Springboard Performance | The Fluid Festival 2011

Cedar Lake Artists

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet Artists

Strømgren | Pite | Veldman

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet brings to Calgary an exciting selection of works by some of the world’s most sought-after emerging choreographersm under the Artistic Direction of Benoit-Swan Pouffer. Information about Crystal Pite and Didy Veldman are below.

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Sunday Again Jo Strømgren

Choreography – Jo Strømgren

Assistant to the Choreographer – Alexandra Damiani
Lighting Design – Jim French and Jo Strømgren
Costume Design – Junghyun Georgia Lee
Music – “Jesu, meine Freude,” Motet No. 3 in E minor, BWV 225-230 by Johann Sebastian Bach, Maitrise Des Petits Chanteurs de Versailles, Concert Saint Julien, Direction Jean-François Fremont

Program note

“ ‘Sunday, Again’ is first of all a piece that tries to reflect the diversity in Johann Sebastian Bach’s music. Abstract movement patterns are woven together in fugal ways, not unlike the baroque way of assembling melodic phrases and ornamentations. Secondly, and on an associative level, it thematically treats the domestic jungle of luxury problems and gender frictions. As the title suggests – there is always the irritating and inevitable Sunday which forces couples to test their coexistence abilities. Leisure time is not good for certain types of relationships.” -Jo Strømgren

Jo Strømgren

Jo Strømgren was born in 1970 and spent most of his early years skiing and playing football. In the eighties, American dance movies intoxicated him with dreams of dancing jazz ballet but he soon advanced to classical ballet and contemporary dance. At the age of 20 he was invited to to fill up some empty student space at the National College of Ballet and Dance in Oslo. After four years of study (three years with Classical Ballet and one year with Choreography) he was engaged by Carte Blance Dance Company in Bergen as a dancer and choreographer. In his three years with the company he gained a professional base for his later work, mixing his own dances with the varied repertory of Mats Ek, Rui Horta, Jorma Uotinen, Jens Östberg and Itzik Galili. After a major injury to his right knee, Jo became a full-time freelance choreographer. He has since injured his left knee in a football match and is now stiff in both legs. Artistic recognition came suddenly with the self-financed and hysterically frantic ”Schizo Stories,” a 75-minute one-man show about necrosis where his distinct body language and mix of absurd humor versus dark psychology stood out clearly.

Jo has been called multi-talented because his work involves not just choreography and theatre direction, but music composition, set design, costume design and lighting design in addition to his status as performer. Jo is also an emerging playwright and screenwriter. In 2003 Jo made his debut as a feature film director with colleague Runar Hodne, which has led him to an interest in dramaturgy and psychologically motivated performance qualities.

Jo has received commissions from Ballet de l’Opera National du Rhin (France), Ballett Nürnberg (Germany), Iceland Dance Company, The Norwegian National Ballet, New Danish Dance Theatre, Norrdans Dance Company (Sweden), Oslo Dance Ensemble, Repertory Dance Theatre Utah (USA), Cloud Gate (Taiwan), Junior Ballet de Conservatoire de Paris, Skånes Danseteater (Sweden), National Academy of Theatre Oslo, National Academy of Theatre Stockholm, National College of Ballet and Dance Oslo, National Academy of Dance Stockholm, IT Dansa Barcelona, Den Nationale Scene

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Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue Crystal Pite

Choreography – Crystal Pite

Lighting Design – Jim French
Costume Design – Junghyun Georgia Lee
Assistant to the Choreographer – Alexandra Damiani
Music – Cliff Martinez, Selections from the original motion picture sound track “Solaris”

Program notes

I love the word “rescue.” It captures a whole story in a single word. Similarly, the body can convey narrative through the simplest of actions. For me, this work for Cedar Lake was an act of excavation. After creating the choreography, I searched within it for images that specifically evoked rescue. There are many of them. They exist inside the dancing like fragments of an untold narrative. I suppose the presence of rescue in this work is twofold, as I tried to liberate and expose these images for brief contemplation before releasing them back into the dance: saving and holding one picture of rescue in each of the ten duets.
-Crystal Pite

Crystal Pite

Canadian choreographer and performer Crystal Pite has created works for Cullberg Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater, Ballett Frankfurt, The National Ballet of Canada, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal (Resident Choreographer 2001–04), Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Ballet British Columbia, Alberta Ballet, Ballet Jorgen, and several independent dance artists; most recently Louise Lecavalier.

