Welcome to the PEEP Virtual Gallery
explore each artist’s work by selecting their image from the gallery below, or keep scrolling to experience each piece in sequence
But our princess is in another castle
Since the start of the pandemic, we have been running on hope that our efforts will bring and are constantly disappointed. It's been like Mario Brothers video games where the princess is always in another castle. Melding that concept with Waiting for Godot, where Godot never shows up, this act is one where nothing happens. Using statue mime, it considers stillness as a way to engage with the audience.
But Our Princess is in Another Castle, recorded on Oct 9, 2021.
But Our Princess is in Another Castle, time lapse: 30 minutes condensed to 34 seconds.
Created by Mary-Margaret Scrimger
Instagram: @mmscrimger
Mary-Margaret Scrimger is a static trapeze and duo artist based in Toronto. She has performed at various events such as CIBC United Way Fundraiser, Lunacy Cabaret, Starlight Wish Foundation, and other events.
La Luna Llena
La Luna Llena is a contemporary flamenco dance that follows the dancer along a walk under the light of the full moon. Transported by the sound of waves and the song by Venezuelan folk musician, Simón Díaz, the audience is invited to consider what it is we are letting go of that evening.
La Luna Llena, recorded on Oct 9, 2021
La Luna Llena with Creative Audio overlaid on video
Created by Sofí Gudiño
Instagram: @sofidances @inamoratadance
Music by Simón Díaz
Sofí Gudiño is a dance artist and founder of Inamorata Dance Collective. Raised in flamenco and established in contemporary dance, Sofí’s work is marked by emotional intensity and choreographic risk. Inamorata’s creative focus is on the expansion of flamenco through omitting expectations of the form by classical Spanish traditions. They are exploring strong choreographic and musical risk that are influenced by contemporary, Latinx and queer arts. In Spain, Gudiño has studied flamenco with Úrsula López, Alicia Márquez, Pastora Galván and Ramón Martínez. As a choreographer, Gudiño has enjoyed residencies at The Toronto Dance Theatre, The Chimera Project Company B Lab, and Dancemakers. Choreographic premieres include Nuit Blanche, Pride, New Blue Dance Festival, and with their award nominated piece, Picaza, in Toronto Fringe. Inamorata's second dance film, TAURA, will premiere at Aluna Theatre's Caminos Festival in October 2021.
Forever A Wife
As Artists, we spend so much of our lives exploring, expanding and defining who WE are, defining our Selves, and amplifying our unique voices. What happens when the foundation of that Self begins to disappear like crumbling foundations beneath our feet ? Do we become less of ourselves , or somehow more, as we lose our grasp on memories, context and identity?
Forever a Wife, recorded on Oct 9, 2021
Forever a Wife with Creative Audio overlaid on video
Created by Alayna Kellett (Nee Molotkow) / A'Slayna Von Hunt
www.alayna@alayna.ca & www.aslayna@aslayna.com
Instagram: @laynabrett & @aslaynavon
Alayna is a professional dancer, producer, choreographer, adjudicator and model, having graduated from Ryerson University with a BFA in the Performance: Dance program. As a technically trained dancer, Alayna is proficient in ballet, pointe, jazz, modern, contemporary, lyrical, musical theatre, tap and burlesque. During her years of education, she trained under artists like Nadia Potts, Rex Harrington, Roberto Campanella, Kenny Pearl, Allen Kaeja and many more. Alayna trained in BATD, RAD and ADAPT as well as continuing her own education with programs like C.I. Training, Progressing Ballet Technique and IDTS. Recently, Alayna has been working on producing films under Von Hunt Productions, such as ‘In Transit’, which was featured this year at the Digital Toronto Fringe Festival 2021, along with a new film projected to start production in 2022. In addition to recent works, Alayna has performed in and choreographed ‘Tales of a Cocktail’ and ‘Anatomy of a Dancer’, which have been nominated for several Broadway World Awards. Alayna has worked as the resident choreographer for companies like Big Soul Productions, SilverHouse and The Artillery Collective and has choreographed for short and feature films, which include ‘Something for the Buoys’ (Sapling Productions), ‘Bonded’ (Incolour Films), ‘West Side Story’ (Bayside Arts & Pinnacle Playhouse), Gypsy (Stirling Festival Theatre), ‘Hello Again’ (The Artillery Collective) and many more. Alayna’s work has been