The Gravity Hour -- Dance at the Fringe!

4 Dances, 3 Choreographers, 60 Minutes
The Gravity Hour @ the 2012 Toronto Fringe Festival

Choreography by: Michael Caldwell, Kiri Figueiredo, Shannon Litzenberger

Featuring: Jesse Dell, Jordana Deveau, Kiri Figueiredo, Sarah Fregeau, Daniel McArthur, Andrea Spaziani, and Stéphanie Tremblay Abubo

Robert Gill Theatre, 214 College St., 3rd Floor

$10 at the door
Box Office: 416-966-1062

Friday, July 6 7:30 pm
Saturday, July 7 1:00 pm
Sunday, July 8 10:15 pm
Wednesday, July 11 6:15 pm
Thursday, July 12 8:30 pm
Friday, July 13 4:00 pm
Saturday, July 14 3:30 pm


Three gifted dancesmiths Kiri Figueiredo, Michael Caldwell and Shannon Litzenberger explore the hidden corners of human nature in a physically intense hour of dance. The Gravity Hour features four compelling new works that rise and fall through moments of jealousy, loneliness, abandonment and regret. It takes ‘screaming into your pillow’ to a whole new level.

Caldwell’s new work “Mary” is a solo for skilled interpreter Stéphanie Tremblay Abubo – one in a series choreographed on the theme of loneliness. Haunted by her tumultuous past, this young woman is fragile, unstable and gripping onto the edge of reason. Her journey through memory summons an intensely physical language, speaking to an emotionally raw experience. Mary is struggling to find resolve - that life will go on, that she will persevere, that nothing will ever be the same again.

Figueiredo offer two works – a new solo, ”Woman Kneeling in Dress..." and “Temperature of Weight” - a quartet featuring Sarah Fregeau, Daniel McArthur, Andrea Spaziani and Figueiredo.

An Egon Schiele painting of a mysterious young woman, inspires her solo, created and performed by Figueiredo herself. “Temperature of Weight” was first presented in Vancouver in 2010 – a dramatic, dark, yet hopeful reflection of the physical, psychological and emotional weight we carry. The dancers, burdened literally and metaphorically by the weight of over-sized overcoats on their backs, respond with heightened physicality as they push themselves forward in search of relief.

Litzenberger’s new work “The Den” is a ferocious duet for interpreters Jesse Dell and Jordana Deveau of JD Dance. A den is both a room in a house and a subterranean space where animals seek refuge. Deeply connected to their animal roots, these women walk the line of their own subconscious, simultaneously driven by instinct and struggling to evolve. They are at times gracious, thoughtful, inventive, and relatable, and other times primal, territorial, feral and intuitive.