SOD #3 Performance Schedule

SOD 3: Wednesday, May 15th, at 8:00pm, Shu-Box Theatre, Riddell Centre 

• Field Work | Choreography and performance by Gerry Morita, Mile Zero Dance.
• It Began with Watching | Choreography: Melanie Kloetzel, kloetzel&co. Performers: Jocelyn Hoover, Brenna Here, Jennifer DeWolf, Meghann Michalsky, Sylvie Moquin, Taylor Ritchie, and Janelle Schiffner. 

• Schema 4 | Choreography: Jolene Bailie, Gearshifting Performance Works. Performers: Warren McClelland and Carol-Ann Bohrn.  

---

​Field Work

Choreographed by: Gerry Morita
Company: Mile Zero Dance
Performers: Gerry Morita
Music Credits: The Cattle Call – Eddy Arnold
Aplhorneinlage – Alphorn
Jodoler (Yodeling Song) – Piedmont
Toroler Yodoler (Female Yodeler) – Regina
Whiskeyclone, Hotel City, 1997 – Beck
Mamas, Don’t Let your Babies Grow up to be Cowboys – Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson
Other Credits: Thank you: Mile Zero Dance, Trant Crosby, Temple Grandin “Animals in Translation,” Kat Smy, Giovanni Young, Alice and Peter Gradauer, Theresa Dextrase, Candy and Merv Mann.
Project Length: 15 minutes

Starting with the idea of creating a concert for cows, Artistic Director of Mile Zero Dance Gerry Morita will create new work that returns to her rural roots to explore movement and images that involve animals, the land, and the infinite impossibility of ever finishing work.

Gerry Morita (BA Dance/ MFA Theatre) has lived and worked in Vancouver, Montréal, and Tokyo as a dancer, choreographer, performance artist and teacher before moving to Edmonton and becoming Mile Zero Dance’s Artistic Director in 2006. Her work has toured Poland, Turkey, Estonia, Canada, and Japan.  

Morita’s body of work involves continuous inquiry into new ways of seeing movement, the body, and the spaces between us. She studies and teaches contact improvisation, Noguchi Taiso and other somatic-based and improving technique, working with artists from all disciplines in a vast array of both conventional and site-specific venues. She has received the Mayor’s Award for Innovation in Artistic Direction, the Edmonton Salute for Excellence, Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund and was one of Alberta’s 25 Influential Artists recognized in 2016.

Kasie Campbell is a visual artist from Grande Prairie, Alberta working out of Edmonton, AB. Campbell focuses on integrating a variety of media, including sculpture, photography, and installation with performative means. In 2015, Campbell won the Outstanding Student Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture. Her work was sent to Grounds for Sculpture South of NYC. The work then travelled for almost two years visiting Mana Contemporary in Hamilton NJ and then Mana Contemporary in Chicago IL. 2016-2017 Campbell was the Edmonton Arts Council’s Artist in Residence. Her role was to engage with staff in hopes of bridging the gap between art and everyday life. Two of the sculptures that were created in her residency were installed in Borden Park in Edmonton, AB as part of the 2nd iteration of the Borden Park Temporary Sculpture Loan Program. In summer 2017, Campbell showed Inside and Out in the Works Art and Design Festival. Inside and Out is a performative installation using large scale sculptural space and women's nylons to address the anxieties and vulnerabilities felt when the artist becomes the object of someone's gaze. 2018, Campbell had two works displayed at the Art Gallery of Grande Prairie for the GPRC Alumni show. More recently, Campbell and (late) mother, Ginette Lund shared their work Matrilineal Threads in The Works Art and Design Festival (supported by the Edmonton Arts Council). Interested in fostering matrilineal making, Campbell and her daughter were commissioned by the Mitchell Art Gallery to create large-scale work on the outside gallery wall. From 2019-2021, Campbell and her mother, Ginette Lunds collaborative work will tour with the Alberta Foundation for the Arts TREX Program through the Art Gallery of Alberta. 
For more information on Kasie Campbell’s work, visit https://www.kasiecampbell.com 

