different aspects of water with this piece has helped me appreciate it that much more.\u201d<\/p>\n

The work also considers the \u201cinherent conflict or dichotomy of water.\u201d By way of explanation, Goodman said, \u201cThe most obvious textural example is water\u2019s often-violent reaction to shifts in temperature, from the crack of ice to the vapour rising from a roiling boil. On a larger scale, the effects of flooding and drought, which, on one hand, represent polar opposites, often share conflict and devastation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Echoing these concepts, Firehall artistic producer Donna Spencer said in the release for Never Still<\/em>, \u201cWe are living in an increasingly polarized culture. And it is our role as artistic creators to encourage audiences to consider, through what they are seeing on stage, how inextricably linked we all are in finding our way through these challenging times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Firehall\u2019s programming this season, she added, \u201cis about choices \u2013 the ones we make, the ones we think we should make but don\u2019t, and the influences around us that colour that decision-making. Live performance allows us to experience a unique and powerful collective sharing of emotions and information that resonates through our day-to-day lives long after we have left the theatre, and indeed may influence the choices we make in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Never Still<\/em> runs Sept. 26-29, 8 p.m., at the Firehall, with a talkback after the Sept. 27 show. For tickets (from $20), visit firehallartscentre.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alexa Mardon is part of the creative team of Never Still, which is at the Firehall Sept. 26-29. (photo by Ben Didier) It is fitting that Firehall Arts Centre is launching its 36th (double chai) season with a new work by Jewish community member Vanessa Goodman, artistic director of Action at a Distance Dance Society. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[3119,8366,1203,1855],"class_list":["post-30110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-dance","tag-donna-spencer","tag-firehall-arts-centre","tag-vanessa-goodman"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}