on stages in productions of HIM International, Starboyz Productions, Fever After Dark and The Darling Mansion and has also worked with the companies FujiFilm, Henry’s, Apple and Bank of Montreal. Alayna has also been a part of productions for international artists such as Feist, Joey Stylez and Juice Bar. Additionally, Alayna has established a residency at a local speakeasy where she regularly performs and choreographs burlesque acts in downtown Toronto, and has performed in notable venues such as The Royal Conservatory of Music, The Gardiner Museum, Roy Thompson Hall and many more. With Alayna’s experience, she is a highly sought-after adjudicator that is registered with the Professional Adjudicators Alliance and is always excited to share those experiences and passions with competitors. In Alayna’s 10+ years of teaching experiences, she has travelled all over Canada and the East Coast to teach, choreograph and adjudicate, as well as creating custom pointe and pointe preparation programs, over-the-top production numbers, conditioning programs as well as award winning choreography by dance studios across the country. Alayna had also spent 2 years as the Jazz Teacher on staff with In-Studio, through the National Ballet of Canada.
now
What is worth holding on to? What should we let go of?
Oriah and Amanda use the tools of conversation, rhythm, and physical relationship to sift through the remains of this past year.
now - recorded on Oct 9, 2021
now - with Creative Audio Description overlaid on video
Created by Oriah Wiersma & Amanda Pye
Oriah Website: oriahwiersma.ca
Instagram: @oriahw
Amanda Instagram: @amandapye
Oriah Wiersma is a community-oriented movement artist and bodyworker (CST, Thai massage) who grew up profoundly connected to the land that helped shape her. She splits her time between Toronto and Northumberland county passionate to support the arts in both a large city centre and a small town. With physical movement as her language she is curious how the body speaks when words fail and the ripple of our craniosacral rhythm. Oriah is passionate about collaboration, the exchange of knowledge amongst disciplines and generations. She works with musicians regularly connecting to her long history with music. She created five choreographic works and was movement director for R. Murray Schafer’s musical drama The Spirit Garden that took place outdoors in Coldsprings, ON with close to 100 performers. This past year she choreographed and performed for the Toronto-based band Ptarmigan’s new music video and was commissioned by SONG (Songs Of the Next Generation) to create a movement film. With the synth-pop band ZINNIA, she creates choreographic works to their songs, performing with them at the Basement Review Series - curated by Jason Collett, ArtsWells music festival in BC, and in various Toronto Parks this past summer. Oriah continues to lean into the possibilities of interdisciplinary exchange through various artistic residencies; The Creative Gesture Collective Composition Lab for Music and Dance at the Banff Centre for the Arts, New Music New Dance Creation Residency through Connection Dance Works, and Reclaiming Attention through the Ottawa Dance Directive.
Amanda Pye is a movement artist and creator currently based in Toronto. She has collaborated with a wide range of creators including Mikaela Demers, Aeris Körper, I/O Movement, Sarah Koekkoek, Krista Newey, Candice Irwin, Kate Hilliard, Apolonia Velasquez, Jasmyn Fyffe, Alias Dance Project, Frog in Hand, and Shotgun Juliet Theatre Company. Amanda is currently working as a collaborator with adelheid dance projects and choreographer Heidi Strauss. She is also working to develop her choreographic practice, and her most recent creative projects have been developed through residencies at Canada’s National Ballet School supported by Peggy Baker Dance Projects, Open Space Programme at The National Ballet of Canada, and the Performing Arts Creation Residency at The Banff Centre. She is also interested in how she can translate her movement through film and was accepted as a bursary recipient for the Digital Media Lab stream at Artscape Daniels Launchpad Toronto. Her film explorations have been shared in various online showcases; including the film project ‘14' created with sound designer Dorian Voos, which was featured in a month-long gallery display produced by MakeRoom Inc at Stackt Market. Amanda holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Ryerson University Performance Dance Program.
