A good portion of my dance training involved dance exams. In the case of tap, I even had to memorize step definitions. “Tap: strike the floor with the ball of the foot, releasing it immediately.” Or, “Shuffle: a combination of…
Svetlana Dvoretsky: The Woman Behind Theatre
A Russian-Canadian Impresario Have you ever heard of the word “impresario”? That’s someone who organizes and maybe even finances performing arts events, including concerts, plays, ballets, operas, and more. It’s a very risky profession, and likely not one taught in…
Exploring Creativity by Exposing Yourself More
Engage With Your Art Form Theatre guru Trevor Copp has a bowl of theatre tickets, roughly 1,200 of them. The bowl makes its stage appearance when Copp judges the Ontario Drama Festival (formerly the Sears Drama Festival): it contains one…
Alejandro Álvarez Cadilla: How a Dancer Becomes a Producer
With Change on the Horizon, Cadilla Moved Towards It Life is full of transitions, and I won’t bore you with a list of all the usual ones. But as you explore your creativity, remember that transitions can happen here, too….
Mitchell Cushman is on a Curious Voyage
It’s another Hollywood cliché (I seem to be taking a lot of digs at Hollywood lately): the loner who wants to risk it all for his (sometimes her) goal, and no matter what anyone says, he (sometimes she) will punch…
Art is Exploration: Sasha Ivanochko’s Double Bill at The Citadel
Last time, I talked about how art isn’t only about those Hollywood-movie moments of inspiration, that ideas can take time to develop. But why? What makes it so difficult to develop an idea? Montreal-based choreographer Sasha Ivanochko’s work can provide…
Inspiration Isn’t a Eureka Moment: Laurence Lemieux’s “Looking for Elvis”
One myth I want to take down with this interview is the romanticized image of inspiration. Yes, we all get eureka moments: I have plenty of them. However, in my case, they’re never actually good ideas. Instead, those moments of…
Hertha Mueller: A Writer You Should Get to Know
I came across German-Romanian writer Hertha Müller* (“Mueller” in English) about two months ago. I’m embarrassed to say, I had no idea who she was, despite having two degrees in German Studies. In my defence, though, I stopped studying in…
The National Ballet of Canada Breaks With Convention
The hardest part about creating art is knowing when to break with convention. When I read experienced writers’ and editors’ blogs, they invariably talk about writers who sacrifice good writing in order to be clever. I sometimes roll my eyes…
Evelyn Hart in “Love, Sex & Brahms” by James Kudelka
Evelyn Hart performs in new James Kudelka show.