Photo: Sean Jacquemain
Santee recently participated in on the MOVE/danse TRANSIT, a two-day conference presented by the Dancer Transition Resource Centre and partnering national arts service organizations on February 12-13 at the National Ballet School here in Toronto.
on the MOVE tackled some of the unique issues and challenges in attaining and maintaining a professional career in dance. How can you have a vibrant and rewarding, stable career in dance? What are some solutions and tactics that will assist you in building a strong career?
Santee was invited to speak at the “Portfolio Career Sessions”, the “Creating and Producing Panel” and to teach a master dance class over the weekend. There was vibrant energy everywhere, great questions and enthusiastic participants.
Santee found her participation at on the MOVE enriching for a number of reasons. In her own words,
Under the category of “New and Exciting!”…
Santee Smith, the Artistic Director and Choreographer of Kaha:wi Dance Theatre is going to offer a company class every Sunday @ the National Ballet School studios. Unfortunately this class is for experienced dancers only… Santee has taught workshops and masterclasses around the world…her full bio is here.
All experienced dancers in Toronto who have danced with or are curious about the kind of fusion choreography being created by Santee (or just want to take a FREE class) are invited to join Santee this Sunday March 7th for our inaugural class (see my jpeg flyer above). Yes, that’s right – this class is 100% free and will continue to be free for our core dancers.
For the rest of you interested public, the price for the class will be $10 beginning in April & $5 for the rest of March outside of this Sunday. It’s drop in – cash only. Hope to see you there!
Just a quick update for you now that we are back in the office post-performing arts conference. I will post some photos of our recent trip to Pittsburgh and performance at Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY. At IPAY, Santee and I had an amazing time meeting presenters and artists from all over the world. I saw a lot of interesting youth theatre/dance – a pretty piece by a dance company that makes work exclusively for youth audiences, Destilte from Holland; an intriguing show using paper called “Kraft” by a Spanish company; Frankenstein as interpreted by a clowning/theatre group, 500 Clown from Chicago (which shocked most of the audience); a bromance called “Boats” by Terrapin Puppet Theatre from Australia. Pittsburgh is actually a pretty nice city with lots of old buildings, and I don’t think I would have ever visited if not for this conference.
Santee tells us about her visit to the 2009 Canadian Aboriginal Festival, Nov 28-29:
The Canadian Aboriginal Festival moved from the Roger’s Centre in Toronto to Hamilton’s Copps Coliseum this year. At this year’s powwow, I played host to visiting colleague and KDT’s choreographic intern, Louise Potiki-Bryant. Louise is a Maori choreographer and filmmaker working with the collective, Atimira based in Aotearoa (New Zealand). Sharing her first powwow with her made the whole experience extra enjoyable for me. I was fueled by her enthusiasm and respect for the dancing and the drum. At one point she said, “I wish I was from here!” [“Here” being Canada and being First Nations]. When I traveled to New Zealand a few years ago and was enchanted by the island the culture, I held a similar sentiment: “I wish I was Maori.”
Tickets for A Story Before Time in Oneonta, NY and Pittsburgh PA.
A Story Before Time USA Performances
Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY
Performance: January 18, 2010 at 8:00pm
Location: Slade Theatre, Yager Hall on the Hartwick campus
Tickets for the performance are $10 for general admission and $5 for students and senior citizens (free for Hartwick students, faculty, and staff). Tickets can be reserved by calling 607-431-4902
http://www.hartwick.edu/x29188.xml
International Performing Arts for Youth Showcase 2010
Pittsburugh International Children’s Theater, Pittsburugh, PA
January 21, 2010 at 9:00pm
Location: Byham Theater
Showcase 2010: Public Tickets
To enquire about current availability and reserve performance tickets, please call The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s Group Sales Office at 412-471-6930.
http://www.ipayweb.org/showcase/artists.php
Some other news:
***ALL ARE INVITED TO AN OPEN REHEARSAL OF A Story Before Time ***
KDT will soon begin preparing to take its award nominated work for young audiences, the fabulous A Story Before Time, to Hartwick College and the International Performing Arts for Youth conference. We are inviting all members of the public to attend an OPEN REHEARSAL of A Story Before Time at Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre .
The open rehearsal will begin at 7pm on Friday January 15th, 2010 and take place in Studio C. For those who are not familiar with CCDT’s layout, one of our staff will meet you in the lobby at 7pm and lead you to the studio. This session will last approximately 1 hour and you will have the opportunity to speak with Santee Smith, Choreographer and Artistic Director and participating dancers.
This BEHIND THE CURTAIN event is PWYC (Pay What You Can) – all contributions are considered donations that support the ongoing work of Kaha:wi Dance Theatre. Come out and have a look at how one of our most popular dance/theatre productions comes together!
Today we return to our discussion with Louise Potiki-Bryant, a dancer, choreographer and video artist who was KDT’s first ever Choreographic Intern. She also happens to be of Maori descent and lives on a beautiful beach outside of Auckland called Piha…
You are an independent filmmaker/video artist. Do you find that these two art practices complement each other or that you’re using totally different skills?
They do complement each other in that the way I compose shots in my video art is very similar to how I compose my choreography. However as art forms they have a very different use of the body. When I’m working on my video work, I spend long hours…sitting at a computer…. I need to remember to look after my body through things like yoga…more and more I am aiming to find a process which is more integrated so that I can have a dance, video and art practice which all come from the same place. I want to use my body’s experiences as dancer and as a performer to inspire my art and video and vice versa. I have found some interesting ideas and ways into this approach during this internship, but I am still working on and developing this methodology. It’s an exciting process for me.
Louise teaching a workshop in her native New Zealand (that's her on the right)
Louise Potiki-Byrant is a Maori Independent Dancer/Choreographer/Video Artist and Member of Atamira Dance Collective who has been with us here in Toronto for the past six weeks as a Choreographic Intern. She is super nice and I’ve been bugging her to do something with the blog…so I emailed her a couple of questions and she was kind enough to respond to them. Here’s my long awaited feature on her. By the way, I’m going to feature all of our Summer program instructors on the blog in the coming months so stay tuned.
Tell us something about yourself that we wouldn’t learn from your artist bio…
When I was 5 years old , I accidentally did a cartwheel through a glass door.
Santee and our choreographic intern from New Zealand, Louise Potiki Bryant of Atamira dance collective will be in attendance to connect with dancers from all across North America. I highly encourage you to attend the festival which usually attracts over 40,000 visitors.
The Pow Wow attracts over 1,000 dancers from every corner of North America. It starts with a Grand Entry when all dancers dance into the dance circle in full regalia to the beat of the drums. The motion, colour and sound of the Grand Entry is spectacular and for many visitors, emotional. In addition to the dancers, veterans, both
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, Elders, Aboriginal members of the armed forces and various police organizations and others also participate in the Grand Entries.
Grand Entries are scheduled for Saturday November 28th, 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. and on Sunday November 29th at 12:00 noon. The Main Stage performances start an hour before the Grand Entry. For more information visit www.canab.com