Topsy-Turvy
Topsy-Turvy is a contortion act inspired by our entire world being flipped upside down during the pandemic. The main concept to take away from this act is that the knowledge needed to adapt has been available within us all along, but we needed to be challenged to step outside of our comfort zones in order to obtain it. In other words, instead of “thinking outside the box”, it’s important to work with all of the tools that are already available within our tool box.
Topsy Turvy, recorded on Oct 9, 2021
Topsy Turvy with Creative Audio overlaid on video
Created by Flexy-T
www.flexy-t.ca
Instagram: @flexy_t
Facebook: Flexy-T Entertainment
Music by Stephen Joffe
Check out his band, Birds of Bellwoods: www.birdsofbellwoods.com
Instagram: @birdsbellwoods & @stevie_joffe
Toria Summerville is a professional circus performer from Ajax, Ontario. She is an honours graduate from the dance program at the performing arts school, O’Neill Collegiate and Vocational Institute. She specializes in a number of disciplines including contortion, acrobatics, dance, creature acting, and aerial circus. Also known as Flexy-T, Toria began her journey as an internationally-acclaimed and award-winning dancer and has been treating audiences to memorable performances for most of her life. At a young age, she had discovered she possessed rare natural flexibility beyond that of the average person and by the age of 14 her doctors had started treating her for Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Soon after, she had to leave the world of dance and began expanding her training regimen to include gymnastics and circus training with the aim of developing her strength to control her frequent joint dislocations. Since then, Toria has had to adjust her lifestyle, as her connective tissue disorder has progressively gotten worse over the years. Furthermore, Toria’s disability lead her to embark on a new journey of circus performance while she learns to embrace her disability by sharing with others how she’s been able to turn it into an ability.
COLLECTIVE DAY DREAM
“This installation provides a fun way to co-create in the time of the pandemic. We have been sitting alone, daydreaming, staring at the walls around us. Ragusila wove together viewers daydreams and created a canvas of shared imagination on the walls around her. Overall it will show how we can still collaborate and create beauty together.”
Collective Day Dream, recorded Oct 9, 2021
Collective Day Dream with Creative Audio overlaid on video
Created by Andra Ragusila
http://andra-ragusila.art/
Instagram: @andra.ragusila
Andra Ragusila explores the human experience through the human form and through interactive installations. Ragusila aims to create the art she needed when she was younger, to help others feel less alone in their experiences. Her installations aim to help participants reflect on their experiences and create a healing environment. Ragusila is a queer woman who currently lives and works in Toronto, Canada. She’s originally from Bucharest, Romania. She holds a bachelors degree in psychology the University of Toronto. Psychology highly influences her art and how she designs her installations to consciously evoke specific emotions in her viewers. Ragusila was the recipient of the 2016 Emerging Toronto Artist Character Award, and the 2019 Scarborough Arts 34th Annual Juried Exhibition Award. In 2019, she joined the Feminist Art Collective and was part of the curatorial team for the 2020 Feminist Art Festival, a 3 day cultural event featuring 75 artists from 15 countries. She has exhibited in shows in Toronto, Ottawa and Costa Rica.
Knot theory
Age Recommendation: 16+
A knot is a rope’s way of hugging someone. It is an embrace that I control as much as it controls me. Tying and untying is a ritualistic rebirth that grants me control over the world and over my body. Robe bondage as a kink is usually traced back to the Japanese practice of rope tying that started as a torture and restrain before becoming an art, rope as a technology as emerged in cultures all over the world and the technique displayed in this piece come from a western understanding of rope art that was adapted from the middle eastern macrame and chinese knot aesthetics.
