Montreal, summer 2015: I fell asleep to a question and was answered in the form of a dream: Diana Ross on Broadway in a sea of rose gold costumed dancers—a dream of spiritedness and belonging so vivid as to announce itself as instruction, as a call.
In DIANA ROSS DREAM, Black being-together is the condition for community. This is a dream in which we dance relation, our movement motivated by the energy of encounter— with each other and with uncertainty itself. Fundamentally, we elect to be seen being, understanding movement as a technology for and of feeling. An ethics of not-knowing cherishes our interactions: we receive; we await; we let the bird find our finger. This, our vesselhood, we know to be ancient and eternal, miracle and ordinary.
Credits
Aisha Sasha John — Choreography & concept
Aisha Sasha John, Devon Snell — Performance
Marcus "Ademi" Paris-Johnson, Tyra Temple-Smith — Development period artist
Evan Webber, Ellen Furey — Outside eyes
Dedra McDermott, Kalale Dalton-Lutale — Artistic witnesses
Karine Gauthier, Sam Skynner — Lighting design
Nyda Kwasowsky, Devon Snell — Costumes
New Chance, Amy Manusov — Sound/Music
*Original use of New Chance music (Victoria Cheong)
Videos — Gillian Mapp | Editing — Faraz Anoushahpour | Soundtrack — New Chance/Amy Manusov
Images — Henry Chan
Partners and supports for creation — Dancemakers, La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines, Citadel + Compagnie, Toronto Dance Theater
A presentation Danse-Cité
A coproduction Aisha Sasha John, Dancemakers & Danse-Cité
About the artist
'I am working on encounter: on dancing together
To face the other and to not resist nor insist upon the joining of eyes
To have an orientation that acknowledges
The cosmos within and without
To situate one’s body in rhythm and in space—to play air
To antennae
In pleasure and in need
To listen
To await
To be told:
The information is in the form of
Desire
Fear
Resistance
Knowing
To be willing to discover
Ceaselessly
To be an explorer
To arrive and arrive and arrive and arrive
To meet the mystery
The boundless mystery of the other and
The terrifying unknown of the self
To dance listening
To let yes mean yes
To let no mean no
On our bodies
In DIANA ROSS DREAM I am studying the mechanics of loving'
— Aisha Sasha John
Practical Informations
Dates
Sept. 2022, 29 - 7.30 pm
Sept. 2022, 30 - 7.30 pm * Talk back after the show. Facilitator: Angélique Wilkie
Octobre 2022, 1st - 8 pm
Get to
3700 Saint Dominique str.
Montréal, QC H2X 2X7
Box office
La Chapelle : (514) 843-7738
Box office La Chapelle
Rates
Regular : 30 $ | Discounted : 25 $ | Jour de fête (Premiere) : 15 $ | Junior : 15 $
Accompanying person (for spectators with a disability) : 0 $
Accessibility
https://lachapelle.org/en/learning-engagement
Duration of the show
60 minutes
Show notes
English texts