Weave…part one
“Weave…part one” uses a contemporary dance framework to braid my mother’s life (second Sino-Japanese War); adopted into a Peranakan family as a baby, passed on to her Lau Ye at age 7 for convenience then discarded at age 19 on the death of the patriarch; with some of the situations I lived through and choices I made that crystalized who I became. Central to the solo is a questioning of the role/value of a woman in Asia – if all this has really changed with the passing of time.
Ent’acte, featuring singer, Kristin Fung
In Search of the Holy Chop Suey
Where or in what time space does identity reside? Ng asks “How does someone else’s movement quality impact my own dancing self?” as she undertakes a pointed investigation for her solo, In Search of the Holy Chop Suey. In it, she ponders a life of creation and imitation in movement and mines influences from sources as varied as her mother, modern dance and kung fu legends, ordinary people, wild animals and more. Says Ng, “When I imitate, I also uncover something unique in myself. Each time I fail to become more like my mother (or my favourite kung fu hero Bruce Lee), I become more me.”
In explaining the title, Ng says: “In the late seventies/early eighties, there was a TV series called In Search of… that focused on mysterious phenomena, e.g. Loch Ness, Holy Grail, Big Foot, etc. But they would never find the ‘thing’ that was the subject of the particular episode. Chop Suey is a dish that reportedly originated from migrant Chinese workers who lived in the U.S.A. in the 19th century. When I was young, living in Asia, I wanted everything western. I knew about the dish and equated it to something Western/North American. The title is a comment on my belief that each of us has a deep desire to find meaning for our lives – even as that meaning eludes us and/or is not what it seems.” The sound score and the spoken text of this solo includes Chinese dialect Hokkien and Singlish.
Glossary:
Peranakan: Descendants of Chinese who migrated to the Malay Archipelago (now Malaysia and Singapore) between the 10th and 17th centuries. They were usually traders, intermediaries between the British and Chinese and the Malays and fluent in several languages and dialects.
Hokkien and Teochew: two of the many spoken dialects of the Chinese, with Mandarin being the main standard dialect. This is part of the spoken text along with Singlish!
Betel nut – The chewing of betel nut /sireh (plant) provides a slight narcotic effect, bitter in taste and stains the mouth a reddish color. It is a Southeast Asian parallel to tobacco chewing.
BIOGRAPHIES:
GABRIEL CROPLEY – LIGHTING DESIGNER
Gabriel Cropley is a Toronto based lighting designer and three-time Dora Mavor Moore award nominee.
Recent credits include Call to Earth for NAfro Dance (Winnipeg), inTOfocus for Dance: Made in Canada/Fait au Canada, Eating bones and Licking bread for Dancemakers, Undaunted for RAW Taiko Drummers, Congruence 2 for BoucharDanse & lbs/sq”, and Million Dollar Quartet for Capitol Theatre Port Hope.
Gabriel has had the privilege of collaborating with Alias Dance Projects, Ballet Creole, Coal Mine Theatre, Expect Theatre, TOES for Dance, Bicycle Opera, Julia Sasso Dances, CanAsian Dance, dreamwalker dance, Angela Blumberg, Simcoe Contemporary Dancers, Avinoam Silverman Dance, Little Pear Garden Dance Company, Toronto Heritage Dance, Korean Dance Studies Society of Canada, Festival of the Sound, Newton Moraes Dance Theatre, York Dance Ensemble, Danny Grossman, Sook-Yin Lee & Jennifer Goodwin, Ontario School of Ballet, Theatre Gargantua, Peggy Baker Dance Projects, Martha Hicks School of Ballet, Sampradaya Dance Creations, Hamilton Children’s Choir, Tracey Norman, Sabina Perry, Forcier StageWorks, Soulpepper Global Cabaret, Ritmo Flamenco, Teatron Theatre, JDdance, Tribal Crackling Wind, Toronto Dance Theatre, Art of Time Ensemble, and the School of Toronto Dance Theatre.
KRISTIN FUNG – SINGER/COMPOSER
Returning to Vancouver after seven years in Toronto, Kristin Fung’s ferocious, tender, and captivating voice as a lead singer, keyboardist, composer, and improviser traverse musical landscapes of “soulful grace” and “jazzy joy” (From The Intercom), and funky R&B. Her deeply earnest and uplifting originals evoke the sounds of self-accompanying piano queens Alicia Keys and Patrice Rushen, showing off her powerhouse lungs and groovy piano chops. Performance highlights include: bandleader of her original music at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival (2021) and Markham Jazz Festival (2019); member of Anthony Braxton’s Tri-Centric Vocal Ensemble at Roulette (New York, 2019); artistic director of celeste, the experimental vocal/movement trio at Aga Khan Museum (Toronto, 2018); and one half of K Funk and Lady Ree, the singing ukulele ladies of the Toronto subway (since 2015). Fung’s forthcoming electro-R&B single, “Why Don’t You Dance” will hit worldwide platforms and roller rinks in early summer 2022. www.kristinfung.com
YVONNE NG – CHOREOGRAPER/ PERFORMER
Born and raised in Singapore, Yvonne Ng, B.F.A., M.A. (York Uni) is founder, choreographer, presenter, arts educator and artistic director of tiger princess dance projects. The company’s repertoire includes Yvonne’s works and commissioned work, creating original roles for Bill James, José Navas, Dominique Dumais, Kevin O’Day, Marie-Josée Chartier, Robert Glumbek, Stephanie Skura and Tedd Robinson. tiger princess dance projects has toured to Singapore, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Australia, China, Canada and the USA.
