Current Repertoire
SOURCE (2005) 22 minutes
A CanAsian Dance Festival Commission
SOURCE is a duet between a dancer and a musician who are in direct conversation through gestures, sounds and movements. They guide and follow one another through Eastern and Western landscapes of memory and discovery in search of common ground or a harmonious co-existence. George Gao thoroughly investigates the versatility and expressiveness of the Chinese erhu with his unique and haunting score.
The virtuosi performances of these two highly expressive artists set within the stunning designs of visual artist Janet Morton, costume designer Peter Chin and lighting designer Arun Srinivasan, make SOURCE a feast for the senses.
Choreographer: Andrea Nann
Composer: George Gao
Performers George Gao and Andrea Nann
Set Designer Janet Morton
Costume designer Peter Chin
Lighting designer Arun Srinivasan
Premiered at: Premiere Dance Theatre, Toronto, February 23, 2005
INK (2004) 35 minutes
Andrea Nann collaborates with visual artist Wayne Ngan to create INK a work for three dancers inspired by the transcendent art of Chinese painting and calligraphy.
“As performed by the excellent Alison Denham, Kate Holden and Nann, the first part is very sculptured. Gzowski has imitated Chinese musical chords replete with bells and gongs, against which, first Nann, then the other two, perform slow, beautiful and elegiac contortions to cleverly mimic ink characters being drawn…the choreographer uses Gzowski's faster, rhythmic music to bring all three women together in a synchronized, energetic trio, and we realize that they collectively have become the brush, and that Ngan's characters rolling across the screens are stylizations of the dancing body. Like all Nann's works, INK is beautifully thought-out and crafted.” Paula Citron - The Globe and Mail.
Choreographer: Andrea Nann
Visual Artist: Wayne Ngan
Performers: Alison Denham, Kate Holden, Andrea Nann
Composer: John Gzowski
Lighting Designer: Aisling Sampson
Costume Designer: Cheryl Lalonde
Video Artist: Samm Higgison
Premiered at: Firehall Arts Centre, Vancouver, July 15, 2004
Other presentations: Gibsons Heritage Playhouse, Sunshine Coast, BC, July 2004; Hornby Community Hall, Hornby Island, BC, August 2004; Winchester Street Theatre, Toronto, December, 2004
Cato and Alice (2003) 40 minutes
Created in collaboration with author Michael Ondaatje.
Set in Toronto during the 1920’s, a city full of new immigrants from Europe who work on various jobs such as bridge building, tunneling under lake Ontario for the new waterworks, working in tanneries, Cato and Alice is a duet inspired by two lead characters from Michael Ondaatje’s novel In the Skin of a Lion. Cato and Alice is presented in a series of nine vignettes, each one introduced by the projection of a single descriptive word, that collectively forms a powerful narrative.
Choreographer: Andrea Nann
Creative Consultant: Michael Ondaatje
Performers: Anne Bourne (musician), Gerald Michaud, Andrea Nann
Composer: John Gzowski
Lighting and Set Design: Aisling Sampson
Costume Designer: Cheryl Lalonde
Presented as a work-in-progress at: Betty Oliphant Theatre, Toronto, April 25 2003
Premiered at: Vancouver Playhouse Theatre, Vancouver, June 5, 2003
Other presentations: Premiere Dance Theatre, Toronto, May 20, 2004; Centaur Theatre, Montreal, June 11/12, 2004;
Meditation #5: On Loss and Desire (2002) 14 minutes
“There are no words Anil knows that can describe, even for just herself, the woman’s face. But the grief of love in that shoulder she will not forget, still remembers.”
Excerpt from the prologue to Michael Ondaatje’s novel Anil’s Ghost.
