FUNDED PROJECTS - PERFORMING ARTS
Lead Organization: Aeriosa Dance Society
Project Title: In Situ: Dance and Music in Place
Amount Awarded: $108,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Vancouver, B.C., U.S.A.
Partners: Red Shift Music Society, The Vertical Orchestra, Project Bandaloop
Discipline(s): Dance, Inter-disciplinary, Music, Media Arts
Start Date: 3/1/2009
End Date: 3/20/2010
Key Artists:
Amelia Rudolph - Choreographer (San Francisco)
Jocelyn Morlock - Composer (Vancouver)
Jordan Nobles - Composer (Vancouver)
Janet Roddan - Filmmaker (Pemberton)
Julia Taffe - Artistic Director (Vancouver)
Project Description: Aeriosa Dance will commission San Francisco aerial dance choreographer Amelia Rudolph, and Vancouver composers Jocelyn Morlock and Jordan Nobles to collaborate in the creation of an interdisciplinary work to be performed at Vancouver Library Square. Dance artists from Aeriosa and musicians from The Vertical Orchestra will fill space three-dimensionally, combining site specific aerial dance on the building’s elliptical walls and colonnades and spatial music compositions performed by musicians positioned throughout the venue. In Situ will be documented by filmmaker Janet Roddan providing an enduring legacy of this living art experience.
Funded: Summer 2008
Lead Organization: Arts Club Theatre Company
Project Title: Tear The Curtain!
Amount Awarded: $64,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Vancouver
Partners: Electric Company Theatre
Discipline(s): Theatre
Start Date: 6/15/2009
End Date: 12/30/2009
Key Artists:
Jonathan Young – writer/perfomer (Vancouver)
Kevin Kerr – writer (Vancouver)
Kim Collier – director (Vancouver)
Brian Johnson – director of photography (Vancouver)
David Hudgins – collaborator (Vancouver)
Peter Allen – composer (Vancouver)
Allan Brodie – lighting designer (Vancouver)
Nancy Bryant – costume designer (Vancouver)
David Roberts – set designer (Vancouver)
Rachel Ditor – dramaturg (Vancouver)
Bill Millerd – artistic director (Vancouver)
Project Description: Electric Company in partnership with the Arts Club Theatre will develop a site-specific theatre/cinema hybrid piece entitled Tear the Curtain! A psychological thriller, the filmplay is set in the 1930s when the increasing popularity of cinema is threatening the existence of live theatre. The story will be told through the mediums of cinema and live stage action and presented at Vancouver’s Stanley Theatre. This historic venue will serve as both current-day playhouse, and in its former guise as a movie house during the Golden Age of cinema.
Funded: Summer 2009
Lead Organization: Axis Theatre Society
Project Title: Don Quixote
Amount Awarded: $115,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Lower Mainland, national
Artist Reach: Lower Mainland, national
Partner: Centaur Theatre (Montreal)
Discipline(s): Theatre
Start Date: 02/01/2008
End Date: 02/02/2009
Key Artists:
Peter Anderson – Playwright, Performer (Vancouver)
Colin Heath – Playwright, Performer (Toronto)
Roy Surette – Director (Montreal)
Melody Anderson – Mask Designer (Vancouver)
Bob Buckley – Composer/Sound Design (Vancouver)
Wayne Specht – Physical Staging Dramaturge (Vancouver)
Project Description: Axis Theatre, in collaboration with Montreal’s Centaur Theatre, will adapt the classic Cervantes novel Don Quixote as a musical theatre piece for mainstage audiences. Colin Heath and Peter Anderson, two of Canada’s outstanding performers and major contributors to physical theatre will co-write, workshop and perform in this new production. A compelling combination of Axis Theatre’s trademark characteristics of mime, mask, puppetry, dance, aerials and acrobatics will be featured in the re-telling of this epic tale.
Funded: Winter 2008
Lead Organization: BC Chinese Music Association
Project Title: Intercultural Innovations
Amount Awarded: $70,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Vancouver, B.C., Canada, International
Partners: Nu:BC Collective, School of Music UBC
Discipline(s): Music
Start Date: 9/15/2010
End Date: 5/1/2011
Key Artists:
Dorothy Chang – composer (Vancouver)
John Oliver – composer (New Westminster)
Owen Underhill – composer (Vancouver)
Wang Ning – composer (Beijing, China)
Tian Jian Ping – composer (Beijing, China)
Chang Long Zhou – composer (Shanghai, China)
Project Description: The Intercultural Innovations project will explore the boundaries and connections of western orchestral music and Chinese traditional music. Six composers, three from Canada and three from China, will create new works that combine western and Chinese instrumentation. Musicians from the BC Chinese Music Ensemble will join forces with the Nu:BC Collective to form a larger BC Chinese Orchestra that will workshop and present the compositions. The process will be documented and the resulting DVD will be used as a teaching tool in the study of Chinese instrumental music styles and extended techniques.
Funded: Summer 2009
Lead Organization: The Belfry Theatre Society
Project Title: The Life Inside
Amount Awarded: $39,330
Town/City: Victoria
Project Scope: Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Partners: National Arts Centre English Theatre, University of Victoria Theatre Department, Canadian College of Performing Arts
Discipline(s): Theatre
Start Date: 7/27/2009
End Date: 12/5/2009
Key Artists:
James Fagan Tait – Adaptor and Director (Vancouver)
Joelysa Pankanea – Composer and Musical Director (Vancouver)
Project Description: The Belfry Theatre will commission artists James Fagan Tait and Joelysa Pankanea to further develop The Life Inside, a large-scale theatre piece inspired by Maurice Maeterlinck's play, Intérieur. The new work will incorporate the artists’ unique blend of movement, music and text into a production that will be performed by professional actors, students in training and members of Victoria’s street community.
Funded: Summer 2009
Lead Organization: Boca del Lupo Theatre Society
Project Title: An Imaginary Look at the Uncompromising Life of Thomas Smith
Amount Awarded: $140,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Vancouver, B.C., Canada, U.S.A.
Partners: Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design, Belfry Theatre, National Film Board,
Harbourfront Centre
Discipline(s): Theatre, Inter-disciplinary, Media Arts
Start Date: 9/1/2008
End Date: 12/31/2010
Key Artists:
Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg - Choreographer (Vancouver)
Mara Gottler - Costumer Designer (Vancouver)
Shoshana Guy - Researcher/Journalist (New York)
Tim Matheson - Projection Designer (Vancouver)
Farah Nosh - Photographer (Vancouver)
Joelysa Pankanea - Composer (Vancouver)
John Webber - Lighting Designer (Vancouver)
Carey Dodge - Sound Designer (Belfast)
Project Description: Boca del Lupo will create a full scale production of live interactive theatre to be presented in a cinema-style venue. An Imaginary Look at the Uncompromising Life of Thomas Smith recollects the life of a war photographer as seen from his own eyes in his last moments. The work will examine the life of the fictional man who held the camera and how he wrestled with being the one who stood behind it taking pictures instead of in front of it taking action. Material for the multi-media stage presentation will be collected from national and international animators, filmmakers and contemporary journalists and compiled into a series of "extreme short shorts" of animation, film and video to create the story of Thomas Smith.
