Curatorial Statement: Dances for a Small Stage® 23

January 06, 2011

By Julie-anne Saroyan, Artistic Producer for Dances for a Small Stage

Dances for a Small Stage showcases dance in an unconventional venue: a Vancouver Legion with an intimate cocktail lounge/cabaret atmosphere, and a ridiculously small stage.  With drinks in hand, our audiences sit back, relax and are engaged by unique, fresh contemporary dance, performed in an exhilarating, hip environment.

After nine years and 23 installments of Dances for a Small Stage, we have become a well-oiled machine.  Now, we are starting to mix things up a bit to keep our “small” series fresh. I am very excited about the direction of Dances for a Small Stage 23. For this particular installment, I have invited two of the most skilled character performers in Vancouver to help me curate and host the evening.  Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg and Billy Marchenski are amazingly talented performers and have done very successful character work on our Small Stage in the past.

Tara and Billy have, in turn, invited artists to develop their own solo character by using either dance, pantomime, music or physical theatre to develop a piece for the Small Stage. We are very happy to include Kim Tuson, Delia Brett, David Raymond, Tiffany Tregarthen from Out Innerspace and Susie Burppe, based in Toronto.  With the exception of Susie Burppe, all of these artists have appeared on our Small Stage in the past. All artists were asked to create a character piece from any era, other than the present.  I am extremely interested in how their individual talents will manifest themselves on the Small Stage. This is the first time the artists have been delegated such a task.

I have always found that Small Stage fosters a unique intimacy between the artist and the audience — a challenging engagement for the artists and audiences alike.  By experimenting with a “character based” show, we are infusing the series with original, daring and innovative ideas. Don’t worry… for those of you die hard fans out there the format will remain the same; short pieces that you can sink your teeth into!  For you newbies out there, I hope you come out and see what you’ve been missing!  So come out and enjoy a drink and watch some fantastic dance!

As always, the most exciting thing for me is that I can hardly wait to see what happens on our Small Stage.  The possibilities are endless.

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