Not to brag or anything, but I got to go to another taping of So You Think You Can Dance Canada this week!  The Tuesday performance shows actually tape on Sunday evenings, so those of us lucky enough to be in the audience get a sneak peek of what everyone else sees on Tuesday.  I took a few friends with me down to the studio on Sunday night, this time we were standing in the “mosh pit” surrounding the stage itself.  It’s definitely fun to be down there, you can really feel the energy of the dancers when you’re that close to the stage.

I was really happy that we managed to get in to be an audience for the last performance taping of the year!  We saw so many routines, it was great!  All top 4 dancers together, just the girls, just the boys, Tara-Jean with Everett, Tara-Jean with Vincent, Vincent with Jayme-Rae, Jayme-Rae with Everett, it was non-stop dance!

Adding to the fun was watching the show on TV last night, trying to see if I could find myself in the crowd.  It also was a great chance to re-watch the performances, and try and decide who I think will win.  Jayme-Rae and Everett are still my favourites but I can honestly say these 4 dancers are so amazingly talented, I won’t be disappointed no matter who walks away with the title of Canada’s Favourite Dancer.

The season finale, and the final decision, will air on Sunday, October 25 on CTV.  I can’t wait!

One of my favourite movies is Moulin Rouge, directed by Baz Luhrmann. The movie told part of the story Paris, in the 1920s, and focused on that most famous of cabarets, The Moulin Rouge.

The subject has been covered by books, movies, musicals and immortalized perhaps most famously by Toulouse-Lautrec in his paintings.  The Moulin Rouge holds a special place for dance, though, as it is the birthplace of the Quadrille, the Can-Can and home to an amazing array of dancers known as the Diamond Dogs.

How excited was I, then, to read that the Royal Winnipeg Ballet is mounting a brand new ballet entitled Moulin Rouge!  It tells the story of Matthew and Natalie, who are drawn to Paris by the city’s passion, and follows them as they tempt the fates while seeking love and destiny in the infamous world of The Moulin Rouge.

RWB’s production is choreographed by Jordin Morris, and has its world premiere tomorrow night!  For anyone in Winnipeg or the surrounding area, this is such an exciting opportunity!  Another cool thing worth checking out – for anyone, regardless of where you live, is the amazing video blogs the RWB has put together for this production.  Such a great way to let us all see the levels and work that go into creating a brand new ballet production!

There are two great dance events coming up this weekend I wanted to share with everyone.  The first is a performance by Ballet Jorgen.  They’ll be in Peterborough at the Thomas A Stewart Secondary School, performing their original work, The Emperor’s New Clothes.   Choreographed by Benjamin Hatcher and with an original score by Canadian composer Ivan Barbotin, The Emperor’s New Clothes first premièred in October 2004. The work was created especially for communities in rural settings, that have less exposure to live performing arts.  Sounds like a great show to take kids to, as the story has an education lesson, there are interactive pre- and post- performance discussions, and an opportunity for little ones to learn some choreography!  For tickets, call 705-652-9416.

The second show is happening in Toronto.  It’s the Toronto International Flamenco Festival, which is dedicated to increasing the popularity of Flamenco in North America by creating an inclusive environment for both artists and spectators. Each year the Festival brings internationally acclaimed and Canadian artists to celebrate this powerful yet graceful dance on the main stages of Toronto.  This year’s festival features workshops beginning on Sunday the 18, and performances happening on Saturday October 24.  For more information, click here to access their website.

Last night I had the pleasure of watching the world premiere of a dance performance.  As part of ProArteDanza’s 5th anniversary season, ProArte Artistic Director Roberto Campanella created a work called Maria Celeste.  The work tells the story of Galileo Galilei, the 17th century scientist.  Galileo had a daughter, who was a nun, with the name of Sister Maria Celeste.  There are documented letters between Maria Celeste and her father, and Campanella intersperses readings from these letters between the dancing in his work.  Interestingly, he has cast a non-dancer, singer Patricia O’Callaghan in the role of Maria, who sings live on stage the original score created by Rick Hyslop. 

