May 05, 2003 -

In June the Canada Dance Festival (CDF) in co-production with the National Arts Centre will present the 4^th annual Dance Advance Festival. Dance Advance consists of one evening performance at the National Arts Centre and two evenings of outdoor performances in Strathcona Park.

Two Hot Ottawa Choreographers

CDF and the NAC with lead sponsor Swarovski Canada are proud to showcase two of Ottawa's finest choreographers Anik Bouvrette and Sylvie Desrosiers in a mixed program on Thursday, June 26 at 8:00 pm in the Studio of the National Arts Centre. Tickets are $25.50 and available by calling Ticketmaster at (613) 755-111 or in person at the NAC box office.

"We are thrilled to present the work of these two nationally recognized Ottawa choreographers to the community in which they live and work. The CDF believes that presenting contemporary dance from our community furthers our mandate of being a community player. " says Brian H. Webb, the CDF's artistic producer.

Anik Bouvrette

Praised for the organic quality and spiritual nature of her work, Anik Bouvrette is a choreographer living and working in Ottawa. With each new creation, Anik Bouvrette seeks to bring the audience on a journey that leads them to their emotional centres. Through an intimate collaboration between dance, music and lighting, she creates a poetic landscape filled with subtle yet deeply evocative images that move the audience emotionally and/or spiritually. Her unique movement vocabulary is visceral and organic, emphasizing the torso, arms, hands and head. Movements are often broken at the hips and arms, adding weight to the overall vocabulary. Anik's choreography has been described as breathtaking, sinuous, intricate and deeply engaging.

For this June, Anik Bouvrette is creating a new piece with Ottawa-based dancer Jacqueline Ethier, whom she has been working with since 1999. Jacqueline has performed in three of Anik's pieces: entre deux murmures, Brigantia and Lustrale. In this new solo, Anik intends to build on the experiences that Jacqueline and she have shared in the last few years to create a piece that will lead them into new territory together.

Unlike her previous creative processes, Anik has begun the creation of this piece with an empty canvas and is letting her explorations with Jacqueline reveal the theme of the work. This new way of working has been extremely inspiring for both Anik and Jacqueline. The piece will be in collaboration with Paul Auclair, lighting designer and feature a score by composer Josh Latour.

Sylvie Desrosiers

Independent choreographer Sylvie Desrosiers has presented her work in Ottawa at La Nouvelle Scène, Arts Court, the National Gallery of Canada and the Canada Dance Festival. In Montreal at Tangente, Studio 303 and the Festival international de Nouvelle Danse, in Toronto at the 1997 and 1998 fFida and in Vancouver at the Dancing in the Edge festival. Following a three-week residency at Le Groupe Dance Lab, she recently created à tire d'aile a new full-length trio that premiered last September at La Nouvelle Scène. Her recent work also includes Reflet that was commissioned by the National Gallery of Canada and presented in the summer of 2002 in conjunction with the Tom Thomson exhibition.

For this June, Sylvie would like to present expanded and more developed chosen excerpts of the trio entitled à tire d'aile. This new dance work is performed with intense commitment by renowned dancers Susie Burpee, Yvonne Coutts and Owen Montague. Personally Desrosiers fells that this work presents well her unique dance vocabulary. Sylvie is very interested in pushing the strong physicality inherent to this new piece and would like to see the dancers take the risk of going to the edge. She believes those three dancers, with their enthusiasm and vigour, will entice her to expand the quality and dynamic possibilities of those exciting movement explorations

Let your spirit soar...
Canada Dance Festival and New Dance Horizons in co-production with the National Arts Centre present

The Pelican Nocturne
conceived and directed by Robin Poitras
June 27 & 28, at dusk (8:30 pm)
Pay-what-you-can

Join in a lantern lit musical dance procession through beautiful Strathcona Park (off Laurier Avenue East at Charlotte Avenue) set beside the Rideau River in Ottawa's historic Sandy Hill neighbourhood.

