Vancouver International Dance Festival welcomes work by Daina Ashbee from March 22 to 25
Explorative group piece will show nude dancers using sound and movement to tell canine-driven stories
SPONSORED POST BY VIDF
J’ai pleuré avec les chiens (TIME, CREATION, DESTRUCTION 2021). Photo by Johan Pijpops
Vancouver International Dance Festival will showcase Daina Ashbee’s work J’ai pleuré avec les chiens (TIME, CREATION, DESTRUCTION 2021) in partnership with The Dance Centre from March 22 to 25 at 8 pm.
Performances of the 75-minute show—director-choreographer Ashbee’s first group piece—will be held at the Scotiabank Dance Centre.
J’ai pleuré avec les chiens plunges into states of being with both sober and incisive precision. The work was first inspired by seeking solace in the embrace of one’s dog. It explores the density and complexity of canine and human structures: their entrails, thought processes, energies, and life forces.
Far from any possible attempts at categorization or binary representation, performers Audrey Sides, Celia Green, Elise Vanderborght, Imara Bosco, Sarah Flack, Benjamin Kamino, and Sh’vii Rosen will allow their openly bare bodies to delve into various states of movement by approaching each other, stacking on all fours, creating lines of flight, and more.
J’ai pleuré avec les chiens (TIME, CREATION, DESTRUCTION 2021). Photo by Stephanie Paillet
Connection emerges in poetic trance-like motions, while the dancers’ bodies generate chants, movements, growls, yelps, cries, and calls. Channeling intention through flesh, the performers convey myriads of stories, embodying a web of possibilities.
The piece is transitory and fleeting. Ashbee’s work forges a sensory experience that shapes a ritual of cohabitation and decompartmentalization, accomplished with the help of rehearsal director Gabriel Nieto.
Born in Nanaimo, B.C., Ashbee is an artist, performer, and choreographer known for her radical works at the edge of dance and performance.
She was a double prizewinner at LES PRIX DE LA DANSE DE MONTRÉAL in 2016, was named by the prestigious German TANZ magazine as one of 30 promising artists for the year 2017, and was named one of 25 to watch by the American publication DANCE in 2018.
In 2019, Ashbee won a New York Dance and Performance Award (also known as a Bessie Award) for Outstanding Choreographer. In 2020 she received a fellowship award from Springboard Danse Montreal.
Since 2015, her work has been presented over 100 times, in more than 30 cities across 15 countries. Her pieces have been performed in some of the most prestigious festivals, such as The Venice Biennale, Oktoberdans, the Munich Dance Biennale, and Montpellier Danse.
Tickets for the upcoming shows can be purchased here.
Post sponsored by Vancouver International Dance Festival.
J’ai pleuré avec les chiens (TIME, CREATION, DESTRUCTION 2021). Photo by Stephanie Paillet