Knot theory, recorded on Oct 9, 2021.
Created by Rye
https://sites.google.com/view/rye/
Music by Sofia Fly
https://sofiafly.bandcamp.com/
Instagram: @djsofiafly
Rye is a perennial grass that grows to 1.8 meters or taller. It is well-suited to establish roots in cosmopolitan environments and is a disease-resistant crop, which is cherished for its high-energy dancing and unique stage presence. When in human form, Rye is an intersex genderqueer performer who uses acrobatic contemporary moves to tell sentimental stories. Rye has performed on Toronto’s best and queerest stages, bartops and park benches. They are currently participating in the 2021 Pride Toronto’s artist residency, and were a recipient of the Unsettling Dramaturgy Award. Rye always brings a full production and irresistible seduction, with their edgy mix of drag and burlesque. Follow them on instagram as @blue.wild.rye to stay up to date with their latest shows and projects and to keep up with how deep their grassroots run into anti-colonial activism.
lost
Age Recommendation: 15+
In the first iteration of PEEP, lost began with two explorers waking up with no idea where they are with many memories missing. They are in...a base...no a ship, or craft of some type. Are they floating through space, lost at sea, or crash landed somewhere unknown? Not sure, the explorers soon discover they are stuck in their craft unable to leave. Months later, we return to the explorers to find that they have adapted to their current environment but are still without their memories. The duo work to discover where they are and what happened as they attempt to piece together who they are. lost is a work-in-progress.
lost, recorded Oct 9, 2021
lost with Creative Audio Description overlaid on video
Created by FREEWATER (Michaela Demers & Will Hamilton)
www.freewaterforartists.com/
Instagram: @mbdemers + @hamilton_himself
Music by Laura Dickens
Instagram: @leucrocuta.music
FREEWATER is the creation space of Mikaela Demers. Diving into the power of fiction and imagination, the work created embraces fantasy and strives to explore the dark places of our minds and bodies to share through movement-based performance. Unique worlds are created that take audiences to new places while reflecting and questioning the ideas, experiences, and norms of contemporary western society. lost is a co-creation by Mikaela Demers and Will Hamilton.
Will and I met as young dancers in Sudbury, Ontario in 2010. Both traveling to Toronto to pursue post-secondary training, we remained friends and creative partners throughout our studies to this day. We have made work together and performed in Toronto, Sudbury, and Thunder Bay. In more recent years we have divulged our shared interest in fantasy and sci-fi narrative, leading to the initiation of this work. We are working to develop lost into a full-length site-specific work that we can tour to our home communities in Northern Ontario and beyond.
Emotional Furniture
We typically take lengths to be “presentable” before facing others; here we witness the moments prior to that. A peep into the normally mundane morning routine, with a twist. The enclosed nature of the box is not dissimilar to the boundaries set by one’s home. The box is a microcosm of the safety of our own homes, transported to be displayed at the Bentway.
Emotional Furniture - recorded on Oct 9, 2021
Emotional Furniture - with Creative Audio Description overlaid on video
Created by Eric Liu and Kylie Thompson
Instagram: @existentialninja + @kyliethompsondance
Kylie Thompson is a contemporary dancer with a background in ballet, jazz, modern, and hip hop. Eric Liu is a dancer and acrobat with a background in breaking, acrobatics, hand-to-hand, acro yoga and martial arts. Their partnership is focused on creating new and innovative partnering movements by combining elements from their respective backgrounds. They aspire to create duets for stage and site-specific settings. The duo began creating together in 2017.
