Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Luminato’s 2018 festival, running June 6 to 24, offers a chance to perform; free outdoor fun; and 19-days of dazzling cabaret-style performance in a custom-designed immersive space.
Building on her commitment to showcase the work of Canadian artists alongside some of today’s most exciting international projects, artistic director Josephine Ridge outlines a framework for the extended 2018 festival that is anchored by a festival-long run of Ireland’s jaw-dropping theatrical explosion RIOT and a call for participation in Le Grand Continental®, a spectacularly choreographed outdoor event from Montréal’s Sylvain Émard Danse.
Festival programming announcements will continue through spring 2018, with full program details announced in mid-April.
RIOT: June 5 to 23, Luminato’s Cabaret Room
After taking the 2016 Dublin Fringe by storm RIOT, a disorderly cocktail of dance, drag, circus and comedy, lands in Toronto. Programmed as the house show in Luminato’s custom-created Cabaret Room in the Canadian Opera Company's Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Opera Centre, located in Toronto’s historic St. Lawrence neighbourhood, it is scheduled alongside a cabaret program featuring similarly compelling, yet-to-be-announced, Canadian artists.
THISISPOPBABY created a combination of party and politics from Ireland’s greatest artistic hooligans that is a blunt criticism of the world today, a love letter of hope to the future, a divine celebration and overall an energetic, anarchic spectacle. Uniting the hottest stars of Irish stage and screen in this glittering roulette of the brilliant, brazen and downright bizarre, the all-star cast includes Queen of Ireland Panti Bliss, Megan Riordan (star of Once – The Musical), circus superstars Lords of Strut (Britain’s Got Talent), Up & Over It, Ronan Brady, Alma Kelliher, Nicola Kavanagh and Adam Matthews, plus a local guest performer each night.
RIOT runs for the duration of the festival as part of an international tour (Sydney, Melbourne, New York City and more), with 18 performances, animating the exciting new environment created in the Cabaret Room (227 Front St. E.). Tickets (starting at $39) are now on sale at www.luminato.com.
Le Grand Continental®: June 22 to 24, Nathan Phillips Square
Le Grand Continental® is a world-renowned extravaganza that brings together a massive cast of amateur dance enthusiasts to perform a sensational line-dance-inspired contemporary dance. Twirling into a rhythmic human kaleidoscope, 400 participants aged from the very young to the very young-at-heart dance up an exhilarating storm. Dancers from across the GTA are chosen after a city-wide audition process - after three months of dedicated rehearsal they’ll perform the show four times, free to audiences in Nathan Phillips Square.
Celebrated for the elegance and finesse of his choreography, Montréal’s Sylvain Émard debuted Le Grand Continental in his hometown in 2009, and the project has since traveled to Mexico City, New York, Philadelphia, Portland (Oregon), Boston, Ottawa, Vancouver, South Korea, New Zealand and Chile. A new choreographic piece will be created especially for Toronto performed to music commissioned by Luminato from Wolf Saga.
With other music by Martin Tétreault, DJ Mini and El Instituto Mexicano del Sonido, an infectious range of tunes, rhythms and beats will make joining in almost irresistible. Audiences get their moment when, after the performance, all are invited to join the cast to dance their own freestyle Continental, as Nathan Phillips Square becomes a huge open-air dance floor where the only thing that matters is the joy of dancing!
Learn more about auditions and participating in Le Grand Continental >
Also recently announced
•Genre-defying Icelandic musician and composer Ólafur Arnaulds brings his 2018 worldwide All Strings Attached tour to Toronto on June 24 as part of Luminato. Tickets and venue details to be announced. Learn more >
•Visionary arts leader and outgoing National Arts Centre President Peter Herrndorf announced as Luminato’s Board Chair Designate. Read release >
About Luminato
Luminato is Toronto’s international multi-arts, multi-platform festival dedicated to performance, visual art, music, theatre, dance, and programming that cuts across traditional art form boundaries. The 2018 festival runs June 6 to 24 and extends from its previous 10 days to 19, the intended festival length for future years. In its first decade, Luminato became one of the preeminent international arts festivals in North America, with more than 3,000 performances including 100 new commissions, featuring 11,000 artists from over 40 countries.
Led by CEO Anthony Sargent CBE and Artistic Director Josephine Ridge, Luminato is a charitable, not-for-profit, globally connected cultural organization proudly based in Toronto. www.luminato.com
Luminato gratefully acknowledges the generosity of its Founding Government Partner the Province of Ontario, its Major Partner the Government of Canada and its Presenting Partner the City of Toronto.
Photo: Scene from RIOT. ©2016 Conor Horgan.
2017-12-07
Toronto: Luminato launches its 2016 festival with Irish hit "RIOT" June 6, 2018