Funded: Summer 2008
Lead Organization: Boca del Lupo Theatre Society
Project Title: PHOTOG: An Imaginary Look at the Uncompromising Life of Thomas Smith
Amount Awarded: $5,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Local, National
Partners: Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design, Belfry Theatre, National Film Board,
Harbourfront Centre
Discipline(s): Theatre
Start Date: 10/10/2010
End Date: 11/11/2011
Key Artists:
Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg - Choreographer (Vancouver)
Tim Matheson - Videographer (Vancouver)
Hilary Moses – Animator (Vancouver)
Joelysa Pankanea – Composer (Vancouver)
Project Description: Supported previously for the commissioning of this work, Boca del Lupo will present the world premiere of PHOTOG: An Imaginary look at the Uncompromising Life of Thomas Smith at World Stage, Harbourfront Centre in Toronto in the fall of 2010 and at a Vancouver premiere in 2011. The work is a multi-media performance piece about seeing the world through the eyes of a conflict photographer based on interviews with four of the world’s top photojournalists.
Funded: Summer 2010
Lead Organization: Caravan Farm Theatre
Project Title: Everyone - A Modern Morality Play
Amount Awarded: $79,000
Town/City: Armstrong
Project Scope: Vancouver, B.C.
Partners: Electric Company Theatre, Pound of Flesh Theatre, Neworld Theatre,
November Theatre, Theatre Replacement, Theatre Melee
Discipline(s): Theatre
Start Date: 8/18/2008
End Date: 5/31/2009
Key Artists:
Estelle Shook - Director (Armstrong)
Actor/Directors - Kim Collier, Kevin Kerr, Jonathan Young, Marcus Youssef, Adrienne
Wong, Michael Scholar, Steven Drover, James Long, Maiko Bae Yamamoto, Courtenay
Dobbie, Michael Rinaldi, Juno Ruddell, Andrew McNee, Erin Mathews (Vancouver)
Corrine Kessel - Composer (Vancouver)
Project Description: Everyone is a new full-length musical theatre piece commissioned by Caravan Farm Theatre. The work will be a modern interpretation of the classic medieval morality play and will use allegory to explore some of the political and social issues of our contemporary experience. Six Vancouver-based theatre companies will each create and direct an episode for the play that will be staged on six horse-drawn wagons before a stationary audience.
Funded: Summer 2008
Lead Organization: Chop Theatre Society
Project Title: How to Disappear Completely
Amount Awarded: $31,150
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Local, National, International
Partners: Chutzpah Festival
Discipline(s): Theatre
Start Date: 08/02/2010
End Date: 03/06/2010
Key Artists:
Itai Erdal – Creator/Performer (Vancouver)
James Long – Creator/Director (Vancouver)
Cande Andrade – Creator/Projection Designer (Vancouver)
Emelia Symington-Fedy – Creator/Sound Designer (Vancouver)
Amita Rochon – Creator/Dramaturg (Vancouver)
Project Description: How to Disappear Completely is a one-man show tracing Itai Erdal’s journey to understand his mother Mery’s approach to death. Video will be a large component of the shows, enabling the audience to gain access to Mery Erdal, and to see her body and mind’s descent into illness. This performance will capture her vibrant personality, the strong bond she had with her son and how she faced her imminent death.
Funded: Summer 2010
Lead Organization: Coastal Jazz and Blues Society
Project Title: Ice Hockey: Canada vs Sweden
Amount Awarded: $90,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Lower Mainland, national, international
Artist Reach: Lower Mainland, international
Discipline(s): Music
Start Date: 01/03/2008
End Date: 30/06/2009
Key Artists:
Francois Houle – Composer (Vancouver)
Mats Gustafsson – Composer (Sweden)
Project Description: Ice Hockey: Canada vs Sweden is a musical collaboration of international scope that combines two pillars of the Olympic movement – sport and culture. The Coastal Jazz and Blues Society will commission two internationally acclaimed composers and improvisors, Canadian clarinettist Francois Houle and Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, to compose a number of pieces based on the rules, systems and culture of ice hockey for an ensemble of 14 artists. The group will break down into two teams of six musicians plus two referees. Developed in workshop settings throughout 2008, the work will receive its world premiere at the 2009 Vancouver International Jazz Festival.
Funded: Winter 2008
Lead Organization: Coastal Jazz and Blues Society
Project Title: Fixed, Fragmented and Fluid
Amount Awarded: $88,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Vancouver, Canada, International
Discipline(s): Music, Inter-disciplinary, Media Arts
Start Date: 8/1/2009
End Date: 7/1/2010
Key Artists:
Michel Gagné – animator (Bellingham, U.S.A.)
Barry Guy – composer/conductor (Zurich, Switzerland)
Peggy Lee – musician (Vancouver)
Paul Plimley – musician (Vancouver)
Maya Homberger – musician (Zurich, Switzerland)
Lucas Niggli – musician (Zurich, Switzerland)
Peter Evans – musician (New York, U.S.A.)
Evan Parker – musician (London, U.K.)
Project Description: The Coastal Jazz and Blues Society will commission composer Barry Guy and animator Michel Gagné to create an interdisciplinary work that combines music with abstract animation. Composed for an ensemble of seven musicians, the piece will be further developed in a workshop setting and premiered in a live performance at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival in 2010.
Funded: Summer 2009
Lead Organization: Dance Victoria Society
Project Title: Crystal Pite Commission
Amount Awarded: $167,000
Town/City: Victoria
Project Scope: Victoria, Vancouver, Ottawa
Artist Reach: BC, national
Partners: National Arts Centre
Discipline(s): Dance
Start Date: 01/09/2008
End Date: 30/11/2009
Key Artists:
Crystal Pite, choreographer
Owen Belton, composer
Jonathan Ryder, lighting designer
Linda Chow, costume designer
Project Description: Dance Victoria will commission internationally acclaimed B.C. choreographer Crystal Pite to create a new work for six dancers based on six separate pieces. Each piece will contain a glimpse of a connection with another throughout the work, ultimately culminating as a whole in the end. Utilizing passages of text and choreography, actual events and personae, Pite will focus on themes of loss, guilt and powerlessness in the face of natural and man-made disasters. The new work will be presented in Victoria, Vancouver and at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
Funded: Summer 2007
Lead Organization: Dancing on the Edge Festival Society
Project Title: 10 for 20 - Dancing on the Edge Turning 20 Commissioning Project
Amount Awarded: $150,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Lower Mainland, national
Artist Reach: Lower Mainland, national
Discipline(s): Dance
Start Date: 01/01/2008
End Date: 12/07/2008
Choreographers:
Serge Bennathan (Vancouver)
Barbara Bourget and Jay Hirabayashi – Kokoro Dance (Vancouver)
Joe Laughlin – Joe Ink (Vancouver)
Lola MacLaughlin – Lola Dance (Vancouver)
Amber Funk Barton and Shay Kuebler (Vancouver)
Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg – Tara Cheyenne Performance (Vancouver)
Brian Webb – Brian Webb Dance (Edmonton)
Karen Jamieson – Karen Jamieson Dance (Vancouver)
Mara Branscombe, Katy Harris-McLeod, Jennifer McLeish-Lewis – The Tomorrow Collective (Vancouver)
Peter Bingam – Edam (Vancouver)
Project Description: In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Dancing on the Edge Festival, 10 outstanding choreographers and their dance companies will be commissioned to create new works that will premiere in the 2008 festival. The commissions will be undertaken by both established and emerging contemporary choreographers, many of whom have a history of creating work for the festival. Seven of the 10 commissions will be presented in mixed programs and will range in length and style. Three of the pieces will be created as site specific works to be presented in selected locations in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood.