As I’ve said before, seeing live dance adds an extra something to the performance, there’s more at stake, more emotions involved.  Watching a work that you know has not yet been performed is always a unique and special experience, you can really feel that spark in the air.

ProArte also performed works choreographed by Robert Glumbek, ProArte’s Artistic Associate, and works he and Campanella choreographed together.  The performances continue through until Saturday night at Toronto’s Fleck Dance Theatre.

Motus O has to be the dance group with the most interesting backstory I’ve encountered in a long time.  The group, who are based out of Toronto, started when the three co-Artistic Directors met.  This is perhaps not that unusual, but when you add in that the three were an American gymnast, an Australian sheep shearer and a Canadian figure skater, things get different!  Motus O is Latin for method of movement, and these three co-Artistic Directors are certainly dedicated to their work.  Not only do they choreograph and perform, but the three also design and create sets, costumes, props and film!  They are interested in dramatic and dynamic explorations of the physical, but always accompanied by a sense of humour.

Their newest work, Perspectives, is having its world premiere at the Lebovic Centre for Arts and Entertainment in Stouffville, Ontario!  The show opens on Thursday and runs through the weekend.  An exciting chance for those outside of Canada’s major cities to see a world premiere performance!

I’ve been surfing the web quite a bit this week, reading about various dance events across the country.  One that’s definitely caught my eye is coming up next week, October 15 – 16, in Regina, Saskatchewan.  On these dates, New Dance Horizons is presenting On The Ice of Labrador by Sarah Chase, performed by Montreal Danse.  Montreal Danse is an exciting-sounding company.  The Artistic Director is Kathy Casey, and they seek out works by quite a wide variety of choreographers, from countries all over the world.  They work with both emerging and established choreographers, always trying to find something fresh, new and exciting within the dance they’re performing.  Since the company’s inception in 1986, they’ve produced almost 40 works with almost that many choreographers, which is pretty astounding.  On these dates, the work they’re performing is by Sarah Chase, who I find to be an incredibly unique dance artist.  Sarah Chase combines dance with the art of storytelling, hence the name of her company, Sarah Chase Dance Stories.  She has created and presented works at festivals all over the world, including some in Austria, Germany and Holland.

For those of you in the Regina area, the performances will be hosted by the Conexus Art Centre, click here for details and to purchase tickets.

And lastly, I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!

I found out about this dance performance through The Dance Current's Destination Dance-Danse website, a great resource for listings of dance happenings across Canada. 

Last night I had the very special experience of attending a live taping of a So You Think You Can Dance Canada results show!  I took with me two of the collaborators on www.wanttodance.ca  and we all proudly wore our want to dance Tshirts – though I don’t think we ever made it on camera.  We had been given VIP seating, which meant we got to spend time in the VIP lounge both before and after the taping.  Sitting in the lounge beforehand was great, as they re-played Tuesday’s episode, and we could all chat about who we liked, who we thought would survive this round, what style of choreography we had thought best.  At about 6 pm they ushered us into the studio.  I think the thing I found most surprising was how small it felt!  That stage looks gigantic on television, but it’s not huge, it’s a normal stage size – and the judges table looks so tall on TV, but it’s just a normal table. 

Once we were seated, we were walked through how things would work, when we should applaud and when we shouldn’t, a few rules were reviewed – no gum chewing allowed – and then we were off and airing live on TV.  Watching the bottom four guys and girls perform their solos live was a really cool experience.  I’m a huge fan of the show but there’s something kind of magical about being in the same room as a dance performance, the energy and the intensity, the emotions can really hit you much harder in person.

