CIRCUS SESSIONS 2016 Set for Harbourfront Centre

Circus arts and contemporary dance blend together in the female-centric performance created for CIRCUS SESSIONS 2016, the culmination of a week-long creative laboratory featuring Canadian and American circus artists presented by Toronto's Femmes du Feu. Two daring performances will be presented on Friday, May 20 and Saturday, May 21 at 8pm at Harbourfront Centre Theatre as part of the Harbourfront's NextSteps dance series.

Under the guidance of the esteemed mentor Adèll Nodé-Langlois from Paris, France, 11 professional circus artists (ten women and one man) will collaborate to create original new acts for CIRCUS SESSIONS 2016 featuring trapeze, aerial silks, juggling, stilts, clown and dance. Nodé-Langlois will also present an original work and both evenings will be followed by a discussion between the artists and the audience.

The artists involved with CIRCUS SESSIONS 2016 are: Erin Ball (Kingston, ON), Marie-Noel Bety (Montreal, QC), Dana Dugan (Chicago, IL), Rachelle Ellie (Ottawa, ON), Vanessa Furlong (Halifax, NS), Jamie Holmes (Toronto, ON), Katelyn McCulloh (Toronto, ON), Nicki Miller (Brooklyn, NY), Yury Ruzhyev (Toronto, ON), Leah Samelson (Quebec, QC) and Chriselle Tidrick (Brooklyn, NY).

On Saturday, May 21 from 10am to 4pm, Femmes du Feu, will host Circus Talk, a full day of free lectures and discussions about contemporary circus featuring speakers from the circus arts community. Click here for the full schedule.

Femmes du Feu (women of the fire) develop, explore and promote aerial dance that blurs the line between circus and contemporary dance with the use of props and apparatuses such as silks, low-flying trapezes, hoops, bungee, harnesses, window frames, chairs...anything that can be suspended and performed with! Dance artists Holly Treddenick and Lindsay Goodtimes founded Femmes du Feu in 2003, and were joined by Sabrina Pringle in 2006.