It Began with Watching

Choreographed by: Melanie Kloetzel
Company: kloetzel&co.
Performers: Jocelyn Hoover with Brenna Heer, Margarita Kozhevnikova, Meghann Michalsky, Sylvie Moquin, Taylor Ritchie, and Janelle Schiffner
Music Credits: Composers: György Ligeti, Kevin Houben, Carl Davis, Patsy Cline, and Len Barry
Other Credits: Script: Melanie Kloetzel
Understudy: Samantha Ketsa
Project Length: 35 minutes

It began with watching, a dance theatre work by kloetzel&co., explores the transformation of democracy as ‘alternative facts’ and outlandish acts populate the political landscape. Through sardonic interactions, blunt physicality, and a brutally humorous text, the work exposes the alarming possibilities that arise as governments, concentrated wealth, and surveillance technologies join forces. A droplet of intelligence here, a hint of a shadowy figure, and we are all marionettes, putty in the puppet master’s hands. ​

Melanie Kloetzel is the artistic director of kloetzel&co., a dance theatre company founded in New York and now based in Calgary. Since 1997, kloetzel&co.has presented theatre works, site-specific performances, and dance films across three continents. Kloetzel’s researchfocuses on performance, place, text, and characterization and her creations have appeared in spaces as varied as a defunct rail station, a corporate skyway system, and an abandoned egg farm. Her works have also been presented in more conventional sites such as New York’s Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church and Movement Research at Judson Church, as well as at On the Boards in Seattle, Dusk Dances in Toronto, and The House Theatre in Plymouth, UK. Kloetzel’s film works have been selected for screening at such festivals as DANSCAMDANSE Festival (Belgium), ADF’s International Screendance Festival (USA), Danca em Foco Festival (Brazil), dance: made in canada festival (Canada), Festival Internacional de Videodanza (Uruguay), and through TenduTV’s well-known Essential Dance Films series (USA). Kloetzel has been fortunate to serve as an Artist-in-Residence at The Work Room at Tramway (Glasgow, UK), the Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada), The Choreographers’ Project (Philadelphia, USA), Southside Studios (Glasgow, UK), and the 92ndStreet Y Harkness Dance Center (NYC, USA), among others. Her research has been published in many peer-reviewed journals and anthologies and her own anthology, Site Dance: Choreographers and the Lure of Alternative Spaces, edited with Carolyn Pavlik, is currently available in hard cover, paperback, and as an eBook from the University Press of Florida.Kloetzel is an associate professor of dance at the University of Calgary. www.kloetzelandco.com
 
Jennifer DeWolf is an active Calgary based performer, choreographer and instructor adept in many styles of dance who thoroughly enjoys the journey of artistic creation. She has travelled and enjoyed workshops in Afro-Cuban and contemporary forms in Canada as well as abroad in Cuba, France, Finland and Poland. In 2010, Jennifer received her BA in Dance from the University of Calgary, specializing in Choreography and Performance, and in 2012, she completed the Decidedly Jazz Danceworks Professional Training Program.
 
Brenna Heeris an emerging, multidisciplinary movement artist in the Calgary community with interests in combining contemporary, jazz, cirque and acrobatics. She believes that movement should be a vessel for personal expression and an exploration of individualism. The mom of one is a graduate from the University of Calgary with a BA in dance, and has most recently worked with M&M Productions and kloetzel&co., performing both locally and on tour.
 