Funded: Winter 2008
Lead Organization: First Pacific Theatre Society
Project Title: Father Daughter Reunion (working title)
Amount Awarded: $37,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Local, International
Partners: Horseshoes and Hand Grenades Theatre, Playwrights Theatre Centre, New Century Theatre Company
Discipline(s): Theatre
Start Date: 08/09/2010
End Date: 11/12/2011
Key Artists:
Sean Devine – Playwright (Vancouver)
John Langs – Director (Los Angeles, U.S.A.)
Heidi Taylor – Dramaturg (Vancouver)
Project Description: First Pacific Theatre will commission and develop Father Daughter Reunion (working title), a play based on events that took place in 1965 when a Quaker named Norman Morrison set himself on fire at the Pentagon to protest the Vietnam War. The historic event acts as a springboard for contemporary questions on martyrdom, faith and conscience.
Funded: Summer 2010
Lead Organization: Green Thumb Theatre
Project Title: Sick Daze
Amount Awarded: $68,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Local, National
Discipline(s): Theatre
Start Date: 09/01/2010
End Date: 06/30/2011
Key Artists:
Michael P. Northey – Playwright/Lyricist (Vancouver)
David Kyprios Cole – Hip-hop artist (North Vancouver)
Project Description: Sick Daze explores the rise of gang identity as cool, using a contemporary hip-hop musical theatre style. Green Thumb Theatre, in collaboration with playwright Michael Northey and Vancouver hip-hop artist Kyprios, will create and develop a full-length musical featuring three friends who come together over a love of music and spoken word. When one of them begins to move toward gangster rap both in style and persona, rising tensions among them lead to problems and tragedy.
Funded: Summer 2010
Lead Organization: Grinning Dragon Theatre Co. Society doing business as Felix Culpa
Project Title: Cyrano of the Van Doos
Amount Awarded: $62,100
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Vancouver
Discipline(s): Theatre, Music
Start Date: 7/1/2008
End Date: 6/30/2009
Key Artists:
Patrick Pennefather - Composer/Lyricist (Vancouver)
David Bloom - Playwright (Vancouver)
Alexander Lazaridis Ferguson - Dramaturg (Vancouver)
James Fagan Tait - Director (Vancouver)
Kate King - Set Designer (Vancouver)
John Webber - Lighting Designer/Technical Advisor (Vancouver)
Project Description: Felix Culpa will create a modern musical theatre adaptation of Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac. The new work, entitled Cyrano of the Van Doos revolves around the story of Cyrano, a woman soldier serving with a Canadian regiment that is ultimately posted in Khandahar. She is in love with her cousin Roxanne – a relationship that adds another dimension to the obstacles experienced by Cyrano in the original story. Staged in a war-torn setting, this bilingual production will include a cast of 12 actors in a performance that will combine the precise manoeuvres of a combat unit with music ranging from rap to chanson to opera.
Funded: Summer 2008
Lead Organization: Hard Rubber New Music Society
Project Title: The New Ice Age
Amount Awarded: $74,300
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Vancouver, B.C., International
Discipline(s): Music, Inter-disciplinary, Theatre
Start Date: 9/1/2008
End Date: 9/30/2009
Key Artists:
Kevin Sylvester - Librettist (Toronto)
Joanne McLeod - Ice Choreographer (Vancouver)
Gerald King - Lighting Designer (Vancouver)
Keith Hamel - Composer (Vancouver)
Peter Hannan - Composer (Vancouver)
Bill Runge - Composer (Vancouver)
Brad Turner - Composer (North Vancouver)
Tony Wilson - Composer (Hornby Island)
Michael van der Aa - Composer (Amsterdam)
David Dramm - Composer (Amsterdam)
Project Description: The New Ice Age explores Canada’s love affair with ice-sport and the world's obsession with athletes and competition. This high-energy multi-media ice show will feature the Hard Rubber Orchestra, hockey players, curlers, figure skaters and dance specially choreographed for Zambonis. The work will include a libretto by Kevin Sylvester, commissioned music by five Canadian and two international composers, ice choreography by Joanne McLeod and lighting design by Gerald King.
Funded: Summer 2008
Lead Organization: Leaky Heaven Performance Society
Project Title: The Pan Project
Amount Awarded: $98,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Vancouver, Canada
Partners: Neworld Theatre, Vancouver East Cultural Centre
Discipline(s): Theatre
Start Date: 9/1/2008
End Date: 10/1/2009
Key Artists:
Steven Hill - Director (Vancouver)
Lois Anderson - Director (Vancouver)
Marcus Youssef - Playwright (Vancouver)
Niall McNeil - Playwright (Vancouver)
Veda Hille - Composer (Vancouver)
Colin Heath - Actor (Toronto)
Manon Beaudoin - Actor (Toronto)
Peter Anderson - Actor (Vancouver)
Project Description: The Pan Project, an adaptation of the Peter Pan story and Pan myth, is the brain child of long-time Leaky Heaven and Neworld collaborator Niall McNeil. A professional artist whose life experience includes Down Syndrome, Niall brings to this new work his experience of "difference" or "otherness." Playwright Marcus Youssef is commissioned to develop the script with Niall McNeil and musician Veda Hille will create original music. The Pan Project will be a hybrid work incorporating text, image, music, dance and circus skills.
Funded: Summer 2008
Lead Organization: Karen Jamieson Dance Society
Project Title: Collision
Amount Awarded: $47,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Local, Provincial, National
Partners: Dance Centre, Roundhouse Arts and Recreation Community Centre.
Discipline(s): Dance
Start Date: 09/01/2010
End Date: 07/15/2011
Key Artists:
Karen Jamieson – Artistic Director and Choreographer (Vancouver)
John Korsrud – Composer and Musical Director (Vancouver)
Jeff Corness – Composer (Vancouver)
Kristen Roos – Composer (Vancouver)
David Rimmer – Filmmaker (Vancouver)
Chris Randle – Photographer (Vancouver)
Project Description: Collision, part of Dancing on the Edge Festival 2011, is interdisciplinary and site specific to the Roundhouse Community Centre. It brings together professional contemporary dancers, multicultural/multigenerational community dancers and a team of award-winning artists. The work explores the collision of cultures, such as the different relationships that European/Asian immigrants and the First Nations had to the railway (experienced at the Roundhouse).
Funded: Summer 2010
Lead Organization: Kelowna Ballet Society
Project Title: New Works Ballet Kelowna: The Josh Beamish Project
Amount Awarded: $10,000
Town/City: Kelowna
Project Scope: B.C.
Artist Reach: B.C.
Discipline(s): Dance
Start Date: 09/11/2007
End Date: 30/05/2008
Key Artists:
Josh Beamish – Choreographer (Vancouver)
David LaHay – Artistic Director (Kelowna)
Ballet Kelowna – Dancers (Kelowna)
Project Description: Ballet Kelowna will commission choreographer Josh Beamish to create a new work that will receive its world premiere in their spring 2008 season. Mr Beamish will develop the work in collaboration with the company’s artistic director, six of the company’s professional dancers, and lighting and costume designers, while in residence at Ballet Kelowna. Included in the development of the work will be a facilitated dialogue between the choreographer, artistic director and dancers, intended to provide ongoing evaluation of the “work in progress” that will inform the creation process through to its completion.