Close(d)
The past year and a half has forced us all to consider closeness, confinement, and the possibility of collision actively and immediately. The box itself makes these concerns even more immediate and unavoidable: as a small, confined space that defines and mandates the proximity of the artists within it, it creates the conditions for closeness and/or collisions to take place. Our site-specific project places Marion Aether, an aerialist, and Rory Jade Grey, a musician, inside the box together. While aerial is more physically dynamic, both of these disciplines take up space. In their live iterations, they require the active and ongoing work of the body to take form. Even the seemingly least embodied element—the looping pedal—relies on specific and specifically-timed physical movement that could be affected by how we each physically navigate the space and how we respond to the ever-changing closeness of each other’s bodies. Inside the box, as we respond to each other’s sound and movement artistically, we must also respond to each other’s material presence and movement in space practically. Our confined, collaborative work creates the opportunity for responsive closeness, but also necessitates attentive reaction to each other’s physical presence, as closeness can easily overlap with getting in one another’s way.
close(d) recorded on Oct 9, 2021
close(d) with Creative Audio overlaid on video
Created by Marion Aether and Rory Jade Grey
Rory's soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/rory-jade-grey/tracks
Marion Aether's Instagram: @marionaether
Marion Aether is a queer, non-binary aerialist specializing in trapeze and aerial rope. They have performed, among others, at QueerCab (Buddies in Badtimes Theatre), Hercinia Art Parties, On Point, Rev.er.ie, the Toronto Queer Film Festival Symposium, and the 30th Anniversary Northbound Leather Fetish Night. They also write about circus, including a collaborative publication (Circus Thinks: Reflections) which emerged from the work of Cirkus Syd's international Circus Thinkers Platform. *
Rory Jade Grey is a non-binary multidisciplinary musician and performance artist based in Toronto, ON. As a multi-instrumentalist musician with over 10 years of performance experience, they’ve played guitar, drums and bass in several musical groups, such as The Masses, The Overtones and — most recently — with IM Brown and The Transcendents. They’re also a solo artist who’s performed original works across Canada and scored a handful of independent films.
PEEPed
PEEPed is a clown/puppet soap opera that follows the melodramatic and saccharine lives of Peeps. Do not be fooled by their candy coated exterior... or their squishy marshmallow interior! These Peeps are ruthless. Love. Betrayal. And all the sweet soap opera tropes you know and love will be revealed.
PEEPed recorded Oct 9, 2021
Created and Performed by Zita Nyarady with original music by Melissa Mather
www.thegrandsaltotheatre.com
Zita Nyarady is an interdisciplinary artist working within the realms of dance, theatre and circus. She creates playful performances to delight audiences. Her eclectic training includes degrees and advanced study in dance, theatre, circus arts, performance studies, political science and environmental studies. In her work she melds physical vocabulary with theatrical character and narrative. Zita loves to tell whimsical stories with a sense of humour. As co-artistic director of The Grand Salto Theatre, Zita’s interdisciplinary performances have been presented at Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival, Rhubarb, Toronto Festival of Clowns, Edmonton Play the Fool Festival, Montreal Clown Festival, Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, 60x60, Clay & Paper Theatre, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto Buskerfest and Fringe Festivals across Canada. Internationally she has worked with the National Gallery in Jamaica, Dance House in Scotland, Odin Teatret in Denmark and Klintkalaset in Sweden. She was the co-artistic director of The Wapsipnicon Theatre Festival, a site-specific performance festival in rural Iowa USA. She has participated in Director's Lab North, Nightwood Theatre's Young Innovators Lab, Crows Theatre AXTP, Buddies in Bad Times Young Creators Unit, Circus Sessions and PERSPECTIVE with Connection Dance Works. She received a Theatre Ontario PTTP grant to fund an internship with Pilobolus Dance Theatre. Zita was the 2017/18 Dramatist in Residency at The Heliconian Club in Toronto, 2019 emerging choreographer with Chimera Project and is in the Cirque du Soleil performer database.
Scarlet Prison
Age Recommendation: 16+ - BURLESQUE
Scarlet Prison is a tribute to strippers, sex workers and peep show dancers. It resists and makes sensual the surveillance from all sides of the box that viewers gaze into. You are invited to interrogate your viewership and consumption of sexual labour and what sex workers look like under a different kind of lens.