Jocelyn Hoover Leiveris an independent contemporary dance artist, choreographer, and musical theatre performer from Calgary, Alberta. She completed her BA in Contemporary Dance, with a concentration in Choreography and Performance, and her BA in Music while at the University of Calgary. She has been thrilled to tour with kloetzel&co. for the past 3 years, performing stage and site work at the Fluid Festival, The Works Art and Design Festival, Brian Webb Dance, conatinR by Springboard Performance, and CrossCurrents. Leiver has enjoyed performing for many individual artists and companies, including EDJE Dance Theatre (which she co-founded in 2015), J-Sik Movements, Tina Guthrie, Cappuccino Musical Theatre, and Storybook Theatre.
 
Taylor Ritchieis an accomplished performer, dance teacher and arts enthusiast from Calgary, AB. Training in a multitude of styles, she dove into her studies of contemporary dance at the University of Calgary where she completed her Bachelor of Arts in Dance with distinction, with a concentration in Choreography and Performance. Since emerging into the local arts scene, Taylor has performed with kloetzel&co., Ember Dance Company, and Corps Bara Dance Theatre. 
 
Janelle Schiffner has been dancing for over 20 years. She is a graduate from the University of Calgary, receiving a Bachelor’s of Art in Contemporary Dance with a Concentration in Choreography and Performance. She has participated in dance travel studies around the world, including New York City, Cuba, and Amsterdam, and has studied jazz at Decidedly Jazz Danceworks through their Professional Training Program. She is thrilled to be part of the “Stream of Dance Festival” alongside many other talented artists.
 
Sylvie Moquin is a Calgary based dance artist, performer, choreographer and educator. She received her BFA in Performance Dance from Ryerson University in Toronto and has since extended her studies through the Professional Training Program with Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, Impulstanz (Vienna) and TransFormations (Montréal). She has worked extensively with Rock Bottom Movement, Corps Bara Dance Theatre, Pam Tzeng, Dancing Monkey Laboratories, Meghann Michalsky, kloetzel&co, and has performed in shows such as Dance: made in Canada, CrossCurrents, Ignite! Festival, the Annual Alberta Dance Festival, the Dance Action Lab (Dancers’ Studio West), Fall of the Leaf (J-Sik Movements), Brian Webb Dance Series, and Fluid Festival.
 
She has showcased her choreographic works in a variety of festivals and also co-created and co-produced Project InTandem. Most recently she has been engaged in a mentorship exchange with Karen Kaeja of Kaeja d’Dance, and received her certification as a Kaeja Elevations teacher.
(already credited in ReAWaken)
 
Ms. Michalsky is an independent dance artist residing in Calgary, Alberta. She completed her BA in Contemporary Dance, with a concentration in Choreography and Performance, at the University of Calgary. She is the co-creator of Project InTandem and YYC Contemporary Technique Training, two programs that offer support and opportunities to emerging artists in Calgary. She was awarded the 2019 RBC Emerging Artist Award at the Mayor’s Lunch for Arts Champions - she is the first Dancer/Choreographer to receive this award. Michalsky has worked with an array of artists, including Dancer Studio West, Linnea Swan, Davida Monk, Cloudsway Dance Theatre, kloetzel&co, Dancing Monkey Laboratories, Peggy Baker Dance Projects, and J-Sik Movements, amongst others. Her most recent choreographic works have been presented at Fluid Festival, Annual Alberta Dance Festival, Project InTandem, Convergence, and abroad in Helsinki, Finland. Her supplementary knowledge in Hip-Hop and Krump movement principles has influenced her to highlight isolated, rhythmic, bound, and fast-twitch movement qualities into her contemporary choreographies. Currently, her work focuses on primal movement aesthetics, exploring the power of the female body through a state of nature (not tamed or domesticated). Thank you to New Dance Horizons for providing the opportunity to be able to share ReAWaken again.
(already credited in ReAWaken)

Schema 4

Choreographed by: Jolene Bailie
Company: Gearshifting Performance Works
Performers: Warren Mcclelland and Carol-Ann Bohrn
Project Length: 12 minutes

Schemas, 1-5, dances between intuition and desire. The dance is constructed in five schemas, and as each schema unfolds, the dance re-maps itself.  Schemas, 1-5 is inspired by the repetitive and cyclical fleetingness of desire to express deeply felt emotions through movement. 
 
