Dance: Western Front Independent Choreog. Series

DANCE WESTERN FRONT INDEPENDENT CHOREOG. SERIES/ May 14 Fri Santa Aloi Santa Aloi, formerly of the Gus Solomons Company, moved from New York to Vancouver in 1976 to join the dance faculty at Simon Fraser University. In addition to teaching, she has been active as an independent choreographer-dance and has appeared as soloist in the works of Gladys Bailin, Linda Rabin, Karen Rimmer and Cliff Keuter. Besides choreographing for SFU dancers, she has taught and choreographed as artist in residence at several universities and for independent dancers in Canada. A solo concert of her own work was presented at Tangente in Montreal last June. Her most recent work, TOTEM, choreographed and performed with Susan Osberg, will be presented in New York and Toronto this summer. "The work has...intensity, unwillingness to compromise, containment...there is a great sense of honesty." Max Wyman, C.B.C. Radio "Santa makes introspective, moving, solo pieces, and complex, witty, intellectual, group pieces" Barbara Clausen, CFRO Radio/ photo: Fritz Hunrath/ May 15 Sat Iris Garland. Laurie Jones Jorge Holguin. C. Lee Laurie Jones is a recent graduate of Simon Fraser University's Dance Program. Her piece PASSAGE: a solo accompanied by vocal chorus, was performed at U.B.C. this November, and she will also appear in this series with Lee Eilser and Karen Greenhough. C. Lee holds degrees from York University (dance) and from Queen's (drama). She has been teaching, choreographing, and performing in Vancouver since 1974, collaborating with actors, musicians, and other dancers in her exploration of the kinesthetics of sound and movement. Iris Garland, as founder of the dance program at Simon Fraser University, has been seminal to much of Vancouver's current dance activity. She continues to teach and choreograph at SFU, has been the recipient of two Canada Council short-term grants, and has been active in the Dance in Canada Association. Jorge Holguin is the product of the South American arts movement and Simon Fraser University's Dance program. He has been showing his work in Vancouver during the last two years, and is currently interested in creating works that involve both theatre and dance./ photo: Henk Piket/ May 16 Sun Marie Chouinard Guest artist in the series, Marie Chouinard, is from Montreal. She has recently returned from New York where she was the first artist chosen by the Quebec Government to live and work in its Quebec Studio there. She has presented her work at the Musee des Beaux Arts in Montreal, Art Gallery of Ontario, Western Front, Symposium International de Sculpture Environnementale (Chicoutimi), Explosition 80 (Bordeaux), Ecole des Arts Decoratifs (Paris) and Art et Societe (Musee du Quebec). Her works have ranged from 90 seconds to 90 minutes and include performance, choreography, film, drawing, installation, and text. Here she will present MARIE CHIEN NOIR, three solo works: MIMAS LUNE DE SATURNE (premiered at the Théâtre de L'Alhambra à Bordeaux, 1980). PLAISIRS DE TOUS LES SENS DANS TOUS LES SENS (premiered at the Musee du Quebec, 1981). and MARIE CHIEN NOIR (premiered at the Musee d'Art Contemporain, April 4, 1982)./ May 21 Fri Lola MacLaughlin P. Ryan and P. Bingham Lola MacLaughlin is a Simon Fraser University graduate in dance. She has been choreographing and performing for five years, and is presently appearing in work with Karen Rimmer. "I make dances about the influences passing through my life - the patterns, the rhythms, the visions." Peter Bingham has toured across Canada performing as a member of Fulcrum. He is currently dancing in the latest work by Karen Rimmer. Peter Ryan teaches, performs and writes about dance. He has taught contact at U.B.C., S.F.U. and the Playhouse Acting School, and has performed with Jennifer Mascall, Steve Paxton, Savannah Walling and Karen Rimmer. Together Peter and Peter perform CONTACT IMPROVISATION, a spontaneous dance form in which partners make moment-to-moment decisions about rolling, jumping, sliding and falling, maintaining almost constant physical connection throughout. The technique requires trust, sensitivity, extended perceptual skills and an organic compositional awareness./ photo: Huge Studios/ May 22 Sat Jennifer Mascall Jennifer Mascall has performed extensively throughout Canada, Britain, and Scandinavia, including Finland. She spent two years performing Douglas Dunn's Lazy Madge in New York, and two seasons with the Paula Ross Dance Company in Vancouver. In 1981, she received a first prize at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and also won the Clifford E. Lee Award for choreography: the commissioned piece, ACOUSTIC NOOSE was with seventeen dancers to Bach's Brandenburg # 4. In this series she performs her solo work No PICNIC: "The dance has two characters, Brood and Grime, giving their points of view on the same subjects. Brood is a South American divorcee mother whose hobby is swans. Grime is a worried businessman working on competence skills who studies martyrs on the side. Both are suicidal. The same events happen to each, their approaches and reactions are the dance. It is a fleeting piece. Crowded movement images on the run and allusions that are there if you want them."/ photo: Bob Barnett/ May 23 Sun Lee Eisler and Karen Greenhough "In 1980 we began a collaboration with two writers, Nelson Gray and Paul Kelley, in an effort to produce works which would integrate and offset movement and language in varous [sic] ways. Though we have enjoyed working with other writers as well, the majority of our performances have been conceived and directed by this core of two writers and choreographers. Our collaborations are not confined solely to experiments with form. We begin with content, that is, a specific subject matter, and make the most of our two disciplines to investigate that content in an attempt to understand and perform it in new ways. Our initial concept is then further developed, layered, and enhanced by people from different disciplines, composers, musicians, stage and lighting designers, and graphic artists, who bring to the collaboration their own artistic forms and expertise. This year we've been fortunate to work with composers: Elyra Campbell. Reid Campbell, Martin Gotfrit. and Doug Nicolle. and dancers: Sandra Acton, Laurie Jones, Lori Eisler. and Lauren Olson."/ photo: Nicholas Lewis/ WF/ All performances begin at 8:30 p.m. at Firehall Theatre, 280 E. Cordova St./ Series Pass general public Students & WF members Limited seating. Advance Tickets at Western Front, 303 East 8th Ave. 876-9343/ Presented with the assistance of the Canada Council./ The Canada Council Conseil des Arts du Canada 1957-1982