The processional performance of the Pelican Nocturne is the end result of a two-week arts workshop for youth as they experience the Pelican Project, a series of workshops which explore the magic of art, nature and myth through sound, movement, text and visuals.

Make your own lantern at home and bring it down to the park to join in the procession.

Lantern Making Instructions

Materials Required
- one balloon
- one paint brush
- 3-4 sheets of orange tissue paper
- fishing line
- bamboo pole or stick
- white glue (diluted: mix 2 parts glue to 1 part water)
- light source with a small battery or glow stick **
- a cardboard balloon holder: cut a slit halfway through a square piece of cardboard for the knot of the balloon
- masking tape and scissors
- covered flat work surface

** Please note: for safety reasons we do not recommend using a candle as your light source.

Instructions

Inflate the balloon and tie it. Slide the knot into the slit made in the cardboard balloon holder. Tape the stand to your covered work surface.

Ripe the tissue paper into pieces and place in a box so they do not get glue on them

Starting at the bottom of the balloon: coat the balloon with some glue and place pieces of tissue paper on the balloon. Make sure the pieces of tissue paper are overlapping. Continue covering your balloon all the up to 2 or 3 inches from the top of the balloon and the knot.

After putting on two layers allow the lantern to dry overnight. The next day you may find you want to cover up a few areas a bit more. Make sure you have many strong layers at the bottom of the balloon where your light source will sit inside and have reinforced the top area around the edge well where you will carry the lantern with the fishing line on your stick.

Once you have covered the balloon well and it is completely dry, then break the balloon and remove it from the lantern.

Using scissors cut around the opening to make a nice smooth edge about 5 inches wide.

Poke a hole in either side of the lantern close to the top rim edge. Run the fishing line through the hole and tie a knot. Do the same on the other side.

Place your light source and battery inside the lantern

Attach the stick to the center of the fishing line

Hope you will join in the Pelican Nocturne procession with your lantern at Strathcona Park on June 27 or 28 at dusk.

The Pelican Project

The Canada Dance Festival has been working with New Dance Horizons to bring their concept of the Pelican Project to Ottawa. New Dance Horizons' Pelican Project has a 6-year history in the city of Regina and is an interdisciplinary, multicultural arts program for youth 12 to 24 years of age. Forty youth participants will work with 12 professional artists to develop the project from June 14-28.

The project is promoted towards youth within the Ottawa community with a specific focus and invitation to aboriginal youth and youth from other cultures to participate. If you know of someone between the ages of 12 and 14 that is interested in dance, music (including band and choir members) theatre or visual arts this is a great arts experience for them. Students from throughout the Ottawa Carleton District School Board are involved.

It is not possible to make all the art and costume pieces required for the performance during the workshop period in June. So we have been working with groups of young people from the Ottawa Carleton District School Board, art classes and schools to begin building some of the art and costume pieces. This extended group of 100 youth will become involved in the project through making these art items and are welcome to either attend the performances or join in the procession in June.

Local leaders from the aboriginal community have joined in animating the creation of every element of the performance including the processional dance choreography, music, art and costume elements. Our partners on the project are: Odawa Native Friendship Centre, Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health, Minwaashin Lodge as well as workshop leaders Jeffery Lee, Paula du Hamel, Lib Spry and Peter Ryan.

For more information or to receive a registration form to participate please contact the Canada Dance Festival at 947-7000 x 576.

The Canada Dance Festival would like to acknowledge its partners and sponsors for their generous contribution to the Dance Advance Festival.

Canada Council for the Arts, Department of Canadian Heritage, National Arts Centre, City of Ottawa, Swarovski Canada, Banfield Seguin Limited, Pixel Voodoo, Ontario Trillium Foundation, F.K. Morrow Foundation, Soloway Wright, Business Development Bank, Corporate Research Group, TD Canada Trust, National Gallery of Canada, Odawa Native Friendship Centre, Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health, Minwaashin Lodge