MOonhORsE Dance Theatre presents the world premiere of

EVER THUS
A dance journey into Shakespeare

Running in rep with Soulpepper's production of King Lear
7 Performances Only! Sept. 28, Oct. 5, 7, 10, 11 and 13 at 8pm with a matinee Sat. Sept. 30 at 2pm.
at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, Distillery Historic District, 55

On Saturday, October 7 a post-show audience discussion will be hosted by Veronica Tennant - former principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada, currently an arts producer.

Mill Street, Building 49
Tickets: $25 ($20 Students/CADA/Seniors and groups);
$10 Special for Sat. Sept. 30 matinee (cash only at the door).
Call the Box Office for tickets: 416-866-8666 - INFO: www.youngcentre.ca

VIDEOS FROM REHEARSAL OF EVER THUS

MOonhORsE Dance Theatre presents the world premiere of Ever Thus, a dance journey into Shakespeare created and choreographed by Artistic Director Claudia Moore, opening Thursday September 28 through to October 13 at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, running in rep with Soulpepper's production of King Lear in the same theatre.
Lady Macbeth, Hamlet, Ophelia, and Queen Katherine will be danced to life by MOonhORsE Dance Theatre performers Claudia Moore, Miko Sobreira, Jennifer Dick and guest artist Heidi Strauss while Soulpepper founding member William Webster conjures King Lear. This daring and visceral interpretation of the Bard runs in rep with Soulpepper's production of King Lear, with Webster doing double duty as Lear in both productions. Ever Thus will be performed on a "thrust" stage. Constructed especially for Soulpepper's King Lear, this stage will allow the audience an unusually intimate view of dance.

Ever Thus is phase two of Moore's on-going physical investigation of Shakespeare's classic characters. After choreographing a number of ballroom scenes for productions of Romeo and Juliet, including one at the Stratford Festival, Moore was inspired to "dance" Shakespeare's characters, expressing their emotions and stories through movement and voice in a non-sequitor, dreamlike fashion. Ever Thus builds upon MOonhORsE's 2005 production, This Castle, directed by Patti Powell and marks a continuation of Moore's dance theatre exploration of Shakespeare.

The five performers in Ever Thus portray a traveling troupe of actors on a seemingly endless tour of Shakespeare's works. Arriving at the next theatre, they attempt to rehearse their classic roles before the curtain rises. The attempt fails dismally and we see that their roles and real lives are inseparably entwined. As players within a play, the actors become the mirror images of their characters with text and movement reflecting the parallels between their on- and off-stage lives. The performers portray their characters' dilemmas through movement as well as in excerpts from Hamlet, Macbeth, Henry VIII and King Lear, highlighting Shakespeare's gift of telling universal stories about the human condition that still ring true today.

Choreographer, performer and Artistic Director of MOonhORsE dance theatre, Claudia Moore has been creating and performing movement for theatre, film, multi-disciplinary collaboration and her own dance theatre productions since the late 1970's. Her recent work also includes by Night (2004) CASA (2003), on earth (2002), Small Midnight (2001) co-choreographed by Moore and Tedd Robinson, and the Dora-Award-winning wishes (1997). Box Pieces, her first dance film, was commissioned by director Paul Carriere from Canada's BRAVO! Moore also choreographed the award-winning film Exotica by Atom Egoyan.

Ever Thus features an original score composed by Laurel MacDonald, lighting design by Kevin Lamotte and choreography by Claudia Moore, with dramaturgy/rehearsal direction by Mark Christmann. David Duclos is the set designer and production stage manager.


Veronica Tennent
As Prima Ballerina with The National Ballet of Canada for 25 years, Veronica Tennant won hearts and accolades as a dancer of extraordinary versatility and dramatic power. She earned accolades in every major classical role as well as having several ballets choreographed for her. She danced on stages across North America, Europe and Japan, with the greatest male dancers of our time, including Rudolf Nureyev, and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Her farewell performance was in 1989

Lauded as a Canadian icon and role-model; Veronica Tennant is now an established and award-winning director, producer and writer of television, garnering several international awards including the prestigious International Emmy Award for CBC’s KAREN KAIN: Dancing In the Moment.

MOonhORsE dance theatre presents the world premiere of
Ever Thus
A dance journey into Shakespeare by choreographer Claudia Moore
Running in rep with Soulpepper's production of King Lear
7 Performances Only! Sept. 28, Oct. 5, 7, 10, 11 and 13 at 8pm with a matinee Sat. Sept. 30 at 2pm.
at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, Distillery Historic District, 55 Mill Street, Building 49
Tickets: $25 ($20 Students/CADA/Seniors and groups);
$10 Special for Sat. Sept. 30 matinee (cash only at the door).
Call the Box Office for tickets: 416-866-8666 - INFO: www.youngcentre.ca