Funded: Winter 2008
Lead Organization: Kelowna Ballet Society aka Ballet Kelowna
Project Title: New Works Ballet Kelowna: Original Dance and Music Commission
Amount Awarded: $25,000
Town/City: Kelowna
Project Scope: Local, Provincial
Discipline(s): Dance
Start Date: 06/15/2010
End Date: 11/01/2010
Key Artists:
Simone Orlando - Choreographer (Vancouver)
Stu Goldberg - Composer (Penticton)
Project Description: Ballet Kelowna will commission award-winning Vancouver choreographer Simone Orlando and acclaimed jazz pianist and Okanagan-based composer Stu
Goldberg to create a new ballet set to an original piece of music. New Works Ballet Kelowna: Original Dance and Music Commission (working title), will be the featured premiere of Ballet Kelowna’s fall season and tour to more than 30 communities during the performance year.
Funded: Summer 2010
Lead Organization: The Lulu Performing Arts Society
Project Title: The Elements: A Festival of Nature in Performance
Amount Awarded: $44,000
Town/City: Gabriola Island
Project Scope: Gulf Islands
Artist Reach: B.C., national and international
Discipline(s): Music, media arts, inter-disciplinary
Start Date: 01/09/2007
End Date: 31/08/2008
Key Artists:
Gordon Monahan, composer and sound artist
Darren Copeland, sound artist
Andreas Kahre, interdisciplinary artist
Kathy Kennedy, sound artist
Chris Welsby, filmmaker
Project Description: The Elements: A Festival of Nature in Performance is a 'terrestrial symposium' that will create a dialogue between technology and the natural world through sound composition, installation work, digital media and performance art. The commissioned works by five world-renowned composers and video artists will draw awareness to sounds of the natural environment and explore the relationship between living organisms and technology. The final pieces will be presented at the Elements Festival on Gabriola Island.
Funded: Summer 2007
Lead Organization: MACHiNENOiSY Dance Society
Project Title: The Open Spaces Project
Amount Awarded: $41,328
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Vancouver, Canada, International
Discipline(s): Dance
Start Date: 9/21/2009
End Date: 11/14/2009
Key Artists:
Daelik Hackenbrook – co-director, choreographer (Vancouver)
Paul Gazzola – co-director and set designer (Berlin, Germany)
Adam Tindale – video and sound designer (Calgary)
Project Description: The Open Spaces Project seeks to explore a basic and fundamental understanding of the way that space influences identity and how it can define notions of masculine and feminine ideals. Choreographer Daelik Hackenbrook will collaborate with new media artists Paul Gazzola and Adam Tindale in the creation of a dance performance that incorporates the use of video manipulation and an original musical sound score
Funded: Summer 2009
Lead Organization: Magnetic North Festival Theatre Society
Project Title: HIVE 2
Amount Awarded: $155,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Lower Mainland
Artist Reach: B.C.
Partners: Progress Lab – an ad hoc consortium of 11 Vancouver- and Victoria-based theatre companies
Discipline(s): Theatre, music, visual arts
Start Date: 01/09/2007
End Date: 31/05/2008
Key Artists:
Progress Lab (Boca del Lupo, Electric Company Theatre, Felix Culpa, neworldtheatre, The Only Animal, Radix Theatre, Rumble Productions, Theatre Conspiracy, Theatre Replacement, Theatre SKAM)
Glenn Alteen, visual arts curator
Veda Hille, music curator
Project Description: Magnetic North will commission outstanding musical and visual artists, along with a collection of B.C.’s boldest theatre companies, for HIVE 2. New works to be commissioned for this collaborative event will include: visual art, musical compositions, performance art, and 10 site-specific theatre installations, all designed for performance within an interactive social environment.
Funded: Summer 2007
Lead Organization: Mascall Dance Society
Project Title: The White Spider
Amount Awarded: $80,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Vancouver
Discipline(s): Inter-disciplinary, Dance, Theatre, Music, Visual Arts, Media Arts
Start Date: 10/1/2007
End Date: 5/31/2010
Key Artists:
Jennifer Mascall - Choreographer (Vancouver)
Alan Storey - Set Designer (Vancouver)
Julia Taffe - Aerial Choreographer (Vancouver)
Jeff Corness - Music Director/Composer (Vancouver)
Nancy Bryant - Costume Designer (Vancouver)
James Proudfoot - Set Designer (Vancouver)
Adrianna Bucz - Dramaturge (Vancouver)
Yun Lam Li - Videographer (Vancouver)
Project Description: Mascall Dance will commission an outstanding team of artists to create a dance piece based on The White Spider, Heinrich Harrer's true account of climbing the north face of the Eiger mountain. The obsession inherent in climbing mountains is comparable to the dancers' insatiable curiosity about movement and the ceaseless striving for impossible goals. The dance work The White Spider will be a bridge between sport and dance embodied in the analogy between climber and dancer. Development workshops will enable all collaborators to take the artistic risks necessary to parallel the climbers' courage and accomplishments.
Funded: Summer 2008
Lead Organization: Mortal Coil Performance Society
Project Title: The Britannia Project (working title)
Amount Awarded: $80,000
Town/City: Richmond
Project Scope: Local
Partners: City of Richmond
Discipline(s): Theatre
Start Date: 05/01/2010
End Date: 07/31/2011
Key Artists:
Peter Hall – Director (Vancouver)
Martin Kinch – Dramaturg/Director (Vancouver)
Sharon Bayly – Community Artist/Director (Vancouver)
Nicola Harwood – Playwright (Nelson)
Project Description: Through a highly collaborative creative process, Mortal Coil will unite designers, puppet masters, actors, stilt performers and a writer in a developmental process to create a site-specific theatre work at the Britannia Shipyards in Steveston. The Britannia Project (working title) will explore issues of immigration, ethnic conflict, labour history and memory.
Funded: Summer 2010
Lead Organization: MovEnt (Movement Enterprises Society)
Project Title: Dances for a Small Stage 20 - The Commissions
Amount Awarded: $25,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Discipline(s): Dance
Start Date: 12/1/2008
End Date: 2/26/2009
Key Artists:
Peggy Baker - Choreographer/Performer (Toronto)
Tedd Robinson - Choreographer/Performer (Ottawa)
Margie Gillis - Choreographer/Performer (Montreal)
Michael Trent - Choreographer/Performer (Toronto)
Wen Wei Wang - Choreographer/Performer (Vancouver)
Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg - Choreographer/Performer (Vancouver)
Emily Molnar - Choreographer/Performer (Vancouver)
Noam Gagnon - Choreographer/Performer (Vancouver)
Project Description: Dances for a Small Stage 20 marks the 20th show that has been presented in the seven years of producing the popular series Dances for a Small Stage. To celebrate this occasion, the organization will commission eight new works by highprofile Canadian dance artists and choreographers.
Funded: Summer 2008
Lead Organization: Movement Enterprises Society (MovEnt)
Project Title: Dances for a Small Stage 22: Special Delivery
Amount Awarded: $30,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Vancouver, Canada, International
Discipline(s): Dance
Start Date: 12/1/2009
End Date: 2/1/2010
Key Artists:
Benoit-Swan Pouffer – choreographer (New York, U.S.A.)
