Toronto Dance Theatre @ The Fleck

Choreographer Christopher House is back with his new production, Dis/(sol/ver) - what is with dance companies and playing with the cap locks/keyboard symbols? - running at the Fleck Dance Theatre, formerly Premiere Dance Theatre, from Nov. 18 until Sat. Nov. 22

It's a georgeous production to look at with warm overhead lighting and earth tone textured banners hanging floor to ceiling in the background.
As far as the dance itself, I had a chance to see in it's entirety last night.
Really interesting performance as couples come together repeatedly during the piece only to have one partner disolve in the arms of the other by melting slowly to the floor.
Over and over the elusive embrace fails while dancers come together to link up in a weaving line that spins off more disolving couples.
It's really quite beautiful, reflected in the intensity with which the audience was watching. Absolute silence.
It's as if you are seeing people's romantic history replayed in fast motion. False starts, tentative or awkward moments, relationships that last for a brief time and then disolve, as the dancers cross the stage in random patterns intersecting, coupling, moving on.

I'm not nearly qualified to critique, other than to say that as an average enthusiast I found it very interesting.

Of course, at the photo shoot, I was watching it through a viewfinder, where your major pre-occupation is making compositional sense within a defined rectangular area while maintaining a focusing point on the subject. But even with all the distractions, it looked good.

And shooting dance is always entertaining.

For this one they did two run-throughs of a two minute segment of the show.
Hoping for greatness here is like expecting a front page sports shot from just two sequences of downs at an Argos football game.

Same amount of chaos, same 'where the heck is this going next' seat of the pants thrill ride.

Of course dance company's are as media savvy as any other arts organization, it's just the high cost of having the theatre for rehearsal means they have to be brief with the photo ops, as they have other business to get through in preparation for opening night.

I did the shoot two ways.

First time through - where I'm half shooting it, half watching to see what the overall form of the piece is going to be - I was right up at the lip of the stage, at floor level, an angle I really like for group shots, especially if they come really close to the camera.

The second run-through I was back more and standing. I was going to switch to the 50-200mm and follow just one dancer through the piece, but decided to play it safe and stick with the 12-60mm.

Toronto Dance Theatre is one of the best dance companies in the city, Dis/(sol/ver) is a new, unseen work, and the cost of admission is as low as $20 per ticket.

As a date night contender it's a production that will stimulate your senses, spur discussion afterwards, and within the newly renovated Fleck Dance theatre you'll be treated to a classy evening all round.

All photos shot with the Olympus E3 @ 1600 ISO and copyright Torontowide.com

Fashion Cares 2008

After last year's 'Disaster in the Distillery' - an event characterized by women shivering in their best gowns in the cold May weather, snapped stilhettos, and a limp, uninspired stage show - the brain trust at Fashion Cares went on a bit of a hiatus, shifting the event to The Fall, and doing a re-think on the changes that had been made.

For this year's Fashion Cares the event was back in the comfortable confines of the Convention Centre and once again the show's emphasis was fashion mixed with outstanding musical guests. Phillip Ing is back as the creative director of the show that has become one of the stellar stand-outs in the fashion season.

This year the musical guests were Caty 'I kissed a girl' Perry, Canadian singer Kreesha Turner, and Dame Shirley Bassey with a 31 piece orchestra.

Photos from the red carpet at the beginning of the night.

Kreesha Turner was moving in and out of a dramatic pool of spill light all during one of her TV interviews. I never did catch her exactly right, but the lighting is still more expressive and three dimensional than the usual flat flash-on-camera red carpet effect.

Olympus E3, 50-200mm 2.8 lens, fill light from the FL50 flash minus one stop.

A funny moment.

We're shooting Caty Perry on the red carpet, and I'm beside well known cross-dressing columnist Enza Supermodel, who as usual has the full hair and makeup going.
Enza gets her to come over and starts whispering in Caty's ear, who's grinning going along with him. I don't know what Enza said next but all of a sudden she jumps back and blurts out "Oh my God! You're a man!"
And Enza without skipping a beat says "I'm not a man ... I'm a supermodel!"
Everyone cracked right up.

I think that was wee Caty's first intimation that this wasn't going to be her average gig :)

Here, Doug catches the moment of her realisation.

A highlight of the evening was the performance of Dame Shirley Bassie, seen here arriving for the show. She looks great, and sounded great never missing a note while filling the hall with classic 60's songs driven by her powerful voice.

Although it got off to a slow start, the show was up to previous standards mixing a Cirque du Soleil sensibility with outstanding contributions from local designers.

Photos from the show, beginning with the Haloween-themed opening, and including dancers from the National Ballet.

Proceeds from the evening go to fund AIDS research.

Photos copyright Torontowide.com. All rights reserved