Citadel + Compagnie proudly presents the world premiere of Amorous Playlist, March 27–March 30, 2019 at 8pm at the Citadel: Ross Centre for Dance. The third collaboration between two emerging Toronto-based artists, Social Growl Dance’s Artistic Director Riley Sims and solo singer Blunt Chunks, Amorous Playlist is a darkly romantic dance creation and live concert experience. This intimate multidisciplinary work combines music and choreography created separately, but performed simultaneously to investigate themes of love, heartbreak, lust, loss, and sensuality.

“Long-time collaborators Riley Sims and Blunt Chunks have developed a fruitful creative relationship that deepens with each work,” says Citadel + Compagnie’s Artistic Director Laurence Lemieux. “With Amorous Playlist, they are experimenting with the dynamic between music and dance, giving them equal status and placing them in direct conversation with one another. In each iteration, the artists forge a fresh connection in real time, making every performance a unique experience. This work is deeply rooted in honesty and vulnerability, allowing the audience members to recognize their own romantic trials and triumphs in the work.”

In the casual concert atmosphere of Amorous Playlist, Blunt Chunks shares the stage with choreographer Sims and five other dancers: Clarke Blair, Ana Groppler, Jean-Benoit Labrecque, Kay Kenney, and Genevieve Robitaille. The performers play a group of melancholy romantics addicted to love, and obsessed with the ecstasy and wounds it elicits. Sometimes dancing through memories of intimate entanglements, sometimes enjoying a beverage with the audience, the performers unfold a moment-by-moment dialogue between musicians, dancers, and observers. Under moody concert lighting designed by Noah Feaver, the performers will build the set throughout the show, curating areas of the theatre with props and installations by scenographer Claire Hill. Audience members are invited to donate items with emotional significance from past relationships to the box office before the show to have them included in this collaborative set.

Sims is a graduate of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre contemporary dance program and the Wexford School for the Arts musical theatre program. He has danced for numerous acclaimed choreographers including Tedd Robinson, Mélanie Demers, Frédérick Gravel, Ann Liv Young, Kettly Nöel, Noam Gagnon, Michael Trent, and Allison Cummings. He spent three seasons as a company member of Ottawa Dance Directive under Artistic Director Yvonne Coutts. Recently, Sims toured with Mayday Danse to Italy, Brazil, and the USA, and will continue this tour to West Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands in 2019.

In 2012, Sims founded Social Growl Dance as a vehicle for his own works. Since its inception, the company has built a reputation for its provocative contemporary dance creations which are heavily rooted in theatre and text. They have presented works at SummerWorks Performance Festival, Fresh Blood Dance Festival, Gallery 1313, and Dance Matters. Among their many accomplishments, Social Growl Dance was the recipient of the Vanguard Award for Risk and Innovation (SummerWorks, 2015), selected to be the Dance Matters Commission and Residency Artist (2017), selected for the Dance Ontario Creative Partnerships Commission (2017/18), and received an international three-week creation residency in Berlin, Germany (2018).

Blunt Chunks is the Toronto-based solo music project of Caitlin Woelfle-O’Brien, formed in 2011 after studying contemporary dance at Concordia University in Montréal. Combining pop sensibility, soulful singing, minimal instrumentals, ambient tones, and vocal layering, her songs have been described as hypnotic, honest, vulnerable, powerful, and ethereal. In 2017, she was invited by CBC and George Stroumboulopoulos to perform on the Strombo Show. She was also featured as a vocalist on Toronto indie pop band Jaunt’s critically acclaimed EP Cuein 2018.

Tickets to Amorous Playlist are available online at: citadelcie.com

Photo: Blunt Chunks. © 2019 Merik Williams.