Charlotte Vincent – choreographer (Sheffield, U.K.)
Lauri Stallings – choreographer (Atlanta, U.S.A.)
Kevin O’Day – choreographer (Mannheim, Germany)
Project Description: MovEnt will commission four internationally renowned choreographers to create new works that will be performed by professional dancers on a miniscule stage in an unconventional cabaret venue. Under the program title Dances for a Small Stage 22: Special Delivery, the new works will be presented as part of the Dances for a Small Stage season in 2010.
Funded: Summer 2009
Lead Organization: musica intima society
Project Title: Songs from the Holy Forest
Amount Awarded: $34,500
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Local, Provincial
Discipline(s): Music
Start Date: 05/15/2010
End Date: 04/30/2011
Key Artists:
David MacIntyre – Composer (Vancouver)
David Adams – Director (Vancouver)
Project Description: Songs from the Holy Forest will be an opera written by Vancouver composer David MacIntrye for musica intima. It will draw from selected poems from The Holy Forest, written by B.C. poet Robin Blaser, and feature the spiritual journey of 12 people who are lost “in the land of magic.” To keep fear away, they tell each other stories in the hope they soon will be found.
Funded: Summer 2009
Lead Organization: Neworld Theatre Society
Project Title: The Idiot
Amount Awarded: $90,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Local, National
Partners: Vancouver Moving Theatre, Playwrights Theatre Centre, PuSh International Performing Arts Festival
Discipline(s): Theatre
Start Date: 07/01/2010
End Date: 03/01/2012
Key Artists:
James Fagan Tait – Director/Playwright (Vancouver)
Joelysa Pankanea – Composer/Musical Director (Vancouver)
Project Description: Neworld Theatre will commission and develop James Fagan Tait’s original adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot, incorporating original music composed and directed by Joelysa Pankanea. The project partners include Playwrights Theatre Centre and Vancouver Moving Theatre, who will become a production partner when The Idiot is presented in the 2012 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.
Funded: Summer 2010
Lead Organization: Okanagan International Children's Festival
Project Title: Dreams in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story
Amount Awarded: $99,000
Town/City: Penticton
Project Scope: Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Partners: The Rick Hansen Foundation, Manitoba Theatre for Young People
Discipline(s): Theatre, Media Arts, Music
Start Date: 1/1/2008
End Date: 12/31/2009
Key Artists:
Dennis Foon - Playwright (Vancouver)
Leslee Silverman - Artistic Director (Winnipeg)
Project Description: Dreams in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story is a full-scale theatrical presentation designed for young people and family audiences to be performed in mainstage and touring venues in B.C., Canada and abroad. Playwright Dennis Foon and a team of designers, choreographers, composers and multi-media specialists will create a work that tells this truly Canadian and immensely inspirational story. The premiere of Dreams in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story will coincide with the 20th anniversary celebration of the original "Man in Motion Tour."
Funded: Summer 2008
Lead Organization: The Only Animal Theatre Society
Project Title: NiX
Amount Awarded: $100,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Lower Mainland, Whistler, national and potentially international
Artist Reach: B.C., national and international
Partners: Resort Municipality of Whistler, Alberta Theatre Projects
Discipline(s): Theatre
Start Date: 06/08/2008
End Date: 28/02/2008
Key Artists:
Kendra Falconi, director/writer
Mark Sylvester, composer
Colin Cooper, technical set designer
William Hales, lighting designer
Carl Schlichting, master snow artist
Trimpin, glass instrument designer
Michael Sider, glass artist
Vicki Stroich, production dramaturge
Dr. Michael Heyman, dramaturge
Project Description: An extensive full-scale workshop of NiX, an ambitious site-specific theatre piece, will be undertaken. The story of NiX deals imaginatively with themes of our environmental plight and the search for sources of life, hope and re-invention. This workshop will enable The Only Animal and collaborators to take daring theatrical risks in creating Canada’s first theatre of ice and snow before their premiere in Calgary in 2009, a production in Vancouver/Whistler in 2010, and further touring.
Funded: Summer 2007
Lead Organization: Pangaea Arts Society
Project Title: Cumberland (working title)
Amount Awarded: $82,042
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Lower Mainland, B.C., national, international
Artist Reach: Lower Mainland, B.C., national, international
Discipline(s): Theatre, Music, Inter-disciplinary
Start Date: 01/03/2008
End Date: 30/06/2009
Key Artists:
Paul Yee – Playwright (Vancouver)
Jin Zhang – Composer and Musical Director (Vancouver)
Project Description: Pangaea Arts will commission the creation and development of a new play about the Chinese miners that lived in the community of Cumberland on Vancouver Island in the early 1900s. At that time, Cumberland had one of the largest Chinese communities on the west coast of North America and was significant in that it had the only coal mine in Canada where the Chinese were permitted to work. This new musical theatre piece will follow the adventures of a Cantonese opera touring troupe who arrive in Canada to perform in Chinatowns throughout B.C.. The play will be a cross-cultural collaboration between professional Cantonese opera and western musical theatre artists.
Funded: Winter 2008
Lead Organization: Pangaea Arts Society
Project Title: Cumberland (working title)
Amount Awarded: $15,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Local, National, International
Partners: Guangdong Cantonese Opera Academy, UBC Theatre Department, Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC, Cumberland Museum
Discipline(s): Theatre
Start Date: 11/24/2010
End Date: 12/04/2010
Key Artists:
Paul Yee – Playwright (Toronto)
Jin Zhang – Composer/Musical Director (Vancouver)
Heidi Specht – Director/Producer (Vancouver)
Ieong Hoi Seng and He Ling – Choreographers (Vancouver and Richmond)
Chen Jin Rong – Opera Lyricist (Guangzhou, China)
Project Description: Previously funded for the commissioning of this work, Pangaea will present Cumberland, a bilingual play about the Chinese coal mining community of Cumberland, B.C. in 1899 and the Cantonese opera troupes that toured the province at the time. The work will be a synthesis of Cantonese opera and western theatre and a cross-cultural collaboration with professional Cantonese opera actors, musicians and western theatre practitioners.
Funded: Summer 2010
Lead Organization: Pender Harbour Music Society
Project Title: Pender Harbour Suite (working title)
Amount Awarded: $10,960
Town/City: Madeira Park
Project Scope: Lower Mainland, B.C.
Artist Reach: Lower Mainland, B.C.
Discipline(s): Music
Start Date: 01/01/2008
End Date: 31/08/2009
Key Artists:
Dr. Stephen Chatman – Composer (Vancouver)
Project Description: The Pender Harbour Music Society will commission internationally acclaimed B.C. composer Dr. Stephen Chatman to produce a chamber work for cello, violin and piano trio. Dr. Chatman’s vision for the new work is inspired by the exceptional talent of the musicians that perform at the Pender Harbour Chamber Music Festival and by the stunningly beautiful natural environment of the Sunshine Coast. The Pender Harbour Suite will receive its world premiere at the 2009 Pender Harbour Chamber Music Festival with artistic director Alexander Tselyakov as pianist and other professional musicians.
