Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Following the sold-out success of its inaugural year, The Sony Centre for the Performing Arts announces that single tickets for each performance of its second annual international Dance Collection, presented by BMO Financial Group, will go on sale Thursday, August 24 at 10am. Prices range from $55 - $145 each plus applicable service charges. Tickets can be purchased by phone at 1-855-872-7669 in person at the Sony Centre Box Office, 1 Front Street East (open Monday-Friday from noon-5pm) or online at www.sonycentre.ca.
Beginning December 15 through to spring 2018, this season’s Dance Collection features performances by BJM – Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal who will bring their new and exclusive dance program, inspired by the legendary Montreal poet, artist and musician Leonard Cohen, to Toronto following its recent world premiere in Montreal; Mark Morris Dance Group from Brooklyn, New York returns to Toronto with the Canadian premiere of “Pepperland” in honour of the 50th anniversary of the release of The Beatles’ ground-breaking album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band; and the award-winning collaboration “Sutra” from internationally renowned Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and British sculptor Antony Gormley makes its Toronto debut featuring 19 Buddhist monks from the Shaolin Temple in China.
About the dance companies featured in the collection:
Program: “Dance Me/Leonard Cohen” (Toronto Premiere)
Company: BJM - Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal
Origin: Montreal, Canada
Performance Date: December 15, 2017
Stage Director: Eric Jean
Choreographers: Andonis Foniadakis, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Ihsan Rustem
Highlights: A vibrant dance homage to poet, artist and musician Leonard Cohen, “Dance Me/Leonard Cohen” is a new and exclusive dance program from BJM that will deliver its world premiere in Montreal from December 5 - 9 followed by the Toronto premiere on December 15. Inspired by Cohen’s inimitable music, and using a selection of his most beloved songs, stage director Eric Jean and renowned choreographers Andonis Foniadakis, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Ihsan Rustem create a spectacular new video conception work commissioned especially by BJM.
Program: “Pepperland” (Canadian Premiere)
Company: Mark Morris Dance Group
Origin: Brooklyn, New York, USA
Performance Date: February 24, 2018
Choreographer: Mark Morris
Highlights: Choreographer Mark Morris, hailed by the New York Times as “the most successful and influential choreographer alive, and indisputably the most musical,” returns to Toronto with
“Pepperland”, a unique tribute to the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ ground-breaking album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Accompanied live by an unprecedented chamber music ensemble of voice, soprano saxophone, two keyboards, theremin and percussion, Ethan Iverson’s original score intermingles six Pepper-inspired original pieces intended especially for Morris’s profound understanding of classical forms with arrangements of the songs Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, With a Little Help From My Friends, A Day in the Life, When I’m Sixty-Four, Within You Without You and Penny Lane.
A top-tier group of some of the world’s leading arts presenters and supporters made it possible for this evening-length work to be realized: Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, with the Sony Centre, along with the American Dance Festival, Durham, North Carolina; BAM, Brooklyn, New York; Cal Performances, UC Berkeley, California; The City of Liverpool, England, U.K.; Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; International Festival of Arts & Ideas, New Haven, Connecticut; The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C.; Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; La Jolla Music Society, La Jolla, California; Meyer Sound, Berkeley, California; Seattle Theatre Group, Seattle, Washington; Segerstrom Center for The Arts, Costa Mesa, California; UCSB Arts & Lectures, Santa Barbara, California; and White Bird, Portland, Oregon. The Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation commissioned Pepperland’s music. Additionally the original music by The Beatles is used under license from Sony ATV Music Publishing.
What the critics are saying...
“...a truly joyous, celebratory work of art...brilliant homage to one of the great rock albums,” The Telegraph (UK)
“A gorgeously entertaining and witty tribute to the classic Beatles album,” The Guardian (UK)
“The dance, like the album, is a seamless synthesis of classical, vaudeville and psychedelia...” Financial Times
“...high-spirited, humour, eccentric charm and a joyous musical sensibility...guaranteed to raise a smile,” The (London) Times (UK)
Program: “Sutra” (Toronto Premiere)
Collaborators: Internationally renowned Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and British sculptor Antony Gormley
Origin: London, England
Performance Date: May 12, 2018
Choreographer: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
Highlights: Since its sold-out debut at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London in May 2008, more than 200,000 people worldwide in 71 cities across 35 countries have seen “Sutra.”
“Sutra,” the award-winning collaboration between Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, sculptor Antony Gormley and 19 Buddhist monks from the Shaolin Temple in China, is a breathtaking spectacle of athleticism, which explores the philosophy of faith behind the Shaolin tradition and its relationship with kung fu within a dance context.
With Gormley’s striking design of 21 wooden boxes and the music of Polish composer Szymon Brzóska’s performed live, “Sutra” is an incomparable work that has captured hearts and imaginations around the world as one of the stage’s most sophisticated works of art.
What the critics are saying…
“This Sadler’s Wells production exceeds even our highest expectations,” The Times (UK)
“Mesmerising and magical,” Evening Standard (UK)
“Impossible to resist…astounding,” Le Monde (France)
“Beautiful movements and amazing acrobatics,” El Pais (Spain)
“A sophisticated work of art…beyond entertainment, it offers the audience a sense of harmony and tranquility,” Ethnos (Greece)
Photo: Scene from Pepperland by Mark Morris.
2017-08-21
Toronto: Single tickets for the Sony Centre's International Dance Collection go on sale August 24