Karmic creation
THE PRETTIER SISTER: Pinto
When I spoke with choreographer Chanti Wadge, it was day six in her three-week artistic residency at dance space Tangente.
Wadge’s new work assembles bits and pieces of the movement library she’s collected and weaves them together into just beings, which traces voyages and life processes. In this duet, Wadge shares the stage with dancer Luciane Pinto, with whom she shares a sisterly “karmic connection.”
“It has a meditative quality and it works with the idea of energy throughout the body,” says Wadge about her work, which is set to a live sound landscape by Michel F. Côté and lighting by Lee Anholt and Frederick Gravel.
“I’m very process-oriented and I like that to be part of the sharing,” says Wadge. “It’s so revealing to be in the act of creation itself. That’s where the learning is happening.”
Instead of taking two weeks of creation time in the studio, and one in performance, Wadge decided to share the work’s evolution with shows over two weekends at Tangente (840 Cherrier), starting tomorrow, Friday, March 27 until April 6.
For times and tickets, call (514) 525-1500.
by MARITES CARINO
Show some LOVE
SEEING THROUGH THE FOG: Photo by Brittany, age 17“Six years ago, my good friend Yale was killed in a car accident and I wanted a way to honour his memory,” says Jillian Lapedus.
What she started was Love Rocks, a party fundraiser benefiting the kids involved in Leave Out ViolencE (LOVE), a not-for-profit organization aimed at rehabilitating kids who’ve lived with violence, through programs like photojournalism and writing.
“The camp I went to, where Yale was a counsellor, was affiliated with LOVE, so growing up I had a chance to meet the kids of LOVE and get to know their stories. Yale was the type of counsellor that was really good at turning problem kids around and understanding them, so it just seemed like the right fit.”
Though it started off as just a party (which has raised over $100,000 in the past four years), Lapedus concedes it was losing its connection to LOVE. So this year, for the party’s fifth installment Lapedus is getting the kids involved.
Tomorrow night, Friday, March 28 join Lapedus and the team at the Suco Lounge in the Opus Hotel (10 Sherbrooke W.) at 9:30 p.m. for a pre-party cocktail hour with complimentary drinks and hors d’oeuvres. Take this opportunity to hear talks by LOVE founder Twinkle Rudberg, LOVE kids, and a see the photo exhibition of their work before you party on into the wee hours of the morning.
Tickets are $20 at the door and 100 per cent of the proceeds go to LOVE.
by SACHA JACKSON
Out for blood
“It’s one of the worst things you can say to someone,” says Toronto-based dub poet and playwright d’bi.young.anitafrika of blood.claat, the Jamaican patois curse word that inspired her show of the same name.
The play, which she calls her “one oomaan story,” marks her return to Montreal and the Black Theatre Workshop after a long absence.
In this solo show directed by Weyni Mengesha, d’bi lets loose a flurry of over 10 characters, male and female, to unravel the tangled history of the curse and the blood-taboo that surrounds it.
The show finished a Dora award-winning run in Toronto that attracted all ages and races, racking up lavish praise from sources as far apart as the Gay Guide Toronto and the National Post (say what?!).
The play has “allowed me to open up about taboos,” says d’bi. “There is a laundry list of ways in which we’re different…and ways in which we all identify culturally. My job is to put it all into this one cauldron and be the most effective storyteller I can be.” A must-see.
Until April 13 at MAI (3680 Jeanne-Mance) Info: (514) 932-1104 ext. 226, or www.blacktheatreworkshop.ca.
by NEIL BOYCE
Mooooooo
People like cows. I never really thought about it before this week, but I know now because of the excited reactions I’ve noticed whenever I mention the Portraits of Cows exhibition currently showing at Projex Mtl Galerie (372 Ste-Catherine W., #212).
There is something compelling about these images of bovines by American  photographer Lewis Stein. “When they’re not focused on eating, cows are very curious animals” Stein remarks in the press release. “Walking through a field, you might see a group of 10 cows and as soon as they see you, they start staring at you. And then you look back to see all of them looking at you.”
In the gallery, Stein’s larger than life cows are each unique and stare straight at you—unselfconscious of the flies on their heads, or the cud on their mouths. So get down to the gallery and enjoy some time with the herd. Contemplate thoughts about nature, the environment, our eating habits, our relationship to animals or just how much smarter you are than a cow.
Stern will be at the vernissage on April 5, 3–6 p.m. Exhibition runs until April 26, info: (514) 570-9130 or www.projex-mtl.com.
by CHRISTINE REDFERN
Is it art?
FREAKS OF NATURE: Space may be the final frontier, but judging by the photographs on a peculiar page on the FunPic Web site (which boasts “the biggest” collection of cute, funny or crazy photos), there’s still a lot of discovering to be done on our own planet.
 If the images on this page are anything to go by, it seems that cross-species breeding is possible and that scientists have been lying to us all along. Just check out the unnerving results of an inter-species love affair between a penguin and an orca, or a zebra and an angel fish, or the sardine and the grasshopper.
Of course, none of these animals are the results of a serious crime against nature, but of man’s love for the Discovery Channel and Photoshop. And together these two man-made creations can create animals that would blow even God’s mind. He’s totally looking at the cat-shark cross-breed saying, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
www.funpic.hu/funblog/allatok/allatok.html
Arts
hole
WORTH LIKING: Ye olde curiosity shoppe, Monastiraki (5478 St-Laurent) turns gallery for Art We Like, a revolving exhibition that will change every five weeks. Part I showcases the works of Guy Boutin, Hélène Brosseau, Julie Doucet, Glen LeMesurier, Leyla Majeri and Joe Ollmann. The vernissage takes place, Tuesday, April 1 at 5 p.m. • SUGAR HIGH: Pancakes and whiskey come together as part of Indyish.com’s Sugar Shack Mess, this Sunday, March 30 at 7 p.m. at OFF Interarts (5145 St-Laurent). In celebration of all things maple syrup, the event features music by Lil’ Andy, Brie Neilson, Bad Uncle, No Barbers Required and Deep River Decoy, sure to catapult the event into a sugar and booze-fuelled dance party. It’s PWYC, though $5 will guarantee you hot whiskey cider, pancakes and other cabane à sucre treats.
Artistat
The average amount in litres of maple sap it takes to make one litre of syrup, which you can taste at the Tree House in the Botanical Gardens (4101 Sherbrooke E.) every weekend between 11 a.m.–4 p.m. until April 13 as part of Sugaring-off Time... in the City: 40 |