Funded: Winter 2008
Lead Organization: Presentation House Theatre
Project Title: The Edward Curtis Project
Amount Awarded: $175,000
Town/City: North Vancouver
Project Scope: Lower Mainland and potentially national
Artist Reach: B.C. and national
Discipline(s): Visual Arts, theatre
Start Date: 01/10/2007
End Date: 30/06/2009
Key Artists:
Marie Clements, writer/co-director
Rita Leistner, photographer
Brenda Leadlay, co-director
Paula Danckert, dramaturge
Barbara Clayden, costume designer
Andreas Kahre, set designer
John Webber, lighting designer
Jani Lauzon, composer/singer
Project Description: The Edward Curtis Project will commission Métis playwright Marie Clements and photojournalist Rita Leistner to create and develop a theatrical performance and photographic installation piece based on the controversial life and photographic legacy of Edward Curtis, who created the North American Indian Project, an encyclopedia of images from more than 100 Aboriginal tribes. The project, inspired by the work of Curtis, will expose the little known relationship between those who document and those who are documented. The final piece will be presented in Presentation House’s 2009/2010 Third Street Theatre Series in North Vancouver. Plans are also underway to hold a concurrent photographic exhibition.
Funded: Summer 2007
Lead Organization: PuSh International Performing Arts Festival Society
Project Title: Rimini Protokoll International Commission and Development
Amount Awarded: $160,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Lower Mainland, national, international
Artist Reach: Lower Mainland, national, international
Discipline(s): Theatre
Start Date: 01/01/2008
End Date: 30/08/2009
Key Artists:
Helgard Haug – Director (Berlin)
Stefan Kaegi – Director (Berlin)
Daniel Wetzel – Director (Berlin)
Candelario Andrade – Projection Designer (Vancouver)
Andreas Kahre – Set Designer (Vancouver)
Stefan Smulovitz – Sound Designer (Vancouver)
John Webber – Lighting Designer (Vancouver)
Project Description: The PuSh Festival will commission the Berlin-based Rimini Protokoll theatre group to develop a full-length, original work of theatre for and about Vancouver. This marks the first international commission for this relatively new festival and the first North American commission for Rimini Protokoll. The internationally acclaimed triumvirate of directors that make up Rimini Protokoll share a distinct style, devising new theatrical works out of the material provided by real life. Every Rimini project is developed out of a concrete situation, for a specific location and on the basis of exhaustive research. Collaborating with other professional artists, works are conceived and created with non-professionals who play themselves in the drama on stage. The topic for the work, which will receive its premiere at the 2010 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, will be developed through a series of workshops commencing in 2008.
Funded: Winter 2008
Lead Organization: PuSh International Performing Arts Festival Society
Project Title: Ahakista - Air India Opera Flight 182
Amount Awarded: $131,500
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Vancouver, Canada, International
Partners: Banff Centre, Cork Mid-Summer Arts Festival, Turning Point Ensemble
Discipline(s): Music
Start Date: 8/1/2009
End Date: 1/1/2011
Key Artists:
Srinivas Krishna – dramaturg/assistant director (Toronto)
Jurgen Simpson – composer (Dublin, Ireland)
Michael West – librettist (Dublin, Ireland)
William Galinsky – director (Cork, Ireland)
Turning Point Ensemble – instrumentalists (Vancouver)
Project Description: The PuSh Festival, in partnership with Ireland’s Cork Mid-Summer Arts Festival, will co-commission Ahakista - Air India Opera Flight 182, a new opera based on events of the 1985 Air India disaster. Ahakista is a story of redemption, forgiveness and transformation, and the strength to carry forward. The opera is conceived for 15 musicians and electronic music, a multi-racial ensemble of singers and chorus. Scenography for the production will be created by a team of Canadian and Irish designers. The story of Air India Flight 182 has been the subject of journalism, documentary film, government inquiries and many other public proceedings. The opera Ahakista seeks to reflect artistically on this tragic event.
Funded: Summer 2009
Lead Organization: Radix Theatre Society
Project Title: Babylonia
Amount Awarded: $29,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Local, Provincial, National
Discipline(s): Theatre
Start Date: 11/01/2010
End Date: 05/30/2011
Key Artists:
Andrew Templeton – Co-Creator/Writer (Vancouver)
Paul Ternes – Co-Creator/Director (Vancouver)
Project Description: Babylonia is a new theatre project that explores how corporate and online cultures impact people. Andrew Templeton and Paul Ternes will create this work, which will be delivered both online and through three live, simultaneous performances in coffee shops in different British Columbia cities. The audience will experience the performance in part through live feeds—which they watch through their laptops—and through live performances in the three locations.
Funded: Summer 2010
Lead Organization: Runaway Moon Theatre Arts Society
Project Title: Pi en Ngima "Water is Life"
Amount Awarded: $30,000
Town/City: Grindrod
Project Scope: B.C., International
Partners: Akonjo Youth Empowerment and Health Education Programme (AYEHEP)
Discipline(s): Theatre, Inter-disciplinary, Dance
Start Date: 12/1/2009
End Date: 9/30/2010
Key Artists:
Varrick Grimes – theatre director and co-creator (Stratford)
Jimmy Ouma Okello – co-creator (Akonjo, Kenya)
Cathy Stubington – artistic director and co-creator (Enderby/Grindrod)
Murray MacDonald – musical director (Kingfisher)
Beatrice Ogilo – co-creator (Akonjoand Nairobi, Kenya)
Julie Ross – co-writer puppeteer (Salmon Arm)
Jaci Metivier – choreographer (Salmon Arm)
Kristi Christian – choreographer (Armstrong)
Project Description: Pi en Ngima "Water is Life" is a collaborative performance-based work that will be created by Runaway Moon Theatre from Enderby, B.C., and the Akonjo Youth Empowerment and Health Education Programme from Akonjo village in Kenya, Africa. Through storytelling, puppetry and dance the project will explore and compare our relationships to water. The cultural exchange will engender a deeper understanding of water as a precious resource and the global connectedness that exists around issues of access and ownership.
Funded: Summer 2009
Lead Organization: Runaway Moon Theatre Arts Society
Project Title: Pi en Ngima "Water is Life"
Amount Awarded: $30,000
Town/City: Grindrod
Project Scope: B.C., International
Partners: Akonjo Youth Empowerment and Health Education Programme (AYEHEP)
Discipline(s): Theatre, Inter-disciplinary, Dance
Start Date: 12/1/2009
End Date: 9/30/2010
Key Artists:
Varrick Grimes – theatre director and co-creator (Stratford)
Jimmy Ouma Okello – co-creator (Akonjo, Kenya)
Cathy Stubington – artistic director and co-creator (Enderby/Grindrod)
Murray MacDonald – musical director (Kingfisher)
Beatrice Ogilo – co-creator (Akonjoand Nairobi, Kenya)
Julie Ross – co-writer puppeteer (Salmon Arm)
Jaci Metivier – choreographer (Salmon Arm)
Kristi Christian – choreographer (Armstrong)
Project Description: Pi en Ngima "Water is Life" is a collaborative performance-based work that will be created by Runaway Moon Theatre from Enderby, B.C., and the Akonjo Youth Empowerment and Health Education Programme from Akonjo village in Kenya, Africa. Through storytelling, puppetry and dance the project will explore and compare our relationships to water. The cultural exchange will engender a deeper understanding of water as a precious resource and the global connectedness that exists around issues of access and ownership.
