{"id":39029,"date":"2022-06-24T01:52:47","date_gmt":"2022-06-24T08:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=39029"},"modified":"2022-06-22T18:50:27","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T01:50:27","slug":"explorations-of-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2022\/06\/24\/explorations-of-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"Explorations of identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jewish artists participating in Dancing on the Edge July 7-16 include Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg in Pants. (photo by Wendy D Photography)<\/em><\/p>\n

Several Jewish community artists are part of the 34th annual Dancing on the Edge lineup, which includes more than 30 productions July 7-16.<\/p>\n

Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg will share part of a new solo called Pants<\/em>, which is a work-in-progress. Tasha Faye Evans will perform in the premi\u00e8re of Raven Spirit Dance\u2019s Confluence<\/em> and Vanessa Goodman\u2019s Core\/Us<\/em> will see its local debut. Rebecca Margolick will bring the now-complete solo Bunker + Vault<\/em> to the festival, whose home base is the Firehall Arts Centre.<\/p>\n

Of\u00a0Pants<\/em>, Cheyenne Friedenberg said, \u201cThe full-length show will premiere at the Firehall in the \u201923\/24 season and centres around my experience as a \u2018mostly\u2019 female-identifying person who has been questioning the gender binary in private and in my art practice all my life. The younger generation, including my child, is inspiring the challenging of the gender binary in ways my generation never had the language for. Pants<\/em> uses personal narrative comedy\/stand-up and dance to trace how gender stereotypes and expectations affect a life, an identity, and how poking holes in all of it can bring healing and catharsis.\u201d<\/p>\n

She noted, \u201cThe piece is being created with consultation, interviews and collaboration from a variety of artists working outside the gender binary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cheyenne Friedenberg created Pants<\/em> in collaboration with choreographer Kate Franklin, theatre artist Cameron Mackenzie (ZeeZee Theatre) and dramaturge Joanna Garfinkel (who is also a member of the Jewish community).<\/p>\n

Evans is a theatre and dance artist, writer and festival producer, with Coast Salish, Welsh, and European Jewish heritage. She described Raven Spirit Dance\u2019s\u00a0Confluence<\/em> as \u201ca beautiful weaving of Indigenous women from across these lands. The piece is about the things we carry as women, how we hold each other and how the land holds all of us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe piece,\u201d she said, \u201cwas shared two years ago at the Talking Stick Festival and, days later, we all went into lockdown and our worlds changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Tasha Faye Evans in Raven Spirit Dance\u2019s Confluence<\/em>. (photo by Erik Zennstr\u00f6m)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When theatres began to reopen, Confluence<\/em>\u00a0was the first piece that brought Raven Spirit together again \u2013 they performed an excerpt of it at Dancing on the Edge. \u201cThis year,\u201d said Evans, \u201cwe are delighted to be brought\u00a0together again, premi\u00e8ring the work and being able to take a deep breath together as life continues to unfold in these unprecedented times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goodman\u2019s Core\/Us<\/em> is a new group work that she has been in the process of creating on and off since the fall of 2019. During the\u00a0piece, which runs about 70 minutes, Goodman said \u201cfour dancers transverse our perception of how we hear movement and see sound, with mesmerizing results. The live movement and sound score sculpt an ever-evolving atmosphere that builds gravity for the body. Patiently shifting states and layers of momentum define this piece, marked by its immersive world-building. The work asks for both tenderness and strength from the performing artists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Vanessa Goodman\u2019s Core\/Us<\/em>. (photo by David Cooper)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Core\/Us<\/em> will be performed by Anya Saugstad, Eowynn Enquist, Ted Littlemore and Adrian de Leeuw with lighting by James Proudfoot. Shion Skye Carter and Sarah Formosa have also been a part of the creative process, said Goodman.<\/p>\n

The group has worked closely with artist Brady Marks on the piece. \u201cHer\u00a0incredible knowledge of sonic composition has made a deep\u00a0impact on our process together,\u201d said Goodman.\u00a0\u201cWe are looking forward to sharing the work in Seattle with On the Boards and Velocity just before DOTE, then we are excited to premi\u00e8re it here in July.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Rebecca Margolick in Bunker + Vault<\/em>.\u00a0(photo by Maxx Berkowitz)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Margolick has performed the first 10 minutes of the solo Bunker\u00a0+ Vault <\/em>in Vancouver previously and said she is excited to be bringing the full show to DOTE.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s now a finished 35-minute solo,\u201d she said. \u201cI showed 20 minutes in Montreal, and I showed the full piece in Carcassonne, France, and in San Jos\u00e9, Costa Rica, once in November 2021 and just recently in May 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work is very much based on personal experience,\u201d she continued. \u201cIn it, there is a lot of imagery steeped\u00a0in memory, women, mothers, womb and resilience. Some inspiration and imagery in the solo came from reading through the archives at the 92nd St Y in New York City detailing the lives of immigrant Jewish women, from 1890 to 1950, residing at the Clara de Hirsch Home for Working Girls, and where and how my experience\u00a0has overlapped with theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dancing on the Edge takes place at Firehall Arts Centre, Scotiabank Dance Centre and various other locations. It also features online performances, as well as dance films and discussions. Tickets are pay-what-you-wish from $15 to $35, and offsite outdoor performances are free. For tickets and more information, visit dancingontheedge.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jewish artists participating in Dancing on the Edge July 7-16 include Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg in Pants. (photo by Wendy D Photography) Several Jewish community artists are part of the 34th annual Dancing on the Edge lineup, which includes more than 30 productions July 7-16. Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg will share part of a new solo called […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39030,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[21605,1447,3972,1203,7002,876,21606,1855],"class_list":["post-39029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-dancing","tag-dancing-on-the-edge","tag-dote","tag-firehall-arts-centre","tag-rebecca-margolick","tag-tara-cheyenne-friedenberg","tag-tasha-faye-evans","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\/39029","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=39029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}