The Disaster Show
Choreographed by Gerry Morita (Edmonton)
MZD Artistic Director Gerry Morita and team explores the notion of the body facing climate change, pitting humans against fire, hurricane, and melting ice in a series of vignettes providing both a lament and a warning. This show is a continuation of work with T. Erin Gruber, aAron Munson, Deviani Andrea, eryn tempest, Tia Kushniruk, Nicolás Arnáez, Farhad Khosravi, and Daniel Stadnicki.
UPCOMING
The Disaster Show will be presented at the Vancouver International Dance Festival (VIDF), March 2025!
March 13 + March 14
Roundhouse Exhibition Hall
GET TICKETS
VIDF ARTIST SPOTLIGHT | MILE ZERO DANCE
“I want people to think about the wonders we still take for granted and how those things will be explained to future generations if they no longer exist.
The type of dance that I do really draws from natural elements as movement sources. So, it seemed like an easy evolution to start to think about what happens when these natural elements get out of balance.
We’re really inviting the audience to travel around and check out different perspectives in the space, kind of like how you would look at visual art.”
-MZD Artistic Director, Gerry Morita
PREVIOUS PRESENTATIONS
Top Canadian Artists to Attend Pitch Session at Edinburgh Festival Fringe (2023). More info
Mile Zero Dance presented The Disaster Show at FAVA Production Studio (10045 156 St NW, Edmonton), April 29 and April 30 (2022).
Behold, Your Disaster: A Praise Song
Poem by Mary Pinkoski
Video by Glenn Kubish
Photo Documentation
The Disaster Show | Technical Rider
Technical Director/ Production Manager: Trent Crosby
Please note that the rider below is intended as a guideline and overview of this production. Details can be flexible, so please contact our Technical Director/ Production Manager if you have any concerns or troubles fulfilling this rider. If your venue does not have all our listed requirements it’s likely we can find a solution or compromise.
The Disaster Show is a 3 dancer / 3 musician found space multimedia piece
MZD Artistic Director Gerry Morita and team explores the notion of the body facing climate change, pitting humans against fire, hurricane, and melting ice in a series of vignettes providing both a lament and a warning.
Running Time: 60 mins
Disaster Show PR links:
https://edifyedmonton.com/culture/performing-arts/climate-the-real-disaster/
https://ckua.com/listen/on-theatre-the-real-disaster-show/
Featuring
Gerry Morita
Gerry Morita (BA Dance/ MFA Theatre) is from the rolling hills of Rex, Saskatchewan, and has lived and worked in Vancouver, Montréal, and Tokyo as a dancer, choreographer, performance artist and teacher before arriving in Edmonton in 2001. Her performances have toured Poland, Turkey, Estonia, Canada, and Japan.
Morita’s body of work involves continuous inquiry into new ways of seeing movement, the body, and the spaces between us. She studies and teaches contact improvisation, Noguchi Taiso and other somatic-based and improving techniques, working with artists from all disciplines in a vast array of both conventional and site-specific venues.
She has received the Mayor’s Award for Innovation in Artistic Direction, the Edmonton Salute for Excellence, Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund and was recognized by the AFA as one of Alberta’s 25 Influential Artists.
T. Erin Gruber
Erin is an artist working professionally as a visual storyteller.
She collaborates with directors, builders, performers and technicians to bring experiences to audiences across Canada. She is committed to combining the powers of visual communication with the passion and emotion of live performance.
The projects that excite her most connect her core values of human compassion, empathetic awakening and joyful experience with the audience- the community of people she strives to serve.
As a young person her artistic spirit was cultivated through a rigorous and committed dance practice- she trained in the professional division with the School of Alberta Ballet and developed a true sense of dedication to craft and expression. Achieving a degree with distinction in Theatre Design from the University of Alberta honed her skills as a scenographer and enabled her to develop her connection between physical and visual storytelling.
She is a proven specialist in the field of integrating projected media elements into live theatrical performance and this passion was born of her discovery that she could move as a designer. The application of her internal rhythm, balance and passion for performance to her visual and technical skill sets became the doorway to the niche that continues to fulfill and ignite her professional identity.
aAron Munson
aAron Munson is a Canadian filmmaker, cinematographer and multimedia artist. His work has taken him from his personal studio to war zones, high-Arctic weather stations, reindeer nomad camps in Siberia, and the Arabian Desert. aAron’s projects tackle extreme human experiences, both far from and close to home, utilizing film, video, photography and sound to create visual explorations relating to mental illness, memory, and the nature of consciousness.
Deviani Andrea
Deviani Andrea (she/her) is emerging as a choreographer, dancer, and collaborator. With a background in different styles of dance, she has performed as a dancer with the National Folk-Dance Company and Mexican Folk-Dance Company, touring national-wide in her natal México. Since moving to Canada, she is actively engaging with well-established dance groups in Amiskwaciwâskahikan such as Good Women Dance Collective, Mile Zero Dance Society, and dance groups at the University of Alberta.