Funded: Summer 2009
Lead Organization: Theatre Replacement Society
Project Title: Twenty Minute Musicals ("20mm")
Amount Awarded: $52,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Lower Mainland, national, international
Artist Reach: Lower Mainland, national, international
Discipline(s): Inter-disciplinary, Music, Theatre
Start Date: 01/02/2008
End Date: 30/01/2009
Key Artists:
James Long and Maiko Yamamoto – Artistic Directors (Vancouver)
Veda Hille – Artist and Project Curator (Vancouver)
Bill Richardson – Artist (Vancouver)
John K. Samson – Artist (Winnipeg)
Nick Krgovich – Artist (Vancouver)
Juana Molina – Artist (Buenos Aires)
Project Description: Theatre Replacement will commission four eclectic groups of artists to create a series of Twenty Minute Musicals (20mms) that will be presented at the inaugural PuSh Club at the 2009 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. Chosen for their vision, versatility and ability to push boundaries, the commissioned artists will apply their skills and talents to create works that will be adventurous and risqué. For example, in just 20 minutes, CBC radio personality Bill Richardson, along with Winnipeg rocker John K. Samson, will create the musical Knees, the story of Nolan Cauchon, who, in the early 1930s introduced short pants for men going to parliament in Ottawa! With the curatorial direction of singer and songwriter Veda Hille, 20mms from the other artists promises to be equally quirky, clever and brave. The 20mms will foster creative collaborations between exceptional artists from different disciplines and will solidify Vancouver’s reputation as the place where fresh art is born.
Funded: Winter 2008
Lead Organization: Theatre Replacement Society
Project Title: The Greatest Cities in the World
Amount Awarded: $40,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Vancouver, B.C., Canada, International
Partners: Vancouver East Cultural Centre, Shadbolt Centre, Magnetic North Theatre Festival
Discipline(s): Theatre
Start Date: 6/26/2008
End Date: 6/12/2010
Key Artists:
James Long – director (Vancouver)
Maiko Bae Yamamoto – director (Vancouver)
Susan Elliot – creator/performer (Vancouver)
Ruben Castelblanco – creator/performer (Vancouver)
Young Hee Kim – creator/performer (Vancouver)
Michael Rinaldi – creator/performer (Vancouver)
Andrew Laurenson – creator/performer (Vancouver)
Tanya Polozniuk – creator/performer (Vancouver)
Nneka Croal – creator/performer (Vancouver)
Jonathan Ryder – lighting design (Vancouver)
Jesse Garlick – set design (Vancouver)
Veda Hille – sound design and composition (Vancouver)
Project Description: Theatre Replacement will engage a multilingual ensemble of dancers, actors and designers of Korean, Colombian, Japanese and Polish descent to interview individuals living in Rome, London, Moscow, Paris and Athens – all cities in the state of Tennessee. Tennessee has the highest concentration of cities with “famous” names than any other state or province in North America, and likely the world. Metaphorically, and in relationship to The Greatest Cities in the World project, Tennessee sits in the middle of a country rebuilding itself financially, politically and morally in an attempt to hold on to the title of the greatest country in the world. The collected texts, images and video will be transformed into a multi-media performance that takes the words of one world, filters them through an international collection of artists and makes them specific to our experience of living in Vancouver.
Funded: Summer 2009
Lead Organization: Turning Point Ensemble Society
Project Title: The Chamber Symphony 2010 Project
Amount Awarded: $81,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Vancouver
Discipline(s): Music
Start Date: 9/1/2008
End Date: 6/30/2011
Key Artists:
Dorothy Chang - Composer (Vancouver)
John Oliver - Composer (Vancouver)
Rodney Sharman - Composer (Vancouver)
Project Description: The Turning Point Ensemble, through its Chamber Symphony 2010 project, will add three significant new works to the repertoire through the commission of chamber symphonies by Vancouver composers Dorothy Chang, John Oliver and Rodney Sharman. Each chamber symphony will receive maximum exposure through performances, recording and touring. A public workshop component for each composition will build excitement towards the premieres and reveal insights into the creative process of each composer.
Funded: Summer 2008
Lead Organization: Vancouver Chamber Choir
Project Title: 40th Anniversary Commissions
Amount Awarded: $130,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Lower Mainland, national, international
Artist Reach: Lower Mainland, national, international
Discipline(s): Music
Start Date: 01/01/2008
End Date: 31/12/2010
Key Artists:
Peter Berring – Composer (Coquitlam)
Dr. Stephen Chatman – Composer (Vancouver)
Imant Raminsh – Composer (Vernon)
R. Murray Schafer – Composer (Ontario)
Tarik O’Regan – Composer (U.S.A)
Sir John Tavener – Composer (U.K.)
Project Description: In 2010, the Vancouver Chamber Choir (VCC) and founding conductor Jon Washburn, will celebrate their 40th season. To celebrate this important milestone, the VCC will commission a variety of choral works from six renowned Canadian and international composers to be scored for choir with select instrumental and orchestral accompaniment. Recognizing the enhanced international profile that Vancouver enjoys as a result of hosting The Vancouver 2010 Winter Games the new works will focus on poetry in six major languages including: French, English, German, Spanish, Russian and Mandarin Chinese. Each of the new works will receive its world premiere in the Choir’s 2010/11 subscription series.
Funded: Winter 2008
Lead Organization: Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (VICO)
Project Title: Imagined Worlds: Intertwined
Amount Awarded: $54,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Local, National, International
Partners: Laudate Singers
Discipline(s): Music
Start Date: 09/20/2010
End Date: 03/14/2012
Key Artists:
Joël Bons – Composer (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Dr. Stephen Chatman – Composer (Vancouver)
Moshe Denburg and Mark Armanini – Composers and Workshop Leaders (Vancouver)
Project Description: VICO will commission two groundbreaking new works: one from Dutch composer Joël Bons for the 27-member orchestra, and one from Canadian composer Dr. Stephen Chatman for the orchestra and 25-voice chamber choir (Laudate Singers). The pieces will be developed through an intensive, highly interactive workshop process. The project, Imagined Worlds: Intertwined, expands the horizons of Canadian contemporary classical music and pushes the boundaries of the developing art form of intercultural music.
Funded: Summer 2010
Lead Organization: Vancouver Community Gamelan Society
Project Title: Marathonologue
Amount Awarded: $51,000
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Vancouver
Partners: Diane Kadota Arts Management, Western Front
Discipline(s): Music, Media Arts, Inter-disciplinary
Start Date: 7/1/2008
End Date: 6/30/2009
Key Artists:
Boyd Seiichi Grealy - Composer, taiko (Vancouver)
Michael O’Neill - Composer, highland pipes (Vancouver)
I Wayan Sudirana - Composer, gamelan (Vancouver)
Aleksandra Dulic - Computer Animation/Video Artist (Vancouver)
Kenneth Newby - Computer Animation/Video Artist (Vancouver)
Project Description: The Vancouver Community Gamelan Society will commission three composers and two media artists to create Marathonologue, an inter-disciplinary work that combines music for gamelan, taiko drums and highland pipes with interactive computer animation/video. The work is inspired by marathon runner Naoko Takahashi, who reportedly drank an extract from giant Japanese killer hornets before winning the women’s marathon at the Sydney 2000 Olympics Games. Enzymes in the drink were thought to improve the body’s efficiency and reduce muscle fatigue. Marathonologue will be a musical soundscape permeated by the rhythms and the sounds of swarming hornets against an animated backdrop showing the interplay between the runner’s physical landscape and her internal mindscape.
