Charlottetown-dance umbrella, the Confederation Centre’s youth dance program, will present a performance called Dancing Our Lives in the Mainstage Theatre on Saturday, February 17, at 8 p.m.
The show will feature dance umbrella’s Rep Company and other senior students as well as teachers and former students
“Dancing Our Lives explores the history and legacy of dance,” says Peggy Reddin, director of dance development at the Confederation Centre. "When we look at the times we live in, we see rapid change and sense a feeling of uncertainty. My philosophy is that we need to look to our past when planning our future, and honour the people and events that have taken us this far."
Trish Armstrong, a founding member of the Danny Grossman Company, will come from Toronto to teach the Rep Company Grossman’s latest creation, Human Family. Choreographed for a student cast, this piece depicts humanity in all its beauty and complexity. This performance marks the Canadian premiere of this powerfully choreographed dance.
Megan Alford, an alumnus who now teaches at dance umbrella, is creating a piece that explores the repercussions of the ongoing exodus of people from Atlantic Canada to western Canada. She has received funding from the PEI Council of the Arts for this piece, which will be performed by senior student dancers.
Sarah Wendt, another dance umbrella graduate who works in Montreal, will create and perform an original dance. Julia Sauvé, co-founder of dance umbrella, will present three pieces of her original choreography. Waste Watch Wheel takes a playful look at Islanders’ lives with Waste Watch, and Dear Kitty explores the concepts of hiding, fleeing, and homelessness through dance, music and text. In Sauvé’s piece In Flight, dancers work with beautiful fabric wings designed by Christine Smith.
Reddin, who is also co-founder of dance umbrella, will choreograph an adaptation of Pas de Quatre, an early romantic ballet originally created by Jules Perrot in 1845 for Marie Taglioni, Fanny Cerrito, Carlotta Grisi and Lucile Grahn, four of the pioneer prima ballerinas.
Tickets for this PEI Presents performance are $10 for seniors and students, and $12 for adults, and can be purchased at 1-800-565-0278 and online at www.confederationcentre.com. dance umbrella is supported by RBC Financial Group through RBC Foundation. Sobeys is the overall sponsor of PEI Presents. Media sponsors for PEI Presents are CBC-TV, The Guardian, Ocean 100 and K-Rock 105.5. Aliant is sponsor of the Centre’s toll free telephone line.
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