Ramble
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45 minutes live dance, video, video mixing, music
SummerWorks Special Presentation Series
Toronto, 2015
Dance, Performance and Direction:
Aimée Dawn Robinson
Video and Video Tech: Renée Lear
Live Video Mixing: Renée Lear
with video and photo contributions from
ADR. Scott Maynard and Renée Lear
Music Composition and Performance: Scott Maynard
Costume: Aimée Dawn Robinson, Heather Bell Callahan and Gretchen Robinson
+ the SummerWorks team: thank-you for the invitation!
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*click photos for a closer look
*all images here are video stills from footage shot by Eric Cazdyn ulness otherwise noted
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Program Note Excerpts from the Ramble makers
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From Aimée:
How does one dance an old dance in a new place?
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Ramble is an outdoor dance performed indoors. A dance that has crossed the country, traveled rivers, lakes, crossed the ocean, and before, existed in another place and time entirely. North, south, east, west, further north and further east, further north again, and through a different range of mountains and gently into the river my grandfather would swim across to visit his girl.
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I invite you to set aside the tendency to approach artwork as consumers, and instead join us in this shared & social process of art making: become witnesses, participants, friends, curious people, hopeful people.
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Renée’s approach to video in Ramble:
Landscape is video. Video is material. Material is landscape.
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Scott's approach to creating the music:
I am drawn to the sounds of technology and of nature. Often have I found myself singing songs over the drone of a boat engine, or brought to silence by, for example, the complex tapestry of voices in the wetlands of Ontario. I've recorded drones from my daily life in Whitehorse: from the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre, where I work. I've sampled the Yukon river for further treatment.
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More from Scott Maynard's program note: "I've also become obsessed with photographing ice formations. In order to capture the movement of the water, I frame a shot and take a burst of 100 photographs, which I later reassemble using stop motion software.
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Note from Heather Bell Callahan
I am grateful to be part of such a neat compilation of artists from different regions of Canada. How people of different ecosystems and cultures can interact and influence one another through friendships, interests, and passions. I love the interdisciplinary elements of ‘Ramble’ and how it includes the love of dance, music, nature, storytelling and visual arts. It is a huge honour to be part of such a composition and amongst such forward moving and forward thinking artists. This is exciting!"
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Read the "Mooney on Theatre" Review here!
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Five video clips on Renée Lear's vimeo here!
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