Funded: Summer 2008
Lead Organization: Vancouver Moving Theatre Society
Project Title: A Downtown Eastside Romeo and Juliet
Amount Awarded: $18,960
Town/City: Vancouver
Project Scope: Lower Mainland
Artist Reach: Lower Mainland
Partner: Carnegie Community Centre
Discipline(s): Inter-disciplinary, Theatre, Music
Start Date: 07/01/2008
End Date: 21/03/2008
Key Artists:
Gina Bastone – Director, Head Writer (Vancouver)
Ya-wen V. Wang – Musical Director, Composer (Vancouver)
Savannah Walling – Artistic Director, Consulting Writer (Vancouver)
Project Description: Vancouver Moving Theatre will commission master clown, writer and director Gina Bastone, and composer Ya-wen V. Wang to create A Downtown Eastside Romeo and Juliet, an original Commedia dell’Arte style tragi-comedy inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Bernstein’s West Side Story. Set in a contemporary Downtown Eastside context in Vancouver and informed by local issues, the artistic team will re-envision this universal tragedy about a long standing grudge between families from different social backgrounds through fresh and comedic eyes. A talented troupe of professional artists will engage with a socially and culturally diverse group of community members to create an original production that will explore, with compassion and humour, the issues and values that are integral to this special neighbourhood.
Funded: Winter 2008
Lead Organization: Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre Society
Project Title: Five Elements, an International Dance Co-production of Wen Wei Dance and Beijing Modern Dance Company
Amount Awarded: $120,000
Town/City: Vernon
Project Scope: B.C., International
Partners: Brian Webb Dance Company, Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Vancouver, Canada Dance Festival, DanceHouse, Dance Victoria, Wen Wei Dance, Beijing Modern Dance Company
Discipline(s): Dance
Start Date: 9/8/2009
End Date: 12/6/2010
Key Artists:
Wen Wei Wang – choreographer (Vancouver)
Goa Yanjinzi – choreographer (Beijing, China)
Project Description: Five Elements is a new collaborative contemporary dance work based on the traditional Chinese classification of matter that includes wood, fire, earth, water and metal. The work will be co-choreographed by Vancouver-based Wen Wei Wang of Wen Wei Dance and Gao Yanjinzi of the Beijing Modern Dance Company. The musical score will include soundscapes derived from nature. Film elements that incorporate traditional Chinese brush painting and images of nature will be employed to capture the meeting and mixture of two different cultures. Commissioned by the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre Society, the project will include workshops for the local dance communities in Vernon and Vancouver before its premiere at the Canada Dance Festival in Ottawa in 2010.
Funded: Summer 2009
Lead Organization: Victoria Symphony Society
Project Title: Emily Carr Odyssey Series
Amount Awarded: $48,000
Town/City: Victoria
Project Scope: Local
Partners: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Emily Carr House
Discipline(s): Music
Start Date: 02/01/2010
End Date: 05/31/2012
Key Artists:
Tobin Stokes – Composer (Victoria)
Veda Hille – Composer (Vancouver)
Anna Höstman – Composer (Toronto)
Project Description: As part of the popular Odyssey series concerts, the focus for the 2011/12 season will be B.C. artist Emily Carr in a project called Emily Carr Odyssey Series. One concert will be commissioned symphonic works inspired by Carr’s artworks; another will feature Veda Hille, a composer with roots in a number of musical worlds who has already written a song cycle about Carr; and one will focus on First Nations locations and people that inspired Carr. Along with the commissions and the concerts, collaborations will happen with other arts institutions, incorporating Carr’s art in concerts, educational activities and other cross-promotion.
Funded: Summer 2010
Lead Organization: Western Canada Theatre Company Society
Project Title: Where the Blood Mixes
Amount Awarded: $95,000
Town/City: Kamloops
Project Scope: Lower Mainland, B.C., national
Artist Reach: Lower Mainland, B.C., national
Partners: Playhouse Theatre Company, Luminato International Festival (Toronto), The Savage Society, Full Circle: First Nations Performance, UBC Theatre Department
Discipline(s): Theatre
Start Date: 01/01/2008
End Date: 30/06/2008
Key Artists:
David Ross – Actor, Artistic Producer (Kamloops)
Glynis Leyshon – Director, Partnering Artistic Director (Vancouver)
Kevin Loring – Playwright (Vancouver)
Carl Stromquist – Visual Artist (Hope)
Jason Burnstick – Composer (Vancouver)
Sharon Pollack – Dramaturge (Calgary)
Project Description: Kamloops’ Western Canada Theatre, working in partnership with Vancouver’s Playhouse Theatre Company, will commission First Nations artist Kevin Loring to write and develop Where the Blood Mixes. A member of the Nlaka’pmux First Nation, Loring will draw on his own storytelling traditions and experiences to create a highly personal and deeply engaging story of loss and redemption. The play is set in Kumsheen, the Nlaka’pmux name for Loring’s hometown of Lytton, B.C. Kumsheen means “the place in the heart where the blood mixes.” Focusing on one character’s moving story of survival, the play is interwoven with mythic storytelling drawn from the Nlaka’pmux culture, especially the river and the sturgeon that are central to the people of the Fraser Canyon. While the play speaks clearly and bravely about emptiness and loss, it is also the work of a new generation of First Nations artists determined to celebrate the power and beauty of a re-emerging traditional culture and the inherent strength of a hugely resilient people. A skilled team of theatre professionals including First Nations artist Carl Stromquist and composer Jason Burnstick will create the visual, mythic and musical elements of the project. Where the Blood Mixes premieres at the Luminato and Magnetic North Theatre Festivals in spring 2008.
Funded: Winter 2008
Lead Organization: Whistler Arts Council (WAC)
Project Title: Inspired by Place
Amount Awarded: $100,000
Town/City: Whistler
Project Scope: Lower Mainland, B.C.
Artist Reach: Lower Mainland, B.C.
Partners: Maurice Young Millennium Place, Whistler Film Festival Society, Whistler Writers' Group, Whistler Museum and Archives Society, Resort Municipality of Whistler
Discipline(s): Inter-disciplinary, Dance, Music, Media Arts
Start Date: 01/03/2008
End Date: 28/02/2009
Key Artists:
Julia Taffe – Artistic Director, Aerial Dancer, Choreographer (Vancouver)
Michelle Olsen – First Nations Contemporary Dancer, Choreographer (Vancouver)
Francois Houle – Composer, Musician (Vancouver)
Tim Matheson – Projection Designer, Live Performance Photographer (Vancouver)
Project Description: A team of professional artists will collaborate with local community groups to create Inspired by Place, a multi-disciplinary outdoor performance piece that will convey Whistler's distinctive values and heritage to the world. The artists will work with local performance groups to create a piece that will reflect artistically upon the extraordinary athletic achievements that will take place at The Vancouver 2010 Winter Games. Inspired by the grandeur of the surrounding mountains and informed by local and Aboriginal traditions and world views, Inspired by Place will include the creation of aerial and contemporary dance works, performances of primal and evocative music, and the projection of pristine wilderness imagery onto buildings in the pedestrian plazas throughout Mountain Square. A 20-minute film will be produced to provide an enduring record of the artistic process, community engagement and public presentation of this unique new work.
Funded: Winter 2008