Punky Girls
Neah Kalcounis (Calgary)
Radio, through talk or commercial song, has been tethered to my life. Whether things are good or bad, I tune in. Hearing what is happening, and listening to what people are singing about, guides me. I find familiarity with stuff on air, or maybe, I just find relevance in everything. My radio is my teacher and shares my triumphs, my tribulations and my broodings.
For the Punky Girls, I chose three songs off my favorite station, which happens now to be off air. I took the tunes into the studio, creating and piecing together bits of Me. I imposed myself on these songs I love. So began this weave of motion.
Nothing here is a concrete story. At the very least it is not intended to be so. I am not a storyteller. I am, however, caring and diligent about my relationships. I cherish them but realize they can at times feel like a hammer is taking to my soul.
Choreographer: Neah Kalcounis
Dancers: Jennnifer Jaspar, Hilary Maxwell, Laura Smyth
Music: Pilot Speed, Gandharvas, Radio Head
Costume Design: Neah Kalcounis
Costume Construction: Jordan Kendel
Thank-you to The Alberta Foundation to the Arts for assistance in the creation of this work. Thank-you to The Fluid Festival for giving the work this opportunity. As well a special thank you to Calgary Opera, My Brother, his family and the people who have tirelessly assisted, supported and shared with me. Their efforts make day-after-day worthwhile.
Neah Kalcounis is a cutting edge dance maker. Underlining her rigor and intelligence, Calgary’s Avenue Magazine chose her as one of the Top Ten Calgarians to Watch in the millennium. Over eight years, she’s pursued dance from her base in Calgary, Alberta.Where Canada Magazine chose her as one of Calgary’s top “Nine Artists Rising”, Neah knows she’s intense…Her own physical language is gestural and gnarled, with a hint of something ancient as the Earth… Kalcounis is passionate about dance, not in an airy-fairy way, but driven by a much larger impulse…-Melanie Jones, March 2005. Neah entered the ‘90s with Advanced Royal Academy of Dancing and ISTD ballet certification. She went on to university studies in philosophy (Regina, SK); spent two years at Grant MacEwan Community College (Edmonton, AB), graduating in Dance Performance on the Dean’s Honour Roll (modern technique, composition and teaching studies). She then ventured forth to Ottawa’s Le Groupe Dance Lab , Canada’s premiere choreographic laboratory, for her professional debut and immersion in Eastern Canadian dance. In 1998, she returned to Calgary to found Footprints, to study philosophy, and to mount professional chorepgraphy with a corps of modern dancers.
