This Page | MAYDAY’s Animal Triste | Photo: Mathieu Doyon

Harbourfront Centre presents a season of

contemporary dance created by visionary

female choreographers from around the globe.

A collection of rising and legendary talent,

this season’s work is an illustration of societal,

environmental and political resistance.

Torque is the force that creates physical

rotation, overcoming resistance in

the process. In dance, this manifests as energy

against physical obstacles. In the works

presented in this season— and in life —Torque

represents humanity’s will to survive and

thrive against conflicting forces.

We live in volatile times. As a North American society, we can’t deny that our Western prosperity has been built on historical and systemic conflict, oppression and exploitation.

Freedom, equality, sovereignty: what do these concepts

mean if they don’t apply to everyone?

This dance season ref lects on these themes in wildly

different ways, with works that are demanding both

of the artists and the audience. These brilliant pieces

explore urgent realities and uncomfortable truths,

which in turn make hope and connection possible.

Prepare to be challenged, moved and exhilarated.

nathalie bonjour

Acting Director of Performing Arts,

Harbourfront Centre

Front Cover | Fou Glorieux’s Battleground | Photo: André Cornellier

Louise Lecavalier & Robert Abubo | Photo: André Cornellier

BATTLEGROUNDFOU GLORIEUX | QUEBEC

TORONTO PREMIEREOctober 5–6, 2018 | 7:30pm | 60 minutes

Fleck Dance Theatre

Louise Lecavalier | Choreographer, PerformerRobert Abubo | PerformerAntoine Berthiaume | Music

Canadian contemporary dance icon Louise Lecavalier

explores new territory with Battleground, a solo and duet

inspired by two Italo Calvino characters. The stage is

a fight ring where a thousand battles are waged, both

ephemeral and extreme. In a mad, unclassifiable dance,

the two characters allow glimpses into their ideals and

disillusionments. Daring and intense, this show will

enthral you with its fierce physicality.

With a career replete with awards and distinctions,

Lecavalier continues to deepen her search for pure

expression in dance, a quest for the absolute.

When two antiheroes are locked in a battle that doesn’t make any sense, who wins?

This fight is a strange scuffle of confrontation, avoidance and surrender. h

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Battleground is a co-production with Fou Glorieux; tanzhaus nrw, Düsseldorf; HELLERAU— European Centre

for the Arts, Dresden; le CENTQUATRE, Paris; Festival TransAmériques, Montreal; Usine C, Montreal.

Louise Lecavalier is an associate international artist of the CENTQUATRE, Paris.

Supported by

“Dancing is a wild,

raw ceremony,

the truest and the

most concrete.”

– Louise Lecavalier

CUT THE SKYMARRUGEKU | AUSTR ALIA

CANADIAN PREMIERENovember 23–24, 2018 | 7:30pm | 65 minutes

Fleck Dance Theatre

Artists from Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia come

together in a meditation on Indigeneity and humanity’s

frailty in the face of our own actions. In a burnt landscape,

climate change refugees revisit conflict with mining

companies, the destruction of fauna, and the relegation

of the marginalized. Breath-taking and electric, this show

will give you hope for our planet and a deeper connection

with humankind.

This multi-disciplinary work from Australia’s Marrugeku

is based on the poems written and spoken by Edwin Lee

Mulligan. It includes Indigenous songs by the cast as well as

original songs and covers of Nick Cave, sung live by Ngaiire.

Warning: Climate change is just getting warmed up.

Rachael Swain | DirectorDalisa Pigram & Serge Aimé Coulibaly | ChoreographersEric Avery, Josh Mu (role performed by Joshua Thomson), Edwin Lee Mulligan, Dalisa Pigram, Ngaire Pigram,Miranda Wheen | Co-Creators, Performers

Marrugeku is supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and the Western Australian Government through the

Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries. Cut The Sky has been commissioned by Theater im

Pfalzbau Ludwigshafen (Germany); Carriageworks (Australia); Koninklijke Vlaamse Schouwburg — KVS (Belgium);

Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg (Luxembourg); Centre Culturel Tjibaou Nouméa (New Caledonia).

