On the heels of the recent run of Jeanine Durning’s This Shape, We Are In presented alongside Marie Lambin-Gagnon’s Slow Dance, Toronto Dance Theatre (TDT) continues their 2018/2019 season and their exploration of Reimagining Repertoire with the World Premiere of a new work from Artistic Director Christopher House, Persefony Songs, on stage at the Fleck Dance Theatre March 5 – 9, 2019.

Persefony Songs riffs on images from Christopher House's acclaimed choreography Persephone’s Lunch (2001) extending and reimagining its rich vocabulary to create a new work of unabashedly sensual beauty.

"My original work, Persephone’s Lunch, used the structure of the Odyssey to frame its often whimsical content," comments TDT Artistic Director Christopher House. "Approaching this new work, I realized that my priorities had changed since then, and that I was interested in foregrounding sensuality in this new iteration. One of the ways I’ve tried to do this is by de-gendering the roles, creating a more playful, poly-sexual landscape. Most of the choreography is new, supported by a gorgeous score by Bernice. By "excavating" the original work, we've followed new ideas in both image and sound that refer back across centuries."

With a dream cast of twelve dancers and six musicans onstage, Persefony Songsfeatures a lush new musical score by composer Thom Gill and the “breezy, whimsical and delightful” (NOW Magazine) indie band, Bernice. Played live at each performance, its soaring voices, warm acoustics and complex rhythms offer a contemporary take on the sonorities of Early Music.

House adds, “I’m loving working with this dream team of collaborators, inspired by their ideas as we follow the Muses.”

Persefony Songs is presented in House’s 25^th anniversary season as Artistic Director of the company.  House first danced with the company in 1978, over forty years ago. He comments, “It is amazing for me to reflect upon how formative my time with TDT has been. I kind of grew up here. Theses twenty-five years have passed quite quickly because we’ve always been changing and evolving. It doesn’t feel like I’m working in the same place as when I took over the company in 1994.”

About Persefony Songs –

Choreography: Christopher House
Music Director: Thom Gill
Lighting Designer: Simon Rossiter
Performers: Sonia Boretski, Zachary Cardwell, Alana Elmer, Yuichiro Inoue, Peter Kelly, Megumi Kokuba, Pulga Muchochoma, Erin Poole, Devon Snell, Margarita Soria, Roberto Soria, and Christianne Ullmark
Musicians: Robin Dann, Dan Fortin, Thom Gill, Phil Melanson, Alex Samaras, and Felicity Williams

Persefony Songs runs March 5 - 9 at the Fleck Dance Theatre at Harbourfront Centre, with performances at 8:00pm.  Regular tickets start at $20 for students and those under 30, and at $38 for general admission.   For online information and to make ticket purchases visit tdt.org.
 
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Persefony Songs is part of TDT’s Reimagining Repertoire project, supported by the Metcalf Foundation.

Photo: Scene from Persefony Songs.