New production offers an opportunity to see beyond the dance

York University’s Department of Dance spotlights its own with Dance Inside/Out, an engaging production offering an insider’s view of choreography and performance. The show runs two nights only, Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, in the Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan Theatre, Accolade East Building, on York’s Keele campus.

Dance Inside/Out will present works created by York dance Professors Carol Anderson, Holly Small (BFA ’77) and Susan Cash with York alumnus Sashar Zarif (MFA ’07). The performances will be layered with discussion about creative process. “Inside” dancers include faculty members Jennifer Bolt and Keiko Kitano as well as the department’s lively young repertory company, the York Dance Ensemble. They will share the stage with guest performers, Toronto-based indie artists Claudia Moore, Simi Rowen and Lucy Rupert.

Right: Holly Small

Program highlights include the world premiere of Radiant , choreographed by Holly Small and performed by Keiko Kitano. Radiant features original music by Governor General’s Award recipient and York alumnus John Oswald (BFA ’77), and video projections created by Small and Oswald. Cutting-edge fog-screen technology allows Kitano to move through the video image, which is projected on a surface made of very light mist.

Left: Sashar Zarif

Interbeing, co-choreographed by Susan Cash and Sashar Zarif (MFA ’07) and performed by the York Dance Ensemble, is a collaborative, intercultural work is set to music by Aziza Mustafazadeh, H. Alizadeh and audio from the World Dance Assembly conference in Brazil. It incorporates text excerpts from Yukio Mishima’s poetry in Sun & Steel. Full of mystical stories and curious gossip, Interbeing asks penetrating questions and tells us that no being is independent of another. Featured performers include York dance students Vanessa Cappello, Samantha Clowes, Kristin DiNino, Sky Fairchild-Waller, Nicole Leone, Kate Nankervis, Holly Newton, Deanna Roffey, Alison Smith, Jennifer Templeton, Alex Thompson and Bridgette Wilson. 

Right: Susan Cash 

Choreographed by Susan Cash and performed by Simi Rowen, Icefields is set to original music composed by Michael J. Baker. Icefields is part of a larger work, Body/Space/Desire, commissioned by Dancemakers.

Morning Blues is choreographed by Carol Anderson and performed by Claudia Moore. It was commissioned by Moore, the artistic director of MOonhORsE Dance Theatre, and set to music for lute and voice by Elizabethan composer John Dowland, sung by Sting. Morning Blues was inspired by the Moore’s unique qualities and her fascination with Shakespeare. Moore premiered the piece last year in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre in the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

Left: Carol Anderson

The dance work 11 x forgetting is inspired by amnesia and images from fairy tales as well as the music and lyrics of Radiohead. This excerpt, in particular is informed by the more than two decades-long friendship between the choreographers/performers, who have been dancing together since the age of eight. They have collaborated on five major works through Rupert’s company, Blue Ceiling Dance. 11 x forgetting (excerpt) is choreographed and performed by Jennifer Bolt and Lucy Rupert.

Dance Inside/Out takes to the stage Thursday, Jan. 31 and Friday, Feb. 1, at 7pm. General admission tickets are $8. For more information, contact the York University Box Office at 416-736-5888, or visit the Box Office Web site.