Daina Ashbee
Pour
17+18. October @ 20.00
Pour is a work that explores the vulnerability and strength of women, uncovering the layers of pain we absorb in our bodies through a society that does not support them. Like her previous works, Ashbee has created a dark work that confronts its audiences. Yet, for the first time, layers of joy and celebration pierce the tension that has been manifested throughout the performance.
Choreographically, Ashbee hopes to transform energy through performance and liberate her desires to occupy space with her body and even play amongst and against the frameworks she feels warped her self-image as an adolescent. She used her own menstrual cycle as the hub of her interest throughout the development of the work.
Her synthetic set design mimics natural landscape. Her use of repetition evokes transformation which hints towards many possibilities for a resolution, while maintaining an intense vulnerability between the performer and the audience.
Paige Culley’s courageous performance traverses states of liberation, control, pain, beauty and catharsis in a live and intimate setting.
“Nudity in performance can be a challenge or a provocation. Here, skin is empowering… This bold and exceptional new work enlivens sensations and provides a moment to recognize one another’s humanity. “ Philip Szporer The Dance Current, 2016
http://dainaashbee.wixsite.com/daina-ashbee
Credits-
Creation : Daina Ashbee
Choreography and set design : Daina Ashbee
Interpreted by : Paige Culley
Lighting Design : Hugo Dalphond
Music : Jean-Francois Blouin
Understudy : Émilie Morin
Outside Eyes: Andrew Tay et Angelique Wilkie
Technical director : Karine Gauthier
Tour director : Areli Moran
Daina Ashbee is an artist, performer and choreographer based in Montreal, known for her radical works at the edge of dance and performance, which intelligently approach such complex subjects and taboos as female sexuality, Métis identity, and climate change. For the choreographer, creation is an instinctive and quasi-spiritual quest, which embraces her relationship with her ancestors, the universe and the entire cosmos. At the young age of 26, she has already won two awards for her choreographies. She was a double prizewinner at the Prix de la danse de Montréal, winning both the Prix du CALQ for Best Choreography of 2015-2016 for her choreographic installation When the Ice Melts, Will We Drink the Water?, and the Prix Découverte de la danse, presented by Agora de la danse and Tangente, for Unrelated. Also Daina was named by the prestigious German TANZ magazine as one of 30 promising artists for the year 2017 and named one of 25 to watch by the American publication, DANCE in 2018.
Recognized as one of the most promising choreographers of the next generation, her work is regularly presented in the most prestigious festivals (The Venice Biennale, Oktoberdans, Les Rencontre Chorégraphiques de Seine Saint Denis, and the Munich Dance Biennale) and on the stages of the world (Canada, France, Spain, Belgium, Norway, Finland, Greenland, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and Mexico).