My personal favourites, Everett and Jayme Rae were partnered this week and it was great to see them working together.  They also performed my favourite routine of the night, the jazz funk choreographed by Nico Archambault.  In the end, Kim and Cody were eliminated, and now we’re down to the top six dancers. I can’t wait to watch next week 

Saturday October 3 was the fourth annual Nuit Blanche in Toronto.  The event has the wonderful tag line of “Toronto’s free all-night contemporary art thing” and is just that.  From sunset on the Saturday to sunrise on Sunday, the city’s downtown core is taken over by a wide variety of art exhibits, installations and performances, all of which are free.   Previous years have seen a lot of different exhibits and installations of art, but I’ve never really found dance to be all that included.  This year I was pleased to see dance was all over the Nuit Blanche map. 

There was Susie Burpee, who recently won a Dora Award for her show Mischance and Fair Fortune, performing something called Dead Philosophers’ Limbo.  This dance was a 12-hour long performance!  Set to a reading of Simon Critchley’s The Book of Dead Philosophers, various dancers had boomboxes  that played readings of passages from the book.  These acted as the musical score for the performers.  Twenty four dancers perform to the readings of the book in which 200 philosophers die – definitely pushing the boundaries of what audiences expect when they go to see dance.

Canada’s National Ballet School, also known as my day job, was the very proud host of performances by the incomparable Peggy Baker.  She and her 24 dancers performed a work called move every hour throughout the night.  It involved the dancers advancing across a studio floor in rolling, meditative patterns,

Meagan O’Shea and the York Dance Ensemble performed dance like no one is watching.  Four teams of dancers performed in relay to portable music all throughout the various areas of nuit blanche.

The Toronto Public Library got into the swing of things by hosting Dance Dance Evolution, an all-night dance party with each hour focused on a different dance era/style, and instructions in all the different styles, from the Twist to the Charleston, Capoeira to Bollywood, it’s all there!

It’s so great to see dance so well integrated into this year’s Nuit Blanche, and I’m already looking forward to next year!

For information on Nuit Blanche check out their website by clicking here.

As previously mentioned in some of my blogs, I’m a big fan of the TV show So You Think You Can Dance, and So You Think You Can Dance Canada.  Earlier this week, a few of my friends and I headed down to the Air Canada Centre here in Toronto to check out the SYTYCD live tour show.  This is the third year we’ve gone together and, to be honest, the first year we didn’t have enough time to make signs to cheer on our favourite dancers. 

The show is a great recap of the season of SYTYCD, the top 12 dancers are there, and they perform some of the best (and I think hardest!) routines from the show itself.  Each dancer also gets to perform a solo, and the rest of the show is filled with the dancers introducing each other and a few group routines.  This year’s show was, I think, the best yet.  Not only were there some amazing routines in there – Janette and Brandon’s disco, Kayla and Kapuono’s addiction routine, Adé and Melissa’s breast cancer awareness routine – but the energy and excitement of the audience and the performers was palpable.

Being in the ACC watching these performers do their thing live was an interesting experience, as contrasted with the way I’m more used to viewing them, at a distance, through the TV.  While I will continue to be a huge fan of the show and will keep watching it, seeing the live show reminded me there really is something special about watching a live dance performance, it impacts and effects you in ways that a television show or a movie is never going to be able to replicate.

The tour for the American top ten continues throughout the fall, and the Canadian top ten tickets are going on sale tomorrow, click here for more info on a chance to see Canada’s favourite dancers live!

A couple of weeks ago, when we were just starting the wanttodance website, I had the opportunity to chat with Lindsay Zier-Vogel.  Lindsay is the web writer for So You Think You Can Dance Canada, and is responsible for the great information available on the SYTYCDC website.  Lindsay and the folks at SYTYCDC are fans of wanttodance, which is very exciting for all of us and for me personally.  Not only am I a huge fan of the show, but I think what it does by way of exposing dance to a new and varied audience is really great.  I also love that the show allows us to show off the amazing dance talent we have all across this country.  To read the SYTYCDC piece about us, click here!