Using tension and decision making, the dance brings an immediacy that is simultaneously direct and open-ended. Each schema is linked through an abstract narrative that transforms, evolves, and accumulates to reveal perspectives on humanness, agency, power, neutrality, and support.  
 
Artistic Director, Jolene Bailie, showcases the versatility, artistry, and uniqueness of the ensemble cast. Schemas, 1-5 brings to the stage a new choreographic direction for Jolene, one that interweaves pure physicality with simple, yet stunning scenarios that are mobile and reflective of the dance.  A showcase for the work of Jolene Bailie, Gearshifting Performance Works’ annual feature presentation is an anticipated and celebrated event year after year. 
 
Schemas, 1-5 marks Jolene Bailie’s 19th consecutive season of self-producing dance in Winnipeg and is her tenth full length work.  As always, Bailie shift gears with each production.  
 
Lighting by long time collaborator, Hugh Conacher. 
Dancers: Carol-Ann Bohrn, Hélène Le Moullec Mancini, Shawn Maclaine, Warren McClelland, Aaron Paul, Sam Penner, Camila Schujman. 
 
Gearshifting Performance Works gratefully acknowledges the support of The Manitoba Arts Council and The Winnipeg Arts Council. 
 
Schemas 1-5 is also marking the end of an era. In the fall, Jolene will take on the full time Artistic Director position at Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, Canada’s oldest and longest running contemporary dance company.

Jolene Bailie is a choreographer, director, and producer of contemporary dance. Her work expresses a deeply human experience that is honest, complex, and thorough. She has created 39 original works, including ten full length works, holds a Masters of Fine Art in Dance from The American Dance Festival/Hollins University, a BA Hons degree, a Teachers Certificate with Distinction, and has over twenty years of professional performance experience.  Bailie has presented multiple shows annually since 2000 and toured her work extensively to national and international critical acclaim. Select credits include: Today Art Museum (Beijing), Xi’an Art Museum (Xi’an), The Joyce SoHo (New York City), The National Gallery of Canada, The National Arts Centre's Prairie Scene, International Solo Dance-Theatre Festival (Stuttgart), The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s New Music Festival, The Winnipeg Art Gallery, The Canadian Museum for Human Rights and collaborative projects with Visual Artist, Wanda Koop.  She is the Founding Artistic Director of Gearshifting Performance Works and Interim Artistic Director of Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers. In fall 2019, Jolene will take on the Artistic Director position full time at Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers, Canada's oldest and longest running contemporary dance company.   
 
Warren McClelland has worked with Winnipeg and international choreographers. Select credits: Jolene Bailie, Stephanie Ballard, Brent Lott, Christina Medina, Gaile Peterson-Hiley, and Tedd Robinson. Most recently he performed in Jolene Bailie’s full length work, Schemas, 1-5. Previously he performed Bailie’s work for Daphnis and Chloe, The Judgement of Paris, and now again for Schema 4. Warren is a graduate of the School of Contemporary Dancers (Winnipeg) and a former dancer with Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers.
 
Carol-Ann Bohrn has worked with choreographers in Winnipeg and beyond. Select credits: Sick + Twisted Theatre, Gearshifting Performance Works, Ming Hon, and White Birch Ballet. Last month she performed in Bailie’s full length work, Schemas, 1-5. Previously she performed in Bailie’s work for Lost, Game On, Daphnis and Chloe, Dancing Bodies, Phase Wash, Altered Aspects, Feedback, Mini Vignettes on Life and Love and now Schema 4. Additional credits include: Gearshifting Performance Works’ presentations of petites danses (Ch: Marie-Josee Chartier) and Sending Love (Ch: Rachel Browne, staged by Bailie). Recent professional development include: Cartae Open School, the Foundation Mentorship Program at MAWA.