We learned a lot at our own funeral (2024)
As in a funeral rite, the community is central. Through his eye contact, his voice, his somatic presence, the performer connects with the spectators who become part of the ritual.
What can be learned from a rehearsed death?
What is unknown to humans evokes fear. Nothing is constant. Yet change is grieved.
For some of us the journey of life is painful; we would prefer death over life.
As in a battle with the self — the performer challenges the force of gravity, resists against the ground, fights to overcome the precarious balance, becomes a sculpture wearing multiple masks. This force transforms as it distills and processes the notion of death, circled by community, in this tormenting battle.
While the community encompasses the dancer, the piece develops through the repetition of gestures, which the audience is invited to transform.
The potency of breath and voice brings the room into a state of trance until the performer's body is immersed in darkness and it becomes just a presence, a ghost, the memory of a previous life still touchable by those who witnessed it. Only the echo of the body, of its strength and its fragility, remains.
Can we perceive this body’s spirit? What can be learned from sub-coming the present moment into the unknown future?
Artistic Direction & Choreography by: Daina Ashbee
Performer : Imara Bosco
Rehearsal director : Gabriel Nieto
Rehearsal assistant, Production assistant: Gabriel Nieto
Lighting Design : Vito Walter
Production: Daina Ashbee
Administration : Jason Dubois & Francesca Fung New Works (Vancouver)
Co-Production Funders: Montpellier Danse (France), Usine-C (Montreal), Festival Saint-Sauveur, Crimson Coast Dance Society (Nanaimo), The Dance Centre (Vancouver)
Funded by The Canada Council for the Arts, Projects Grant
Funded by The Candance Network
Residencies: Montpellier Danse
World Premiere: July 3, 4, 5 , 2024 - Montpellier Danse
photo of Imara Bosco by Patrice Mathieu 2024
CALENDAR :
July 3, 4, 5 , 2024 - Montpellier Danse
Montpellier, France
October 25, 26, 2024 - Usine C
Actoral Festival
Montreal, QC
November 8, 2024 - Trillium Theatre
Actoral Festival
Ottawa, Canada
February 6, 7, 8, 2025
The Dance Centre Vancouver
Vancouver, British Columbia