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Welcome to our news page. This section of our website will feature our monthly news letter as well as interviews with local and international artists and articles by guest authors on a wide range of topics concerning artistic practice today. Please check back with us regularly. |
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My Dear Friends, Spring is here! From January until now has been a fantastic blur of creative activity for myself and Anandam and I am excited to share all this news with you. Dancing Chandralekha with the Menakka Thakkar Dance Company and the Kalanidhi International Dance Festival January gave me the most amazing and historical opportunity of my dance career thus far. I had the great honour to perform with the Menakka Thakkar Dance Company in their presentation of “Shakti”, a selection from the landmark choreography of “Sri” by India’s most renowned Contemporary Choreographer Chandralekha. This process was facilitated with extreme sensitivity, insight, artistry and discipline by Ms. Geetha Sridhar, Chandralekha’s principal dancer for the piece and Chandralekha’s partners Sadanand Menon and Drashrath Patel. The process was fascinating and challenging and thanks to the vision of Menakka Thakkar and Suddha Khandwani, Toronto audiences were able to experience this incredible work showcased by the Kalanidhi Festival. Rehearsal Developments for “Confluence” Throughout December, January and February I began training and exploring with my fabulous cast for Anandam’s new work “Confluence” as part of the DanceWorks CoWorks Series in May of 2009. This work features the talented Amy Hampton, Jennifer Robichaud, Marie France Forcier and new comer Shawn Ziger. We have been working hard as an ensemble developing new skills as this work involves the integration of aerial as well as Chhau and Kalarippayattu. I promise you are in for a treat with this new show as all these wonderful artists continue to push their boundaries to new places both physically and emotionally. Once again I am please that the fantastic Audrey Dwyer will be joining us as Dramaturge and Process Director to help facilitate the development of this new piece! Rehearsals begin again in April and they are open to anyone interested in observing our process. Please contact brandy@anandam.ca or call 647.628.9246 if you wish to drop by. Workshop/Performance at the Darpana Academy in Ahmadabad India At the end of February and beginning of March I traveled to Ahmanabad India to teach a three week intensive workshop with the Performing unit of the Darpana Academy (www.darpana.com). The focus of the workshop was on exploring the body and space in new and innovative ways to challenge notions of gravity, to create new dimensions in the performers’ body and new perspectives in the performance space. I was thrilled and amazed by all of the artist’s creativity and openness and our resulting performance was called “thrilling” by the Times of India. It was an immense pleasure to work on the gorgeous Natarani Stage which is a beautiful outdoor amphitheatre backed by the gently flowing Sabarmati river. I am thankful to the incredible Ms. Mallika Sarabhai; Darpana Director, Performing Artist, Classical Dancer, Activist and Intellectual for inviting me to Darpana and being so forward thinking in her approach to contemporary performance. I look forward to continued collaboration with Darpana. Brandy Leary Nominated for the KM Hunter Award in Dance 2009 It was a great surprise to find that I had been nominated for this prestigious award. This award is given to an artist who has begun to create a body of work and is starting to make an impact in their chosen field. The results will be announced in the late spring of 2009, please send good thoughts and prayers my way! New Anandam Website! At long last our new website is up and running! Same address www.anandam.ca but a whole new look! Company Designer Prashant Gupta has worked to create a beautiful new site that showcases our work over the past eight years. This fresh site has some fantastic new features so we can keep you up to date on all our activities and events as well as space for articles and interviews with local and international artists on a wide variety of topics concerning contemporary performance practice. Please check back with us regularly and let us know what you think! May 6th 2009 Please join us for a wonderful evening of great food, wine, music and performances in support of Anandam’s upcoming presentation of Confluence as part of the 2008/09 DanceWorks CoWorks Season. This evening will be hosted by the incredible Lisa Pijuan-Nomura and will feature aerial performances, martial art demonstrations and preview excerpts of our new work “Confluence”! Enjoy our hospitality for the evening and the opportunity to visit the beautiful galleries and collections of the Museum which will be open for the event! 7:00 Doors open Ticket Purchase and RSVP through brandy@anandam.ca or info@anandam.ca 647.628.9246/416.516.9246 Fundraising Campaign 2009! We Need Your Help! Can’t make it to the Fundraiser and still want to help the cause! No donation is too small or too large and all are appreciated! All donations can be issued a charitable tax receipt by making a cheque payable to DanceWorks (please put Anandam in the reference line) and they will forward 100 percent of the donation to us and a receipt to you!** Please send donations to : Anandam, 512 Lansdowne Ave. Studio #3a, Toronto, On, M6H 3Y3* Confluence May 20th 8:30pm (preview) Advance Ticket Sales/Credit Card Payments: The Annex Theatre Choreography: Brandy Leary |
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