Her work has been part of NextFest and Dance Blitz, and has participated in GWDC's Creative Incubator and the Creative Practice for Contemporary Dance workshop by the Banff Center for the arts. She likes to dance in relationship with space, sometimes translating visual cues to movement, sometimes feeling the space occupied by the body in relation to other objects. Stay tuned!
eryn tempest
eryn tempest is a Canadian choreographer, film maker, and glitch artist of settler descent currently splitting their time between amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton) and Tiohtià:ke (Montréal). They are engaged in practices around softness, transformation, and disruption, encountering the body as the strange ineffable site where dreams coalesce into matter and where imagination takes form. As a performer they have worked with Mile Zero Dance, K.O Dance Project, Andrea Peña, Benoît Lachambre, Project Contrabête, Camille Lacelle-Wilsey, and Nien Tzu Weng. eryn’s work has been presented by Le Festival International du Film Sur L’Art (QC), Nextfest (AB), Expanse (AB), Vous Êtes Ici/You Are Here (QC), Tangente Danse (QC), Mile Zero Dance (AB), Dyscorpia (AB) and Shooting Gallery Performance Series (BC). They have danced in experimental films by choreographer/film maker Kaitlyn Ramsden as well as in music videos for Basia Bulat, Camille Delean, and Busty and the Bass. They have received support from Circuit-est, The Edmonton Arts Council, Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, as well as the Canada Council for the Arts. They were an artist in residence at Lorganisme (QC) as part of the Linterface digital residency program 2022. eryn is one third of the sun sets collective, an interdisciplinary research project that explores the real and the artificial through the phenomenon of the sunset.
Tia Kushniruk
Tia Ashley Kushniruk is from the Treaty 6 Territory of Edmonton AB. Since 2013 she has been affiliated with the Cirque Du Soleil and a frequent collaborator of Jake W. Hastey with Toy Guns Dance Theatre. She graduated from The School of Toronto Dance Theatre (STDT) in 2017 and received the Kathryn Ash Scholarship in 2016. She has had the pleasure of performing works of Antony Hamilton, Paul Andre-Fortier, Peggy Baker, Aria Evans, Christopher House, Shay Kuebler (SK/RSA), Christianne Ullmark, and Jasmyn Fyffe - touring Nationally in Canada and Internationally to Israel, The U.S.A, Colombia, China, and France. Tia’s work has been presented by STDT’s Student Council (Toronto, 2014-2017), Edmonton Dance Theatre’s Dancing in the Park, NextFest (Edmonton, 2016, 2020), and Festival Internacional Nomada (El Salvador, 2020). Her research has been supported by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Canada Council for the Arts, since 2014.
Nicolás Arnáez
Originally from Godoy Cruz Mendoza Argentina, Nicolás Arnáez is now based in Edmonton Alberta, Canada. His music compositions use as a root the concept of interactivity in music, which applies in electroacoustic pieces with real-time sound processing, the creation of interactive sound installations as well as into acoustic ensembles. These pieces have the characteristic of using the space of reproduction as an expressive music parameter; sounds are carefully spread on the space with specific trajectories and locations, carefully loaded with constructive characteristics, this is technically accomplished in a multichannel speakers distribution by the use of different spatialization tools like intensity panning, two or three dimensional ambisonics and VBAP, this is normally combined by performers’ specific positioning, movement in space indications, among others.
Nicolás' works and contribution to the cultural scene have been awarded in Argentina and Canada; his pieces have been performed also in Brazil and the United States. He is an active and experienced sound technician and sound projectionist on both, the popular and new music scenes. He holds a Doctorate in Music Composition from the University of Alberta.
Farhad Khosravi & Daniel Stadnicki
Farhad and Daniel have been collaborating as a duo and in a string ensemble since 2017 starting with Farhad’s debut album titled ‘Sleeping in Sorrow’. Farhad plays the santur, the Iranian hammered dulcimer, and Daniel is an award-winning percussionist, music scholar, and educator specializing in adapted drum kit practice. Although coming from very different cultural backgrounds, the long resonating tones of Farhad’s santur weave naturally with the earthy sounds of Daniel’s percussion, creating a seamless musical journey.
Farhad released his sophomore album titled “Mosàfer” on August 8th, 2020. This work is a santur and percussion duo that translates some of the deepest existential Persian poetries into instrumental music. Farhad and Daniel have performed in multiple venues and festivals in Edmonton including Royal Alberta Museum, Alberta Culture Days, Mile Zero Dance, Alberta Spotlight, and the Yardbird Suite.