Scarlet Prison, recorded Oct 9, 2021
Scarlet Prison with Creative Audio overlaid on video.
Created by Wrong Note Rusty
Instagram: @wrongnoterusty
Facebook: Wrong Note Rusty
Music Artist: Disasterpeace
Song: The Gauntlet
https://music.disasterpeace.com/album/hyper-light-drifter
Greg Wong / Wrong Note Rusty (@wrongnoterusty) is a multidisciplinary artist and member of BoylesqueTO, Canada's Premiere Boylesque Troupe, since 2009. As a solo artist, Rusty has toured as a featured performer in burlesque, comedy and fringe theatre festivals all over Europe and North America, and had his bare butt censored on national television on Canada’s Got Talent. In his everyday life, Rusty is a freelance photographer, cat daddy, houseplant enthusiast, vintage bicycle collector, and pizzavore.
Watching Me, Watching You
Content Warning: possible grating sounds
"Watching Me, Watching You" is based on the rituals and presentations of interior and exterior selves, how the self is translated and perceived by others, and the self’s demonstration in the cybernetic world. Concepts of boundaries, confinement, and expansion are being pushed by our changing behaviors with each other as our lives become more intertwined with the internet; we share intimate portraits of ourselves to the anonymous void of the internet that we would not share with our closest allies in person; our phones and the media we consume off them are beginning to not just be pastimes but places in which our lives take place, leading to this investigation of how we present ourselves in this new realm.
Watching Me, Watching You, recorded on Oct 9, 2021
Watching me, Watching you with Creative Audio overlaid on video
Created by Brigita Gedgaudas
brigitasportfolio.wordpress.com
Sound Production: 6Y24
Brigita Gedgaudas is an emerging queer, Lithuanian-Canadian artist currently studying at OCAD University. Currently, they are creating works using performative gestures to explore the effects of cultural heritage, nature, and technology in the formation of the self.
SIMULATION
Age Recommendation: 13+
“Simulation is a movement exploration piece, ebbing and flowing between the comedic and dramatic, as a young dancer experiences pregnancy for the first time.”
Simulation, recorded on Oct 9, 2021
Created by Laura Piccinin
Instagram: @lpiccinin
Music credit:
Bensound : https://www.bensound.com
Tribe of Noise PRO: https://prosearch.tribeofnoise.com/search/index
Laura was born to tell stories. Whether as a dancer/aerialist with Tokyo Disney, a playwright and performer for the new Canadian musical, Every Silver Lining, or her solo show, Lesbihonest, premiering at Toronto Fringe 2022, a teacher at the Toronto District School Board, or as a comédienne in Footloose with Just for Laughs, Laura’s unstoppable passion in life lies in telling people all sorts of eccentric stories, whether they want to hear them or not.
Seduction Tactics
This piece will be performed as a structured improvisation. Inspired by notions of how romance can emerge in the most sordid of settings, this piece questions love as an imaginary construct. Not knowing anything about a person except what we see as a voyeur, how real can we make the whole process of falling in love actually feel? From seduction, getting to know them, and finally to intimacy...how real can we really make it feel?
Seduction Tactics, recorded on Oct 9, 2021
Seduction Tactics with Creative Audio overlaid on video
Created by Xander Taylor
www.trapezexm.com
Club Dance Music: SON_SCDC_3959~2_00501 Trio For Piano Violin And Cello No.1 In B Flat Maj
(Description: Op. 99 – Allegro moderato) by Suk Trio
Aerial strapeze music: Held by Lindsay Farris
Instagram: @lindsayjfarris
Aerial strapeze costume: Michael Slack
Invigorated by the energy of the stage while also fascinated by the poetry, metaphors, and high stakes of Greek mythology, Xander commenced his artistic journey from a young age. Eager to push his physical limits and the element of risk, he mastered his acrobatic technique as a diver and gymnast, obtained his Bachelors in kinesiology, and threw himself into the circus world following graduation from Montreal’s National Circus School. A man paradoxical in nature, Xander has found himself content high up on his trapeze, hurtling through the air as a high diver, or in the quiet embrace of the water as an escape artist. With an insatiable appetite, he has performed on stages across the world such as Broadway, Cirque du Soleil, renowned circus festivals, as well as having worked in television as a circus artist, clown, stunt man and actor. In his own creative work, he seeks to explore the narrative threads that bind together our links and common desires, while always reminding the public that regardless of the gravity of a situation, we can always find a lightness within it.
