10330 84th Avenue
A celebration of the body in performance including performances by local and national artists, salon discussions, workshops, and pop-up lobby performances. Expanse is one stream in the Chinook Series.
The Lobbyists
Artists: Ayla Modeste, Tarene Thomas and Barry Bilinsky, with support from Amber Borotsik
Thursday February 7
Friday February 8
Saturday February 9
Thursday February 14
Friday February 15
Saturday February 16
Westbury Theatre
The Expanse Festival is honoured to partner with Barry Bilinsky and The Rubaboo Arts Festival to create a series of performance works that will inhabit the Westbury Lobby throughout the festival. Intended to activate and open up the spaces in between performances these works will feature artists such as Ayla Modeste, Tarene Thomas and Barry Bilinsky.
Bharata Natyam By Kiruthika Rathanaswami
Artist: Kiruthika Rathanaswami
Thu Feb 7 @ 7:00pm
Fri Feb 8 @ 7:00pm
Westbury Theatre
Kiruthika Rathanaswami premieres four new solo bharata natyam (Indian Classical Dance) works choreographed by Jai Govinda and visual & graphic design by Sridar Elumalai with the support of the Edmonton Arts Council. In the core work “Mohamana” Kiruthika will explore the mood of love, desire and sexual unity with lord Thyagaraja. The production highlights the intricate aspects of the dance form (nritta, nritya and natyam) and the freshness of its evolution through visual narratives to contextualize the dance for a diverse audience.
Curated by Good Women Dance Collective.
Bodies In Spaces And All That Those Spaces Can Hold. Three Local Artists Cover Everything From Basketball, To Apocalyptic Parties, To Water Protection:
The Music Crept By Us
Artists: Rebecca Sadowski, Dean Musani, Gianna Vacirca, Beth Dart
A woman finds herself consumed by a New Years Eve bash; proposing an unplanned toast, making music with a monster, and losing herself before the countdown.
Rebecca Sadowski, along with collaborators Dean Musani and Gianna Vacirca, explores the intersections of theatre, dance, and sound composition through choreography, improvisation, and of course, the words of Leonard Cohen.
Roles: Rebecca Sadowski (Choreographer/Performer), Dean Musani (Sound Designer/Performer), Gianna Vacirca (Mentor/Artistic Collaborator), Beth Dart (Lighting Designer)
Tip Off!
Artist: NIUBOI
Snap back to the 90’s with this basketball inspired movement piece. Dribble, dunk, dance; it’s time to slam. A new piece choreographed by NIUBOI, recipient of the 2018 New Work Award by the Good Women Dance Collective.
Roles: NIUBOI (Lead Artist), Abbie Cogger, Jameela McNeill and Ryan Jackson (Performers / Collaborators), Cliff Kelly and Taylor Chadwick (Sports Channel Announcers) and Ainsley Hillyard (Mentor)
Mni Wiconi/Water Is Life
Artists: Nicole Schafenacker, Cole Humeny, Kate Stashko, Camille Renarhd
mni wiconi/water is life is a performance piece exploring the somatic experience of mass political movements and the reverberations that follow. It looks at the intimate-physical experience of resistance between people on all “sides” of the movement, and aims to find voice and humanism in the legal aftermath of mass arrest. mni wiconi/water is life is based on Nicole’s firsthand experience of traveling to Standing Rock, ND in 2016 as a water protector.
Roles: Nicole Schafenacker (Performer/Creator), Cole Humeny (Performer, Voice), Kate Stashko (Movement Advisor), Camille Renarhd (Dance Dramaturge)
*This project is developed in consultation with Elders as well as Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants of the Standing Rock movement
Raconteurs
Artists: Sissy Thiessen, Kris Demeanor, and Yazmin Juarez
Thu Feb 14 @ 10:00pm
Westbury Theatre
Three artists from different genres observe and engage with Chinook artists and audiences and then present a cabaret of their work, old and new, in response to the unexpected intersections, collisions, and questions they have been a part of. Featuring Yazmin Juarez, Sissy Thiessen, and Kris Demeanor.
Curated in consultation with Sinergia.
Room 2048 (2048號房)
Artists: Hong Kong Exile
Fri Feb 15 @ 7:00pm
Sat Feb 16 @ 8:30pm
Westbury Theatre
Azimuth Theatre in collaboration with Mile Zero Dance as part of MZD’s Dance Crush series presents Room 2048 — a dream machine. In digital light and smoke, we pursue a history that is not ours. A living past, a dying future, and a stillborn present. We will lie. We will cheat. We will spend thousands of years here.
Through the layering of digital light, bombastic pop music, fog, and the Chinese body, Room 2048 speaks to the diasporic experience of loss, desire, and nostalgia.
PRODUCED BY Hong Kong Exile
PROJECT LEAD Natalie Tin Yin Gan
CO-CREATORS AND PERFORMERS Michelle Lui + Milton Lim + Alex Tam + Remy Siu
SOUND + MEDIA DESIGNER Remy Siu
MENTOR Lee Su-Feh (battery opera performance)
PREMIERED AND COMMISSIONED BY Firehall Arts Centre
SAMPLES FROM MUSIC BY Susumu Hirasawa, crafTUNER, Hydelic, Frank Sinatra
Room 2048 is made possible with the generous support of Gateway Theatre, Anvil Centre, The Cultch, New Works, Theatre Replacement, Company 605, as well as Canada Council for the Arts and the BC Arts Council.
“clever, fascinating, and absorbing” , “multi media show of impeccable class” — Plank Magazine
“Audacious, avant-garde, experimental—and as one grinning audience member put it so accurately after the show, “unapologetic”—Room 2048 left many who watched it a bit stunned” — Georgia Straight