Pite is a former company member of Ballet British Columbia and Ballett Frankfurt. In 2001, she formed her own company, Kidd Pivot, and continues to create and perform in her own work. Kidd Pivot tours nationally and internationally with productions that include Dark Matters (2009), Fault (2008), Lost Action (2006), Uncollected Work (2002) and Double Story (2004), created with Richard Siegal. Kidd Pivot is the recipient of the Alcan Performing Arts Award for 2006.
Crystal Pite is Associate Choreographer of Nederlands Dans Theater and Associate Dance Artist of Canada’s National Arts Centre. She is the recipient of Canada’s 2008 Governor General’s Mentorship Award.

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frame of view Didy Veldman

Choreography - Didy Veldman

Assistant to the Choreographer – Alexandra Damiani
Lighting Design – Ben Ormerod
Costume Design – Miriam Buether
Scenic Design – Miriam Buether
Music – Arranged by Philip Feeney

“K’in sventa Ch’ul Me’tik Kwadulupe “ Music by Osvaldo Golijov. By arrangement with Ytalianna
Music Publishing, publisher and copyright holder.
“Mugam Sayagi(String Quartes No.3)” Written by Franghiz Ali-Zadeh. By arrangemenet with G. Schirmer, INC. publisher and copyright owner.
Selections from “Gaite Parisienne”. Written by Jacques Offenbach, arranged by Emmanuel Rosenthal. Used by permission of The Ballet Foundation.
“Ne Me Quitte Pas” (50% Interest) (Jacques Romain Brel) © 1961 & 2001 Warner Chappell Music France SAS (Ex Tutti Editions) & Pouchenel Editions Musicales. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.

“Anastaja” Written by Kimmo Pohjonen. Published by Zen Master Publishing Oy from the Kimmo Pohjonen album “Kielo” (Rockadillo Records).
“Let’s Never Stop Falling in Love” Written by China F. Forbes and Thomas M. Lauderdale. Used by permission of Pink Martini/Thomas K. Lauderdale Music.
“And the door is still open(to my heart)” Copyright 1955 Sony/ATV Music Publishing and Chuck Willis Music Co. All rights administered by Sony/ATV Publising LLC, 8 Music Square West, Nashville, TN 37203. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Program notes

I am investigating the physical movement a particular emotion may take, how it manifests itself in our body, how long that physicality may last, and the energy that it creates. By creating different interior and exterior scenes, and utilizing a varied musical landscape, I hope to create an accessible work with a touch of irony and humor.
– Didy Veldman

Didy Veldman

Dutch choreographer Didy Veldman trained at the Scapino Academy in Amsterdam. She has danced with Scapino Ballet, Ballet du Grand Grand Théâtre de Genève and Rambert Dance Company, working with international choreographers such as Jiri Kylian, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin and Christopher Bruce, among others.

In 1987 she began her career as a choreographer and continued to develop her choreography throughout her dancing career. In 1993 she founded Alias Company with Guilherme Botelho. Their creation “En Manqué” won two major choreographic awards, the Dance Exchange International in 1993 and the Prix Romand des Spectacle Independent in 1994. That same year she was invited to join Rambert Dance Company and created three works for their repertoire. She received the Choo-San Goh & H. Robert Magee Foundation Award for a new creation with Rambert in 1999. Didy left Rambert in 2000 to concentrate on her choreographic career.

She has created and re-staged works for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, Ballet Gulbenkian, Rambert Dance Company, Cullberg Ballet, Northern Ballet Theatre, New Zealand Ballet, the Komische Oper Berlin, Scottish Dance Theatre, amongst others. Recently she has created a new version of “Cinderella” for the Göteborg Ballet and “Peter and the Wolf” for ‘In the Wings’ an independent production company.