Bettie, Habibi, Santiago Siren
Age Recommendation: 16+
Content warning: Suggestions of sexual abuse and past traumas (especially in "Bettie")
This piece is a loving tribute to the Peepshow of yore including those films they used to make back in the day...you know the type with the dancing "girls". However I am adding my own unique perspective on what a Peepshow is and could be. What if we could peep into a person's state of mind or feeling? This is also a loving tribute to all the strange ladies out there who have been misunderstood and underestimated. I hope the images and sounds speak louder than these words. Thank you for watching!
Bettie, Habibi & Santiago Siren presented live & recorded on Oct 9, 2021
Created by M.C Cruz
M.C Cruz is a child of Chilean immigrants. Who was born, raised and currently based in Toronto but has also lived two years in Chile and more recently completed an Artist Residency in Morocco and Spain. They attended Etobicoke School of Arts and majored in Visual Arts before moving to Vancouver to study film and video production at Capilano University. They facilitated filmmaking workshops for marginalized communities as part of Fright Film Academy and Fright Film School. They have written, directed and produced several live action and animated short films including “Vampyric PSA”, “La Llorona” and “Root Causes”.The animated film “Root Causes” screened at OCAD in a special preview and Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival with an invitation to join a filmmakers panel. Their painting series "Refuge From Home" was showcased at the University of Toronto and Toronto City Hall during October 2019 as well as at TMAC for Being Scene 2020. Recently they created and presented paintings for "Unusual Spaces" a virtual art party by Hercinia Arts Collective. This work was done in Asilah, Morocco during the Covid 19 pandemic and addresses the strange times and circumstances we are in. The Cruz Herrera Museum in Spain also featured their latest artwork in a special online video presentation. They were recently awarded a 15,000 dollar grant from the ISO Solidarity Fund to research and write a screenplay. They are also working on a feature documentary film and series of paintings about the massive street protests happening in Chile (el estallido social). Their goal is to continue creating work that challenges the status quo while being visually and narratively compelling.
Pull Yourself Up By Your Bootystraps
An aerial dance straps routine, this project explores the concepts of physical solitary confinement and mental resilience. An accompanying burlesque-inspired audio track will add a playful tone to support the physical performance and nod to the title. Black lighting and UV material will be used to offer the audience a peep of visibility within the peepshow booth and to highlight visual shapes, lines and ideas. The Peepshow would be the official debut for this project.
Pull Yourself Up by Your Bootystraps, recorded on Oct 9, 2021
Created by Victor Szeto
TikTok: @cirquevic
Music composition by Mexican-Canadian Luis Figueroa. Visit his Soundcloud to listen to his audio works.
Victor Szeto is an emerging aerial artist with a focus on silks and straps. A graphic designer by trade, he discovered Circus later in life, got hooked and often daydreams of running away to the Circus. Coached by Diane McGrath of Fly With Me studios, Victor also has a background in music in which the practices of the various art forms all impact and inform his approach to visual, audio and physical storytelling.
Painted Dialogues
Age Recommendation: 18 + - suggested nudity and sexual lap dance
Painted Dialogues is a multimedia performance piece with 3 separate thematics. The first being a contemporary dance to showcase the raw human emotion frustration between two romantic parties. The second, a two-part mirror-burlesque scene, using UV-reactive paint on ourselves, and then each other as a symbol for self reflection and introspection and bringing that to each other in order to connect again; ” As the clothes come off, the paint comes on”. This leads into the final act- Our painted bodies weave and meld as the blacklight comes on in a sensual, powerful and feral dance. The romantic parties reconnect with a twist on power dynamics, as the scene culminates into an erotic lap dance.
