Sinha Danse and Constantinople to Present Toronto Premiere of SUNYA, 11/19

TORONTO (October 19, 2015) -Acclaimed Montreal companies Sinha Danse and Constantinople have collaborated to create Sunya, a dance and music spectacular that captures the essence of migration. This stunning work explores the universal quest for identity and is on a Canadian tour that sees it in Nanaimo (November 6) and Vancouver (November 10-14) and finally Toronto from Thursday, November 19 toSaturday, November 21 at 8pm nightly at Harbourfront Centre's Fleck Dance as part of NextSteps.
Sunya ("zero" or nothing in Sanskrit) refers to the emptiness from which enlightenment is possible; to the fundamental paradox of being, language and movement.

Four dancers, three musicians and a visual artist explore the universal quest for identity in a beautiful production guided by noted Indo-Armenian choreographer Roger Sinha (Artistic Director of Sinha Dance) and Iranian-born musical virtuoso Kiya Tabassian (Artistic Director of music troupe Constantinople) at the crossroads of each of their cultures, creating a dreamlike echo of a world reconciled.

Tabassian and Sinha are from different Eastern cultures and are both influenced by the North American and Quebec cultures they live in. For them, migration is not only when a group of people move from one place to another, but when diverse groups of people meet, co-mingle and find a common language, using the past to shape the present. Through the meeting of different cultures - including the North American culture Sinha and Tabassian adopted - something completely unique and positive emerges. This is what migration is about inSunya - where the clash of cultures creates something totally new.

Artistic Direction for Sunya is by Sinha Danse Artistic Director Roger Sinha and Constantinople Artistic Director Kiya Tabassian in collaboration with Jo Leslie. Sinha is the choreographer and musical conceptionis by Tabassian in collaboration with Constantinople. http://www.sinhadanse.com/16-our-work/Sunya-2013.html

Roger Sinha founded Sinha Danse in 1991. Throughout his artistic journey, he has created over 20 shows that have been showcased both in Canada and internationally. Using the universality of the body, Roger explores the cultural harmony, dissonance and tensions created by the collision of East and West. Beautifully expressive mudras and the rhythmically complex footwork of Indian dance combine with the full body movements of modern, ballet and the martial arts. Roger has participated in numerous commissions such as Tono with Toronto-based company Red Sky Performance, which he co-choreographed with Sandra Laronde and was presented in both the Beijing and the Vancouver Olympics and the Canadian Pavilion in Shanghai. He is also a writer & filmmaker and winner of the popular vote for his film Haters 'n Baiters: The culture collision for the Radio Canada International Roots competition at RCI.

Sinha Danse stems from a deep felt need of its founder, Roger Sinha, to reclaim his Indian heritage and to use this tradition to shape a modern expression of his reality. Sinha Danse's vocabulary merges contemporary dance, martial arts, theatre and Bharata Natyam, a dance from southern India. Stories are important in Sinha's work, stories from poets and writers and stories of his own are told with humour and simplicity, as spoken word or with interactive technology. Sinha Danse's mission is to continually break boundaries and explore new creative directions. By incorporating new media such as film, interactive technologies and sound, Sinha Danse wishes to produces interdisciplinary pieces where highly energetic dances are involved.http://www.sinhadanse.com/home.html

Kiya Tabassian was born in 1976, in Tehran, Iran, immigrating to Quebec in 1990. He has been trained in Persian music under Reza Ghasemi and Kayhan Kalhor. He studied musical composition at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal with Gilles Tremblay. Constantinople, the city where East meets West, inspired the founding of Constantinople by Kiya in 1998 with his brother Ziya Tabassian. This Montreal-based ensemble has earned an international reputation for its unique juxtaposition of early musical sources and the living traditions of the Middle East. Since 1998, Kiya has toured intensively numerous countries in Europe, Middle East and Mexico, with Constantinople or other ensembles, creating with Constantinople over 20 original programs and performing them at some of the most prestigious festivals and venues. As a composer, he has been commissioned by Radio Canada and Nouvel Ensemble Moderne among others. http://constantinople.ca/?lang=en

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