Meditation #5: On Loss and Desire begins with a recorded reading of the prologue to Anil’s Ghost (3 minutes) in the mellifluous voice of author Michael Ondaatje. Inspired by this moving literary passage describing the excavation of grave sites during civil war in Sri Lanka, dancer/choreographer Andrea Nann brings to life the image of a woman holding vigil for her dead husband and brother. This solo work is the fifth dance in a series created by Andrea Nann with composer Anne Bourne. These meditations delve into themes of grief and love, life and inner strength.
Choreographer: Andrea Nann
Creative Consultant: Michael Ondaatje
Composer: Anne Bourne
Lighting Designer: Aisling Sampson
Costume Designer: Peter Chin
Premiered at: Theatre Aquarius, Hamilton, May 3, 2002
Other presentations: Roundhouse Community Centre, Vancouver, May 27, 2003; Vancouver Playhouse Theatre, June 5, 2003; Premiere Dance Theatre, Toronto, May 2004; Centaur Theatre, Montreal, June 2004; Hornby Community Hall, Hornby Island, BC, August 2004; Ffida, Toronto, August 2004
Meditation #4: On Becoming (2001) 8 minutes
A quiet, assisted journey through the island or marking point between death and that which lies beyond. This duet is the fourth dance in the series of pieces created by Andrea Nann with composer Anne Bourne.
Choreographer: Andrea Nann
Performers: Andrea Nann, Brandon Oakes, Anne Bourne (musician)
Premiered as a duet at: Well World Gala, Betty Oliphant Theatre, Toronto, October 18-20 2001
Presentation of the work as part of the full length show The Gleaners: Damn Straight, Toronto, May 4-9, 1998
Reveries (2001) 12 minutes
Collaboration with musician/poet Gordon Downie, lead singer and songwriter for celebrated rock group The Tragically Hip. In Reveries the poet and two dancers co-exist in parallel bleak worlds. The dancers initially appear as figures from the writer’s imagination. They come to life through an inner dialogue that is spoken and sung, or shouted aloud by the poet who finally, in the crazed heat of performance, comes face to face with these characters of his own creation.
Choreographer: Andrea Nann
Writer: Gordon Downie
Performers: Gordon Downie, Gerald Michaud, Andrea Nann
Music by: Godspeed You Black Emporer
Lighting Designer: Aisling Sampson
Costume Designer: Cheryl Lalonde
Premiered at: Spring Rites, Premiere Dance Theatre, Toronto, June 6 - 9 2001
Meditations (1999) 22 minutes
Meditations is a coming to terms with death, and how life copes with that unbearable sorrow.
Choreographer: Andrea Nann
Composer: Anne Bourne
Performers: Anne Bourne (musician), Andrea Nann
Premiered at: DanceWorks Mainstage, Dumaurier Theatre Centre, Toronto, December 1999.
Other presentations: Canada Dance Festival, La Nouvelle Scene, Ottawa, June 2000.
The following group works can be remounted for local dance students or emerging professionals.
Divergent Ink (2004) 11 minutes · 14 dancers
Created for Ryerson Dances 2004 Divergent Ink is an abstract dance set to a dynamic score by composer John Gzowski. This fast paced group work challenges and showcases the physical, technical and dramatic abilities of the dancers.
Choreographer: Andrea Nann
Composer: John Gzowski
Lighting Designer: David Morrison
Premiered at: Ryerson Theatre, November 23, 2004
CHAK! (2003) 16 minutes · 14-28 dancers
Created for the York University Dance Ensemble CHAK! is inspired by the primal group power of the Ketjak Balinese Monkey Chant. Set in a modern western world, CHAK! physically and dramatically exposes the aggressive primal psyche in a struggle between groups versus the individual.
Original Choreography by: Andrea Nann
Music: Ketjak Balinese Monkey Chant
Premiered: Dance Innovations at Joseph Green Theatre, York University, March 19- 22, 2003
Other presentations: DancEast, Moncton, NB, August 2003; Dancemakers Studio, Toronto, April 2004
For more information, please contact Dance Umbrella of Ontario (416) 504-6429 ext. 22 or duo@danceumbrella.net
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