Cathy Levy chats with world-renowned Greek artist Dimitris Papaioannou on the eve of the North American exclusive National Arts Centre presentation of his new workTransverse Orientation. He speaks of his early years as a visual artist and student of the iconic Greek painter Yannis Tsarouchis, his introduction to the world of movement and the successes that led him to direct the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. He credits Claire Verlet with launching his international career which exploded after presentingStill Lifeat Théâtre de la Ville in 2014. Several works followed including co-commissions with many international theatres. He then became the first artist to create a full-length work for Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. Lastly, he shares the very personal origin of and issues at play in creatingTransverse Orientation.
In this special NAC Dance podcast, Cathy Levy (Executive Producer of Dance at Canada’s National Arts Centre), Nathalie Bonjour (Director of Performing Arts at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre), and Jim Smith (Artistic and Executive Director of Vancouver’s DanceHouse) chat with Alan Lucien Øyen, one of Norway’s most exciting multi-talented and in-demand artists, about his art and bringing Story, story, die to Ottawa, Vancouver and Toronto in June 2022 as part of Nordic Bridges, a celebration of Nordic art, culture and ideas across Canada in 2022. Alan describes how the remounting of this work that speaks to our isolation and how we present ourselves depending on who we are with and the situation we are in, feels like a victory after the postponements and setbacks imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. He expresses gratitude for having been able to work in both theatre and dance; for the deeply moving experience of remounting Pina Bausch’s Sweet Mambo on Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausc...
Mélanie Demers’s fascination with creation led her early on the path of the performing arts, eventually choosing contemporary dance. A successful decade-long dancing career with O Vertigo gaveher the confidence to have her own company, tell her own stories, embrace chaos. She is adamant to militate with her art. She achieves this with beautiful and complicated collaborations that are wonderfully rewarding. Her conversation with Cathy Levy touches on her approach to choreography, how being a Black person affects the way she sees the world and creates work, and "La Goddam Voie Lactée", presented at Canada’s National Arts Centre in early March 2022. A work about the state of the world seen through the eyes of women. A work born out of the politically and socially charged period of the COVID-19 pandemic, the death of George Floyd and Montreal’s third wave of #MeToo. What does she want the audience to take away from seeing it? The sensation that the end is near and everything we do is important.
Dana Gingras, Artistic Director of Animals of Distinction and a boundary-pushing choreographer, chats with Cathy while her latest multimedia work FRONTERA is presented at the NAC. The conversation touches on how Dana’s formative years influence the nature of her artistic practice, her work with The Holy Body Tattoo, her love of music and collaboration with cultural icons and artists such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Fly Pan Am and the UK-based United Visual Artists (UVA), and the creation of FRONTERA which she hopes will generate dialogue around important issues of our time.
In this podcast interview, the incomparable Louise Lecavalier chats with Cathy about her initial encounter with dance, the guidance she received as a novice, and how Edouard Lock came to invite her to join La La La Human Steps where she performed for 18 years, revolutionizing dance and doing guest appearances with superstars David Bowie and Frank Zappa in the process. In 1999, she parts with the company to seek pleasure in new beginnings and embarks on a career interpreting works by Tedd Robinson, Benoît Lachambre, Crystal Pite and Nigel Charnock, amongst others. In conclusion, Louise tells us about creating her own choreographic works starting with So Blue in 2012 followed by Mille batailles/Battleground and Stations.
The sublime Principal Dancer Greta Hodgkinson spoke with Cathy Levy in December 2019 on the eve of her retirement from The National Ballet of Canada following an extraordinary 30-year career with the company. Dance found her at a very early age and she credits Principal Artistic Coach Magdalena Popa, leading choreographers and the full range of classic and contemporary ballet repertoire offered to her for her artistic success. She talks about her pre-show ritual, her favourite ballet, guesting, her longevity, juggling family and career, and her decision to retire. The conversation closes on her next project and with advice to aspiring dancers.
Over the course of a fast-paced conversation with Cathy Levy, Helsinki-born Mikko Nissinen, Artistic Director of Boston Ballet, describes how he stumbled into dance and how a strong technique and infectious enthusiasm for the art form rapidly led him to soloist roles with The Finnish National Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Basel Ballet and San Francisco Ballet. Having always aspired to be an artistic director, he assumed this position with Marin Ballet and Alberta Ballet before joining Boston Ballet in 2005 as an agent of change. The company has since grown exponentially in size, purpose and reputation, enticing most recently the great William Forsythe to make it his home.
Guest host Lindsay Lachance, Artistic Associate with the National Arts Centre’s brand new Indigenous Theatre Department, chatted with Margaret and Andrew Grenier of the family-led Indigenous dance company Dancers of Damelahamid a few days before its NAC debut and world premiere presentation of Mînowin. Margaret explains how she grew up among the Gitxsan people of the Northwest coast of British Columbia immersed in the knowledge and practice of her family’s lineage and tradition. Aware of the role that each generation plays in continuing the practice, she and Andrew are dedicating their lives to the process of revitalization. Their contemporary dance work Mînowin, generations in the making, looks at what emerges from the epic loss and imbalance of the past.
Cathy Levy’s conversation with acclaimed Canadian contemporary dance performer, choreographer, master teacher and mentor Peggy Baker opens with memories of Wim Wenders and Pina Bausch. From there, Peggy speaks of her youth, her fateful encounter with Patricia Beatty, her professional dance career that brought her to Toronto’s Dancemakers and then to New York’s Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Mark Morris and the White Oak Dance Project. She returned to Toronto in 1990 to form her own company to support her solo career and has been choreographing for small ensembles since 2010. Her most recent creation who we are in the dark that features Sarah Neufeld and Jeremy Gara of Arcade Fire was performed at the NAC in April 2019.
Cathy converses with internationally acclaimed, award-winning Vancouver dance artist Crystal Pite following the NAC opening night performance of Revisor, her most recent choreographic work co-created with Canadian actor/writer Jonathon Young. They touch on Crystal’s childhood aspiration to be a complete dance artist, her early choreographic career, the founding of her company Kidd Pivot in 2002 that united the dancer and choreographer in herself, and life-work balance. Crystal has created over 50 works for her company and others such as Ballet British Columbia, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater and The Royal Ballet. In great demand internationally, her immediate future includes a tour of Revisor and commissions by The Paris Opera Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada and Nederlands Dans Theater.