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“We wanted to open ways

of thinking to allow

Indigenous knowledge to

come forward.”

– Rachael Swain & Dalisa Pigram

Miranda Wheen | Photo:Jon Green

POST NO BILLSKIT T JOHNSON X-ACT | DENMARK

TORONTO PREMIEREFebruary 8–9, 2019 | 7:30pm | 50 minutes

Harbourfront Centre Theatre

When times are tough, you have to either adapt or die.

Systemic crisis has become chronic. We can no longer

afford to mistake expansion for development. Post No Bills

edges its way into the space where composure is

irrevocably lost. We have to scrap the fiction of reality.

It is at this point we meet the broken and disillusioned

human with empty hands. Precise and controlled, Johnson’s

performance will ask you to go back to square one

and reinvent the beginning.

Choreographed and performed by the mesmerizing

Kitt Johnson, this Arte Povera work refines her

minimal physical expression into an existential art

of transformation.

A solo exploration of the transformative power of crisis hailing from one of Denmark’s

most provocative choreographers.

Supported by the Danish Arts Council, Wilhelm Hansen Fonden, Knud Højgaards Fond, Augustinus Fonden,

Overretssagfører L. Zeuthens Mindelegat, Københavns Kommunes Scenekunstudvalg.

Kitt Johnson | Choreographer, Performer

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“When you reach for

the impossible, you stretch

the borders of the possible.”

– Kitt Johnson Kitt Johnson | Photo: Per Morten Abrahamsen

ANIMAL TRISTEMAYDAY | QUEBEC

TORONTO PREMIEREApril 11, 2019 | 12:30pm | 60 minutes

April 12–13, 2019 | 7:30pm | 60 minutes

Harbourfront Centre Theatre

Animal Triste is a study of the nature and posture of

humanity — poor and perishable one day, free and

triumphant the next. Though human beings know that

life is finite, they deny their mortality. They conquer,

dominate, oppress. And procreate. Visceral and highly

charged, Animal Triste will ask you to investigate how

our instincts actually drive our relationships, despite

our blinding delusions.

MAYDAY choreographer and artistic director Mélanie

Demers uses the stage as a platform to examine the

role of the artist, exposing the dark corners of the

human condition.

While humans like to think they are at the centre of the universe, nothing could be further

from the truth. In the great march of time, they are simply just sad little animals.

“We humans draw from

the vast history of the world to

highlight our own little stories.

From the evolution of species

to the fall of civilizations,

we push forward. ”

– Mélanie Demers

Animal Triste is a co-production with Canada Dance Festival. MAYDAY is an associate company at the

Agora de la danse, in artistic collaboration with the Centro per la Scena Contemporanea/Operaestate Festival.

Mélanie Demers | ChoreographerMarc Boivin, James Gnam, Brianna Lombardo,Riley Sims | Performers h

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Brianna Lombardo & Riley Sims | Photo: Mathieu Doyon

LOT XADELHEID | ONTARIO

WORLD PREMIEREMay 29 – June 2, 2019 | 8pm | 90 minutes

Harbourfront Centre Theatre & East Campus

This site-specific piece holds a magnifying glass to the

very land we are standing on and the people we stand

with. Explore and challenge questions of ownership,

intimacy and sharing, while the performers move

with you through physical and virtual spaces. Your

perspective will shift as you choose where you want

to be. Move beyond the confines of the theatre to

experience an amplified awareness of our urban space.

adelheid makes work that speaks to the “realness”

of where we are and who we are — how we are affected

by the world around us. Their work focuses on human

contact, interaction and communication. adelheid formed

in 2008 and has since toured across the country.

Free your imagination and body. Enter new territory.

Supported by Harbourfront Centre’s Performing Arts Residency Program

and the Canada Council for the Arts New Chapter Program.

