Contemporaneity is a development and presenting series examining questions of the contemporary in dance. It curates works that dive deeper into choreographic forms to answer the creator’s questions; works that resist becoming colonized expressions of themselves; works that are alive to the body and a form’s potential.

In an ideal world, contemporaneity should speak to the cultural moment in which a choreographic act or movement takes place. However, “contemporary” in dance is a term that has long defined European or white American theatrical dance, while all other forms have been categorized as just that – “other.” While this is changing, the implications continue to be felt throughout the infrastructure for the development of new dance. The inclusion of non-European dance forms in the programming of major presenters remains limited. Emerging and mid-career artists of colour and Indigenous artists still do not often access resources such as commissions, residencies, and other choreographic development opportunities. Likewise, audience outreach and engagement, as well as critical discourse around these forms and aesthetics, is lacking.

This series seeks to re-examine the term so that “contemporaneity” can speak to the “now” in which a choreographic act takes place while considering its multiple contexts. The series proposes diverse ways of seeing, experiencing, and responding to the dancing body, in all its capacities – solitary, social, (dis)able(d), sexual, racial, political, communal and ancestral.

Contemporaneity understands that a healthy cultural ecology requires a multiplicity of aesthetics and discourse for the evolving contemporary in dance and aims to contribute an infrastructure that is inclusive, critical, contextual and transformative.

Contemporaneity was developed in 2017 by Soraya Peerbaye and Brandy Leary as a curatorial initiative supported through the TAC Open Door program.

“Padmini Chettur’s Philosophical Enactments 1 is rotational. While the work’s title suggests a starting point in a series, its choreographic logic is circular rather than linear. The piece begins with a ticking metronome and a recording of Chettur conversing with collaborators. The first words we hear, “I also think,” assert that this entry point is not a beginning. We are mid-exchange, and both thought and discourse flow circuitously...

In the candid conversation that initiates Philosophical Enactments 1, Chettur describes wanting to escape her art form’s “beauty trap.” She seeks a “movement from the seductive to the discursive.” I want to suggest that rotation is essential to this project.”

-Fabien Maltais-Bayda, ESSE

Date: April 2019

Venue: Winchester Theatre (Toronto, Canada)

Presenting Partner: Toronto Dance Theatre

Presentation: Brian Solomon: Chapter XV: Arts and Crafts (film), Padmini Chettur: Philosophical Enactments, Nova Bhattacharya/Nova Dance: Elemental, Mix Mix Dance Collective: Reclaiming Our Time

Residency: Padmini Chettur (India), Nova Bhattacharya (Nova Dance, Toronto), Mix Mix Dance Collective (Toronto)

Photos: Greg Wong