Dance All-Stars
An evening of extraordinary dance

Emily Molnar
[Bio]

Boris Sichon
[Bio]

in a World Premiere Original Duet

Shannon Moreno and Farley Johansson with Jojo Zolina and Monica Poenca in
Science Friction’s Sweeping the Waiting Room
[Bio]

James Gnam and Natalie LeFebvre-Gnam
[Bio]

Alison Denham and Darcy McMurray
[Bio]

“It was dance at its finest … a rare evening where the heart throbbed with every step ...and the excitement lingered long after the show was over.” That’s how The Georgia Straight described last year’s Dance All-Stars show.

Don’t miss this year’s line-up which brings together two of last year’s most ingenious performers. Named by MacLean’s magazine as one of Canada’s new generation of “ballet sensations”, former Ballet Frankfurt, National Ballet of Canada and Ballet BC dancer Emily Molnar will join forces with international percussionist/composer and former St. Petersburg Symphony and Israel’s Habima Theatre’s percussionist Boris Sichon for a new explosive exploration of dance and percussion.

Shannon Moreno and Farley Johansson's latest piece, Sweeping the Waiting Room is a delightful and thoroughly entertaining look at various waiting room scenarios. Moreno and Johansson, Artistic Directors of their Vancouver based dance company Science Friction, have performed internationally with numerous dance companies in Germany, Sweden, New Zealand and Canada. They will be joined on stage by one of Vancouver's best free-style dancers Jojo Zolina and by Brazillian-born Monica Proenca, whose ballet, jazz and contemporary dance career has taken her all over the world.

Set to music composed by John Zorn, Alison Denham has choreographed a new duet for herself and Darcy McMurray, celebrating the notion of freedom by way of their powerhouse dancing! Denham danced for many years with the internationally-acclaimed dance company Dancemakers and is currently performing with Wen Wei Dance.

Choreographer and dancer James Gnam has created a new duet for himself and his exquisite wife, dancer Natalie LeFebvre-Gnam. Set to the music of Philip Glass and David Bowie, Gnam explores the intimate and superficial workings of partnership. Gnam is in his second season with Ballet BC and has also performed with Les Grands Ballet Canadiens de Montreal, JoeInk, and dancersdancing.

www.emilymolnar.com
www.sichon.com
www.sciencefriction.ca

Marcela Suez

Flamenco Rosario

Marcela Suez
[Bio]

and
Flamenco Rosario
[Bio]

Vancouver premiere

Chutzpah! 2006 and Vancouver’s number one Flamenco Company, Flamenco Rosario, are proud to present the internationally acclaimed Argentinean Flamenco dancer Marcela Suez in a evening of exciting, sensuous, authentic Flamenco dance. Based in Buenos Aires, Suez has enjoyed a diverse and esteemed career in music, acting, contemporary dance, ballet and flamenco in Argentina, Spain and Brazil. As well as teaching Dance at the Universidad de Buenos Aires's Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas, she operates her own theatre space to further the art of flamenco. Suez performs regularly in festivals, clubs and concerts in Spain, Brazil and Argentina as well as on major Spanish television programs. Don’t miss this foot-stomping, hand-clapping great night of dance.

Joining Marcela on stage will be local dancers Flamenco Rosario Artistic Director, Rosario Ancer, Bonnie Stewart, Nanko Aramaki and Afifa Moxness, singer Jesus Montoya (originally from Sevilla Spain, now based in Los Angeles) and local musician guitarists: Victor Kolstee

www.centroflamenco.com

Kindertransport Stories
choreographed by

Marla Eist
[Bio]

featuring

Karissa Barry, Amber Funk Barton, Shannon Moreno and Vanessa Goodman

World Premiere

Chutzpah! is proud to present the premiere of an original multi-disciplinary work by award-winning dancer and choreographer Marla Eist.

Inspired by the British Kindertransport of 1938 — when an estimated 10,000 Jewish children were taken out of Germany, Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia to Great Britain, as most of their families perished in the Holocaust — Eist integrates the personal histories and survival stories of the kinder (children) and their families in a meaningful and powerful fusion of memory, cultural history and movement. For Kinderstransport Stories, Eist has collaborated with three of Vancouver’s top professional dancers, Amber Funk Barton, Karissa Barry and Shannon Moreno and music and video artist, Dave Smith, while working closely with Kindertransport survivors through the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre

Eist is an New York-trained independent choreographer, performing artist and dance educator who has performed throughout the US and Canada with more than 50 independent contemporary dance artists over the years. She is currently an Associate Professor of Dance in the School for Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University.

If you've never seen Marla Eist's work, you probably should. She is an exciting performer...”
The Peak

Andrea Gunnlaugson


Conrad Alexandrowicz

Dance, Little Lady!
A Wild Excursions/Chutzpah! co-presentation

Choreographed and Directed by
Conrad Alexandrowicz
[Bio]

Featuring Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, Ainsley Cyopik, Natalie LeFebvre-Gnam, Andrea Gunnlaugson.

Choreographer/Director Conrad Alexandrowicz has incorporated the true essence of “chutzpah” into this re-mount of the satirical theatre/dance cabaret Dance Little Lady, a comical and frank exploration of the female dancer/actor experience in Western patriarchal culture. The text, mostly spoken at microphones and in stand up comedy-style, is drawn from the all-female cast’s experiences and connects the courage and nerve of women in North American society with that of the female performer.

Originally from Toronto, Vancouver-based Alexandrowicz is a director, writer and choreographer, and the artistic director of Wild Excursions Performance. To date, he has created over 45 dance and physical-theatre works, some of which have been presented across Canada, in New York City, France and the U.K. His play, The Wines of Tuscany, was produced three times in Vancouver, in Calgary, Victoria and Edmonton, and at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto and won Jessie, Dora and Sterling Awards.