Graduate students Shannon Roberts, Nancy听Latoszewski Greyeyes and Ilse Gudi帽o, candidates in 91亚色鈥檚 Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program in choreography and dance dramaturgy, premiere new choreographies for ensembles in Temenos. The show, performed by professional and pre-professional dancers, runs Feb.听15 to 17 in the Sandra Faire & Ivan Fecan Theatre at听the Keele campus.

Shannon Roberts. Photo by听David Hou

The Greek word temenos refers to a piece of land cut off from common use, often dedicated as a place for worship. Historically, the proscenium stage has been regarded as a space reserved for particular users and dedicated to expressing the meanings that infuse our bodies and relationships.

As well as addressing the concept of the stage as a special site, the three emerging choreographers build on the idea of the dancing body itself as temenos 鈥� simultaneously separated from society鈥檚 imposed meanings, and infused with individual sources of meaning for each artist.

鈥淭heir dances focus on navigating the proscenium stage as a site for researching the body鈥檚 memories and cultural constructions,鈥� said Professor Darcey Callison, the production鈥檚 artistic director. 鈥淔rom delving into the historical roots of flamenco, to exploring a family narrative of coal miners in Pennsylvania, to challenging the complexity of the male gaze, these choreographers investigate the proscenium theatre as temenos: a theatrical space that frames these works in order to make visible the body as a conduit for memories and social conditions that permeate their choreography.鈥澨�

Fusing modern dance with her athletic background, Shannon Roberts incorporates Bollywood, ballet, jazz, modern, hip hop, figure skating and flying trapeze into her work. Her choreography is inspired by social issues and the people, artwork and cultures she has experienced in her travels around the world.听听听听听听听听听听听听听

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Roberts鈥� work, A Way of Seeing, is a discourse between Edvard Munch鈥檚 painting Woman in Three Stages and writer John Berger鈥檚 influential book Ways of Seeing. Investigating how a woman鈥檚 experience is informed through youth, sexuality and aging, this trio explores a sensual physical language that frames the private experience as public display.

听Ilse Gudi帽o Barthold. Photo by David Hou

In her piece, In the Marrow: A听Crucial Journey, Ilse Gudi帽o Barthold explores the history of flamenco as cultural memory and personal expression. Four dancers and four live musicians bring to the stage this complex journey, from a dance form infused with cultural significance to a movement vocabulary that is both personal and contemporary.

Trained in flamenco dance in Madrid and Seville, Gudi帽o Barthold has been a member of the Esmeralda Enrique Spanish Dance Company since 1997 and has performed as a soloist and with other flamenco dancers across Canada and internationally.

In Valley of Coal, Nancy Latoszewski (Greyeyes) tells the story of her grandparents. Both her grandfathers were Pennsylvania coal miners, and her choreography charts memories of the challenges they faced and the personal sacrifices they made. This narrative choreography is Latoszewski鈥檚 way of exploring oral history through her work as a dance artist.

Nancy Latoszewski (Greyeyes). Photo by听David Hou

A former soloist with Feld Ballets NY, Latoszewski has also been a principal dancer with the Cleveland San Jose Ballet and Alberta Ballet. Her work has been performed at Nuit Blanche and by Ballet J枚rgen, and she has also choreographed for film.

The Temenos program concludes with a structured improvisation created by the 91亚色 Dance Ensemble鈥檚 (YDE) artistic director Holly Small in collaboration with the ensemble, and听performed by the 16 dancers and five musicians of the YDE.

For tickets, contact the Box Office at 416-736-5888.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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As part of the residency, the YDE will be presenting an original program that includes the premiere of Suddenly Everyone, a site-specific collaboration created and performed by the YDE dancers and musicians under the direction of choreographer and dance faculty member Holly Small.

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Above: YDE dancers performing Turbulence, choreographed by Shannon Roberts. Photo: David Hou

The YDE will also present 91亚色听dance and concurrent education student听Anne Goad's poignant duet It's just what you do, which will be听performed by a different couple each evening.听Each group of dancers will perform the duet not to the original music, but instead to live improvised music provided by the YDE musicians with听two different musicians performing each evening.

Since September the YDE has been working together every Tuesday and Friday to explore the creation of music and dance. The听residency at the Eleanor Winters Gallery听marks the first public presentation of YDE鈥檚 ongoing collective creation of music and dance.

All of the 30-minute performances are free and open to the public. The gallery is located at 129 Winters听College.

For more information on the YDE and its residency at the gallery, contact Sky Fairchild-Waller, event organizer at Winters College.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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鈥淚t鈥檚 a dream come true,鈥� says Virmani, the writer and star of the new Masala-flavoured hockey movie Breakaway, which gets its world premiere tonight [Sept. 10] at 9pm at the Elgin.听

Virmani plays Rajveer Singh, a Sikh-Canadian with a slight identity crisis who defies both his father鈥檚 traditional Indian rules and hockey norms by forming his own South Asian team. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about our values as Canadians,鈥� boasts Virmani, who not too long ago was an actor struggling for work.听

After graduating from 91亚色 with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in business & society, Virmani took lessons at the Lee Strasberg Institute of Theatre and Film in New 91亚色 City. Returning to Toronto, he found there weren鈥檛 too many roles waiting for him. 鈥淚 was auditioning and reading for scripts and nothing was connecting to me.鈥澨�

That鈥檚 when he decided to create his own opportunity by pulling a Matt Damon (or a Ben Affleck, take your pick). Like the Good Will Hunting scribes, Virmani wrote his own role by conceiving his own movie. For inspiration, Virmani drew on his life 鈥� from his love of hockey to the generational, cultural and identity issues that trouble most young South Asian Canadians.

Fortunately, getting the movie made wasn鈥檛 too difficult for Virmani, who practically grew up in the film industry. Not only is his father, Ajay Virmani, a producer on Deepa Mehta鈥檚 Bollywood/Hollywood and Water, but Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar is a close family friend. 鈥淎kshay is like my older brother,鈥� Virmani says. 鈥淗e is somebody that I have grown up with.鈥澨�

With his father, Kumar and even comedian Russell Peters (another family friend) all on board as producers, Virmani had no trouble populating his movie with actors like Rob Lowe and Camilla Belle (whom the writer conveniently cast as his romantic interest) and musicians like Drake and Ludacris. That鈥檚 some major company for Virmani鈥檚 first stroll down the red carpet.听听

And if Breakaway does well, it certainly won鈥檛 be his last.听听

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