video interviews highlighting the practice of the artists in MAI’s 20.21 season.
9. johanna nutter & nadia myre
strike/thru + a casual reconstruction
𝐀 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 + 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐊𝐄 / 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐔 is a double-bill interdisciplinary encounter between two old friends from Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal.
8. ralp escamillan
fakeknot (ralph escamillan) / whip
“whip” is a 60-minute duet set in the round, performed with leather hoods that disguise performers faces and also inhibiting their sight for the entirety of the work.
7. sonia bustos & ariana pirela sánchez
support cam + may
In this episode, we explore the journey and projects of dancers Sonia Bustos and Ariana Pirela Sanchez.
6. Cyndi Charlemagne
Soul Whisper, put forth by the Haitian-Quebecoise singer, author, and composer Cyndi Charlemagne, is a soul-jazz musical performance where poetry and song share notes.
For Charlemagne, this soul whisper evokes our innermost thoughts, the intuition that allows us to stay connected to ourselves through both joyful and trying times. The spoken poems help set the stage for songs that dig deep into the expressive richness of jazz and soul.
5. Heather Mah
Pomegranate is a solo by veteran Montreal dancer Heather Mah. The performance is an interpretation of her grandmother’s life, a fragmented journey told through stories of family and migration that begin in China in 1895.
This piece delicately sketches the imagined journey of this woman, who sought to escape her war-torn country but ultimately died there at the age of 60, despite all the efforts made to rescue her.
4. Soleil Launière
Created by Innu interdisciplinary artist Soleil Launière, Sheuetamᵘ is a performative and auditive installation that unfolds continuously over 5 days. The piece convenes the presence of a two-spirit being, caught in conversation with its surrounding territory and technology.
Interweaving the past, the present and the future, this powerful ritual-performance amplifies Indigenous presence and disrupts the narrative of capitalist and colonialist modernity.
3. Diana León
Sur ce chemin, tu es sûre de te perdre is a multidisciplinary solo, somewhere between dance, theatre and music, is the fruit of three collaborations between Diana León and emerging creators Parco Ziel, Jeremy Galdeano and Vera Kvarcakova. Their guiding theme is knowledge of the self and the work necessary – amidst social pressures, inner demons and aspirations – to find one’s own voice.
With compositions by Alejandro Loredo, Tom Jarvis and Diana León, Sur ce chemin, tu es sûre de te perdre is a powerful evocation of the pleasure in finding one’s own rhythm, in response to those who surround and inspire us.
2. Live in Palestine
Organised by AXENÉO7 (Gatineau) in collaboration with DAIMON (Gatineau) and A Space Gallery (Toronto), Live In Palestine brings together performance work that asks the viewer to consider how bodies, actions and images produce meaning in particular geopolitical spaces.
Showcasing prominent and emerging contemporary artists currently living and working in Palestine, Live in Palestine focuses on work that combines performative practices with political engagement, addressing some of the complexities of living in occupied Palestine.
1. Kama La Mackerel
Interdisciplinary artist and writer Kama La Mackerel interweaves poetry, storytelling, dance, femme tongues and broken colonial languages in a solo performance that is at once personal and political. ZOM-FAM (meaning “man-woman” or “transgender” in Mauritian Kreol) narrates the story of a gender-creative child growing up in the 80s and 90s on the plantation island of Mauritius.
ZOM-FAM interweaves narratives that bring together ancestral voices, femme tongues, broken colonial languages and a tender queer subjectivity, all of which are grappling with the legacy of plantation servitude.