Connections//Collisions

Rare and Unique Dance Performances

Overview

Connections//Collisions is a new cabaret series featuring interdisciplinary works. Hosted by Mile Zero Dance and curated by Anishinaabe playwright Josh Languedoc, this series features dance performances with a splash of unique edge! Wacky, engaging, and thought provoking, this sampling of performances from the series will leave you excited for what is possible in the world of dance.

Mission

Mile Zero Dance develops contemporary dance practices and audiences, through education, collaborative partnerships, and the presentation of original, dynamic, interdisciplinary performances.

Performances

1. Yuliia Tvorilova: Personal Things/What I Carry
2. Teneil Whiskeyjack: kiskisiwin ᑭᐢᑭᓯᐃᐧᐣ The Act of Remembering
3. Molly Molly McDermott: Urge
4. Ian S Mozdzen: ON/OFF

Workshops

Alongside these performances, some of the artists are offering community workshops to those who want to learn their unique styles of performance.

Book Us Today!

We are coming to a community near you! For inquiries about booking the workshops and/or the performances, please contact Josh Languedoc at Josh.Languedoc.Writer@gmail.com. We would love to bring our work to you!

DOWNLOAD THE C//C TOUR PROMO INFO

ABOUT THE PERFORMANCES

Performance: Personal Things/What I Carry

My name is Yuliia Tvorilova. I am a performer and choreographer from the sunny city Odessa, Ukraine. I have been doing ballet and modern dance since I was five. I graduated from the Odesa Ballet School, the Odesa Professional College of Arts and the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts. All my life I have been into dance art. My whole life is like a dance. It’s what helps and supports me. It’s my life’s work. I believe dance is one of the human skills available from birth. 

In Ukraine, I built a successful career as a ballet and contemporary choreographer. Now I continue dancing and teaching in Edmonton. In my dance studies, I look at the relationship between people and cultures, the relationship between religion and emotion, the nature of the movement of a person into other life spaces.

Workshop 1: Contemporary Dance

This class is created on the basis of the knowledge that our body consists of spiral and rounded lines. During the workshop we will find these spirals, which quietly and safely affect the creation of movement inside and outside our body. The class is built from simple to complex, gradually expanding the focus from individual objects to the whole body. This dance practice is useful for both experienced dancers and beginners.

Workshop 2: Free Ukrainian Community Dance

I would like to offer the Free Dance Family Workshop for all ages. The safety space for families and single persons where they can follow the gentle leader, dance together, listen to and dance with contemporary Ukrainian music and feel free.

Performance: kiskisiwin ᑭᐢᑭᓯᐃᐧᐣ The Act of Remembering

Teneil Whiskeyjack is a Plains Cree indigenous woman from Saddle Lake Cree Nation. Storytelling has always been an integral part of Teneil’s life. She began acting at the age of 8, well into adulthood in film and television which garnered her Outstanding New Performance by an Actress in Film from First Americans in the Arts for her breakout role in Dreamkeeper.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Drama from Concordia University of Edmonton and is the 2024 Esquao Awards Recipient for the arts. She was the keynote speaker at Augustana University with her talk “The Resurgence of Indigenous Women’s Medicine” in 2023. Teneil made her playwright’s debut with her play Ayita, which weaves Indigenous contemporary dance and theatre. Ayita was the headlining production for SkirtsAfire Festival’s 10th Anniversary in 2021. Most recently, she has toured across North America with the hit musical Bear Grease, a high-energy musical of the classic film, Grease.

Teneil was also honoured as an artist to be a part of the first ever cross-cultural and artistic residency in Chile, South America through the Pemmican Collective and Punctuate Theatre.  Her recent creative development has been through movement and how our stories live in the body as a means to heal, liberate and free ourselves from our limitations.

Workshop: Sacred Spaces

This workshop is for young adults and adults at a beginner level. We will create sacred space that will anchor in the group’s energy and intentions. A guided exploration of patterns and how they are formed through movement that connects to the natural world around us. This workshop also creates space to be intuitively guided to freely express movement in one’s own body.

Performance: Urge

Molly McDermott is a dance artist, gratefully performing, creating, and teaching movement in amiskwaciy-wâskahikan.  She has been working in dance since 2007 interpreting work by a variety of inspiring artists and companies in Vancouver, Edmonton and London. Molly is a collective artist with Good Women Dance Collective alongside her independent projects. She has presented her own choreography at Vines Art Festival, 12 Minutes Max., Nextfest, Mile Zero Dance, the Magpie Collection, Expanse Festival and New Dance Horizons. She had the pleasure of curating the dance presentation at Expanse Movement Arts Festival in 2023. Alongside dance, Molly is a mother of two small humans and welcomes the gentle chaos that comes with balancing motherhood and everything else.

Workshop 1: Introduction to Movement and Improvisation

This class is geared for absolute beginners. Come learn the basic techniques of improvising with your body and building expression through movement.

Workshop 2: Contemporary Dance Technique 

This class is geared for people with some experience in dance. Techniques aimed at building the language and movement styles of contemporary will be explored in this workshop.

Performance: ON/OFF

This unique performance is a blend of slapstick comedy, interpretive dance, and painting! Ian will take you on a very unique journey of expression and unveiling!

Ian S Mozdzen is from rural Manitoba and has been activating the stage for over 20 years with dance & performance. Original performance creations have caused stirs & taken Ian across Canada & around the world. In addition to a signature presence in Winnipeg’s performance scene, Ian has been repeatedly presented within Toronto’s Buddies in Bad Times Theatre Rhubarb Festival; additional engagements have included Toronto’s Dance: Made in Canada, Montreal’s Edgy Women Festival & Art Souterrain, Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers’ subscription series, Vancouver’s Dancing on the Edge Festival & Mile Zero Dance, with additional performances in USA, Greece, Sri Lanka, India, Bulgaria, Spain & Mexico. Ian is honoured to have created/performed with the likes of seasoned Winnipeg-linked artists like Tedd Robinson, Doug Melnyk, Tom Stroud, Robert Sim, Derek Brueckner & D-Anne Kuby, in addition to a plethora of emerging local artists. Ian has trained in various styles of dance/performance, has coached performers, has orchestrated/programmed local dance & has assisted artistic directors within the University of Winnipeg’s Theatre Department, Winnipeg’s India School of Dance, Music & Theatre, Young Lungs Dance Exchange & Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers. Check out iansmoznewdance.blogspot.com for more information. Ian’s appearance is made possible in part through the support of the Manitoba Arts Council.

Workshop: Instant Dance 

“And … BEGIN!”

This generative dance workshop embraces the philosophy that every individual is already a work of art. Designed for participants of all abilities, it provides a fun, supportive and intensive environment to instantly present + watch living instant dance creations.

First, participants will condition for instant creation by engaging in quick-timed exercises, including:

•      Mark-making
•      Portrait posing and drawing
•      Figure posing and drawing
•      Music making
•      Object handling
•      Light handling

Second, participants will extend these quick-creation practices into short and long-timed video-recorded dance studies that develop both solo and ensemble artistry.

Participants will receive video documentation of their performances, enabling them to reflect on their generative approach and prepare for future dance outputs.

Participants are encouraged to dress in a “costume” that reflects their unique style and outlook.

The workshop emphasizes a nonjudgmental, laboratory approach to dance, encouraging composure, creativity and spontaneity.

Materials provided.