Rewriting Distance enters a new residency of performances this August at Mile Zero Dance (Photo: Michael Reinhart)
Rewriting Distance, created by choreographer Lin Snelling, Associate Professor in the Department of Drama, and Belgian dramaturge Guy Cools, enters a new residency of performances this August at Mile Zero Dance (MZD). Working collaboratively with many of Edmonton's best artists, Mile Zero Dance is a fast-paced, broad-minded company that thrives on integrating contemporary and experimental dance into modern culture.
Rewriting Distance investigates what it means to revisit a place through cycles of dancing, speaking, reading, writing and watching - recreating a history of the places and communities in which the performance takes place. It addresses both memory and place in a live re-telling of personal and collective history.
Cools and Snelling initiated this artistic project originally based on walking through cities after meeting in 2003 during the Vooruit Danse en Avant event presented by Agora de la danse in Montreal.
"This performance cycle of Rewriting Distance is based on returning to places where we have been and continuing to collaborate with artists in the community," says Snelling. "What are we telling each other now? What are the various and multiple narratives of a group of people that come together?"
Earlier this year, Snelling received a SSHRC Partnership Engage grant in support of the Rewriting Distance/Mile Zero Dance project, and was a also named a University of Alberta McCalla Professor for A Sounding Line, a collaborative research project examining how dance, theatre, and music can gain depth as storytelling devices through collective problem solving.
Featured collaborators include Canadian actor/dancer/choreographer, Stephanie Cumming; Edmonton-based Artistic Director of MZD, Gerry Morita; and Piet Defraeye, the Edmonton-based Belgian director and Snelling's colleague in the Department of Drama. In this vibrant, improvised piece each performer acts as audience, witness and performer.
In addition to the performances, other events include: a five-day workshop with the performers and photographer Michael Reinhart, running August 26-30, and an interactive symposium curated by choreographer Thea Patterson and visual artist and MFA Theatre Design student Jeremy Gordaneer on August 19 at the Timms Centre for the Arts.
The performances of Rewriting Distance run August 21-23 at 8 p.m. and August 24 at 2 p.m. at Spazio Performativo (10816 - 95 St.)
Tickets to Rewriting Distance are $15 for MZD members and $20 for non-members. Tickets can be purchased here.