Painted Dialogues, recorded on Oct 9, 2021
Created by Fox and Bunni
Instagram: @jurahau
Music Composition by Cayden Mowbray aka Oreku
Instagram: @orekusound
spoken word by Rochelle David.
About fox: Fox is a trans non-binary sex worker, typically invested in kink performances & sex education. They’ve recently begun to broaden skill sets by indulging in more creative forms of expression such as painting, choreo / free form dance, as well as drag/burlesque performance- the latter which they had the chance to begin practicing shortly before lockdowns took place. They enjoy bringing a deeper sense of feeling and connection within community through their artistic endeavors, may that be shining light on marginalized reality or creating an intimately charged experience for the viewers that's also intriguing and exciting to be part of.
About Bunni: Bunni is a non-binary multidiscplinary emerging artist. They have a background in contemporary and choreographed dance, trapeze, visual media, and fire staff. They enjoy bringing together communities through performances that create conversations around gender expression and racial diaspora. Their performances highlight powerful moments, feelings, or stories that bring viewers into an intricately created place of intimacy, contemplation, and excitement.
REALITY COIL
CONTENT WARNING: reference to current events/news cycle
Inspired by Plato’s Allegory of the Cave we explore how our discourse with the world through the internet and social media has transformed and dictated our perceived reality. Exacerbated by Covid lockdowns, which have kept many of us confined for over a year, we seek to analyze the bubble of information that ultimately traps us inside a feedback loop created by machine learning algorithms and our own biases.
Your input coalesces with all viewers, resulting in an output reached by consensus which dictates the experience for everyone. The experience is ever changing within the parameters set by the audience. Open the live stream link on a separate device or computer and continue to input responses on your phone.
Reality Coil, recorded on Oct 9, 2021
Created by Ali Phi & Nat Janin
Ali Website: http://aliphi.com/
Instagram: @ali_phi
Nat Website: http://natjanin.com
Instagram: @natjanin
Ali Phi (b. 1987, Tehran, Iran) is a computer artist & creative technologist with a background in environmental engineering sciences & experimental cinematic arts. His work is based on programming, generative audio-visual design, interactive media & immersive environment installations which depict the relation between geometry, science, light, poetry and their transformations in computer & interaction with humans. Exploring rituals & roots in art, culture and architecture have affected his creations by taking motifs from the old era of Persia, the forgotten essence of Iran & middle-eastern lifestyle to build his futuristic utopia. He is the founder of 'NULLSIGHT', a media arts collective and freelance festival curator of ‘TADAEX’ since 2014. He has performed and exhibited in Ars Electronica, Mutek, Tasmeem Doha, Patchlab, Tadaex & Tehran Architecture Biennial across Iran, Canada, USA, Germany, Austria, Poland, Qatar & UAE.
Nat Janin (b. 1986 Toronto, Canada) is a creative director specializing in digital and experiential narratives. She also has a background in general sciences and the performing arts, including aerial circus arts. Utilizing data, responsive light structures, and real-time rendering she has created visual narratives, interactive installations, and immersive experiences for some of the world’s leading agencies and companies such as Jam3, Jackman, Intel, Microsoft, Royal Bank of Canada, Facebook and Postmates. Her artwork has been featured at the Gladstone Hotel, Xpace Gallery, OCADU and Workman Arts in Toronto, Canada. She seeks to expand the discourse between art and the viewer through collaborative means. A creative misfit, her personal work is inspired by paradoxes, fragmented memories, unseen realities, and connections across seemingly opposing worlds. She combines the dynamic and fluid nature of dance with the foundations of data, geometry, and architecture.
Together Nat and Ali combine expertise in interactive digital narrative through projection mapping, installation, music, performance, real-time and web-based experiences.