"...a fresh choreographic language all their own. It’s spellbinding." - Stir Vancouver
Shows
"Dark, quietly riveting gem of aerial drama" - The List
"mesmerizing...intensely emotive"
- Centre Stage
Throe
Throe explores our interdependence in the aftermath of our future disaster with a stunning intersection of aerial acrobatics, contemporary dance, and visual theatre. This new work features six powerful performers in a world of aerial ropes, as they cling to what remains in the throes of survival. While Throe depicts us at the mercy of our circumstances, it also highlights the resilience and hope in collectivity. It pushes the boundaries of aerial dance, blurring the space between floor and air to create a compellingly kinetic and visually arresting experience.
Throe was created in a 2021-22 residency at The Dance Centre (Vancouver, BC) and had its world premiere November 17-19, 2022 as part of the Global dance Connections series at The Dance Centre.
The project is made possible thanks to the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council, with additional support from CircusWest Performing Arts Society.
Concept: Gabrielle Martin
Co-choreographers: Gabrielle Martin & Jeremiah Hughes
Aerialist-Dancers: Marissa Wong, Brenna Metzmeier,
Darian Mark, Jeremiah Hughes, Alex Tam, Brianne Chan
Original cast included: Eowynn Enquist & Isak Enquist
Composer: Jo Hirabayashi
Lighting Designer: Sophie Tang
Costume Designer: Amy McDougall
Limb(e)s
Limb(e)s is contemporary aerial-dance that explores the liminal space between holding onto or letting go of another. A “Dark, quietly riveting gem of aerial drama” (The List), Limb(e)s unfolds to the haunting original music of composer Nicolas Bernier in a rich visual world that earned it a Total Theatre Award nomination in Physical and Visual Theatre (2019). The result is a hypnotic, destabilizing narrative full of loss, yearning, and tragic beauty.
Limb(e)s was created with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and BC Arts Council, and in residencies at Cirkör LAB (Sweden), L’Espace Catastrophe (Belgium) and Le Centre de Création (France). In 2019, Limb(e)s premiered at Montréal Complètement Cirque and La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines' L'autre cirque before touring to Assembly Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe (UK) where it was nominated for a TOTAL THEATRE AWARD in Physical and Visual Theatre. In 2021, its cinematic adaptation screened at the Dancing on the Edge Festival (Vancouver), Assembly Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Toronto International Dance Festival. Limb(e)s won The Dance Centre’s Isadora Award for excellence in choreography in 2022.
Concept:
Gabrielle Martin
Direction, Choreography + Original Cast:
Gabrielle Martin + Jeremiah Hughes
2024 remount Aerial and Dance Artists:
Eowynn Enquist + Isak Enquist
Lighting Design: Sophie Tang
All music composed by Nicolas Bernier
Except ○ I composed by Nicolas Bernier + Simon Trottier
Costumes: Amy McDougall
Cinematography for digital performance: Jessica Han
- Centre Stage
Red
Red is an immersive performance experience inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s Mask of the Red Death. It addresses our encroaching fate and complicity in the face of the climate crises. In act one, circus and urban dance vignettes reflect humanity’s homo deus narrative. Progressively, the apotheosis narrative of the performances becomes injected with the shadow of inevitable consequence. In the second act, the climate crisis, or “death”, has arrived at the party. Lifeless bodies are suspended, suffocated in the material of their own making, and the final dance is one of mourning and loss. Red evokes a cathartic experience through examining our collective guilt and repressed fears for the future.
Choreographer-Directors: Gabrielle Martin and Jeremiah Hughes
Dance and Circus Artists: Juan Duarte, Alex Tam, Marissa Wong,
Daria Mikhaylyuk, Brenna Metzmeier, Jeremiah Hughes, Dom Taylor,
Jared Khalifa
Composer: Jo Hirabayashi
Video designer: Jessica Han
Lighting designer: Sophie Tang
Costume Designer: Am McDougall
Red is currently in development, with a premiere planned for fall 2024.