Heidi Strauss | ChoreographerAlana Elmer, Anna Finkel, Luke Garwood, Lukas Malkowski, Sahara Morimoto, Brian Solomon, Naishi Wang | Performers, Collaborators Co-Presented by DanceWorks

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“I’m interested in the study

of people: our behaviours

how we connect, and the

spaces we inhabit.”

– Heidi Strauss

Anna Finkel & Sahara Morimoto | Photo: Jeremy Mimnagh

a uniquely curated fundraising gala dinner,

celebrating harbourfront centre’sartists-in-residence

programs.

To purchase tables/seats, please contact

the development off ice at 416 952 4746

harbourfront centre235 queens quay w

toronto

tuesdaynovember 20, 2018

toronto

tables (10 guests)$10,000

—individual tickets

$1000

cocktail attire

Harbourfront Centre wishes to thank the government

funders, corporate partners and individual supporters

for their continued generosity.

As well, Harbourfront Centre Patrons Circle members

play a vital role in the year-round presentation of

contemporary artistic practice on all Harbourfront Centre

stages. These valued members directly invest in

artists and the development of their work through the

acclaimed Performing Arts Residency Program.

For details on how to join the Patrons Circle, please

contact the Development Office at 416 952 4746 or

development@harbourfrontcentre.com.

charitable registration number 10746 6575 RR0003

THANK YOU

adelheid’s LOT X | Photo: Jeremy Mimnagh

BUY YOUR TICKETS TODAY

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Marrugeku’s Cut the Sky | Photo: Jon Green

416 973 4000

h a r bour frontc entr e.com

235 qu eens quay w e st

0 1 | B Y P H O N E

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t ick ets $45 | $35

$36 | $28

$20

$25

20% off

*a rts wor k er s (c a ll box offic e)

sen ior s (65+)

15% off

20% off

25% off

GET MORE DANCE FOR LESSSave when you buy tickets to:

a n y 3 produc t ions

a n y 4 produc t ions

a ll 5 produc t ions

grou ps 10+

Prices do not include service charges.

*Valid ID required at Box Office at the time of pick-up. For CULTUREBREAK, use code CULTURETORQ.

*c u lt u r ebr ea k (u n der 30 or st u den t)

HOW TO BUY

GETTING HERE

Head south on York Street

from Union Station to Queens

Quay and west one block.

Drive to the foot of Lower

Simcoe Street and into our

underground parking facility.

Parking is also available at

Rees Street.

the

power plant

entrance

harbourfront

centre

main building

natrel pond

lower simcoe st

queens quay w

york st

Harbourfront Centre is

committed to being a

welcoming and accessible

destination for all of our

visitors. For more information

on assistive devices, support

people and other services, visit

harbourfrontcentre.com/accessibility.

Take the 509 or 510 streetcar

from Union Station.

Use the Martin Goodman

Trail along the water or the

bike lanes along Lower

Simcoe Street.

B Y F O O T B Y C A R COMM I TM E N T TO ACCESSIBILIT Y

B Y T T C

B Y B I K E

queen’s quay

terminal

fleck

dance theatre

(3rd floor)

harbourfront

centre

theatre

Harbourfront Centre has more to offer!

Wander through the Craft & Design Studios to

witness, understand and experience art in the making

at this unique Canadian Artist-in-Residency

incubator and training centre.

Visit the Harbourfront Centre Shop for Canadian-made

high-design objects, collectible jewelry, including a

curated selection of limited-edition artworks —it’s the

perfect place to get that last-minute gift.

Enjoy the many displays and exhibits, including those at

The Power Plant, Canada’s leading public gallery devoted

exclusively to contemporary visual arts.

Stop by Boxcar Social before or after a performance.

The area’s top-notch eatery has you covered with high

quality coffee, a full food menu, craft beverages and

offers endless views of Lake Ontario.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

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235 Queens Quay West

Toronto, Ontario | M5J 2G8 | Canada

416 973 4000 | harbourfrontcentre.com

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