Yvonne is a certified Open Source Forms© and Ashtanga Yoga teacher. Trained in Partners for Youth Empowerment Creative Facilitator (Level 1& 2), C-I Training™, Senior Fitness(CCAA) and Dance for PD® (Parkinson’s). She has taught at and created work for Ryerson and York University, University of Waterloo, the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and La Salle College of the Arts, Singapore and for 6 years at Juniata College, Pennsylvania.
Recipient of the 2017 Muriel Sherrin Award, the 2016 Jacqueline Lemieux Award, K.M. Hunter Artist Award, New Pioneers Arts Award, Chalmers Arts Fellowship, Soulpepper’s Community Artist Award and the Ontario Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts – New Talent. In 2000, received a Dora Mavor Moore Award for best performance and has received multiple nominations. www.princessproductions.ca
SIMON ROSSITER – LIGHTING DESIGNER
Simon is an award-winning lighting designer based in Toronto, Ontario. He has collaborated on more than three hundred productions since 2003 with a variety of companies throughout Canada and internationally, including more than two hundred original designs.
Simon has received nine Dora Mavor Moore award nominations for Outstanding Lighting Design, receiving the award three times, and has twice been nominated for the Ontario Arts Council’s prestigious Pauline McGibbon award in design. Simon is a member of the Board of Directors for the Associated Designers of Canada, a professional association advocating for the rights and working conditions of theatrical designers.
ARUN SRINIVASAN – LIGHTING DESIGNER & PRODUCTION MANAGER
Arun has worked extensively in the performing arts for the last 25 years. Dance collaborators include Robert Desrosiers, Peter Chin, Danny Grossman, ProArteDanza, COBA and tiger princess dance projects. He has been the resident designer for Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre since 2002. Theatre credits include Factory Theatre, The Canadian Stage Co., The Globe Theatre, Expect Theatre, fu-GEN, Cahoots Theatre Projects & Buddies In Bad Times Theatre. His career has garnered him eight Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations for Outstanding Lighting Design. He has had the privilege of teaching lighting design at both York and Ryerson Universities, the University of Waterloo and The National Theatre School. He has production managed shows for The CanAsian Dance Festival, Living Ritual, DanceWorks, Fall for Dance North and most recently Luminato. Productions have taken him to Ukraine, Malaysia, Singapore, India, China and across North America.
SILVIE VARONE – SET & COSTUME DESIGNER FOR IN SEARCH OF ….
Silvie Varone brings her experience as a prop builder and her craftsmanship as a woodworker to this design and dance collaboration with Yvonne Ng. Silvie spent many years working as a prop builder for numerous productions and theatre companies developing her skills and expanding her art as a maker and designer. In 2013, Silvie founded Silvie Varone Design&Build a custom furniture design& build studio in Toronto. With an emphasis on custom, SVd&b has also begun to build and stock home accessories and is working on a furniture line she hopes to launch at a future date. Apart from working long hours continuing to grow and build her business Silvie is a mother to a lively teenager, wife of a stagehand and owner to Lola the labradoodle.
Message from Yvonne Ng/ tiger princess dance projects:
Thank you for joining us tonight. We are grateful to share our creations with you and to have this opportunity to gather, create, dance and share on this territory. My collaborators, production team and I acknowledge that the land we have the privilege to share on is the unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations (Vancouver).
Weave…part one
Choreographer/Performer: Yvonne Ng
Music: Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto
Lighting Designer: Gabriel Cropley, after Simon Rossiter
Creative Facilitators: Susan Cash and Katherine Duncanson
Ent’acte, featuring singer, Kristin Fung
In Search of the Holy Chop Suey
Concept and creation by Yvonne Ng in collaboration with
Set Designer: Silvie Varone
Costumes: Silvie Varone and Yvonne Ng
Music: DakhaBrakha, Ólafur Arnalds, Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto, field recordings.
Lighting Designer: Gabriel Cropley, after Arun Srinivasan
Creative Facilitators: Marie-Josée Chartier and Dan Wild (1965-2020)
Rehearsal Director: Johanna Bergfeldt
THANK YOUS:
These large creative enterprises and acts are possible because of these generously stunning folks – thank you to Jay, Barbara, the VIDF team, Gabrielle Martin, my fab board members, our gorgeous sweethearts (a special thank you), DakhaBrakha, Franck Butaye, Ken Ewen, Moss LED, Natalie and Jeff, and to my parents (unknowingly) the biggest thank you ever. We’re here because of you.
The creation of these works were made with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council. Thank you also to Canada Arts Council for our travel support.
