Armour
World Premiere
By Christy Stoeten; performed by Madie Brown, Sharazade Vahid, Simon Mazziotti; designed by Sonia Gemmiti
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 24-SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 25, 2021
7:00pm
LOCATION: Heritage Pavillion Stage on Armour Hill (300 Hunter St E, Peterborough)
PROGRAM LENGTH: 20 minutes
Washrooms will not be available on site. Please plan accordingly.
RAIN OR SHINE! ATTENTION TICKETHOLDERS:
Tonight’s performance of Armour will go on in spite of the rain. Please dress warmly and bring an umbrella. We will post here if conditions become hazardous and we need to cancel.
Painting by Sonia Gemmiti
When I was in high school, there really wasn’t much to do on a Saturday night in Peterborough. The options included: the Mustang Drive-In, midnight trips to the new 24 hour Sobey’s or a drive up Armour Hill. There was always something exciting about driving up the winding road to get to the top of Armour Hill, like we didn’t know what to expect when we arrived at the top…
This piece captures the essence of what it’s like to be young in Peterborough. Or at least what it sometimes felt like for us. With stories from my teenage experience and those of my collaborators, we’ve created a work that feels like a series of snapshots from another time. The piece doesn’t take place during a specific era, but transports the audience to a time and place that feels: nostalgic, bizarre and at times sentimental. Think The Twilight Zone meets Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
As I continue to explore and develop my choreographic voice, I find myself interested in and drawn to themes that are grounded in daily life experiences. I investigate humour in the everyday, and seek beauty in the mundane. My process is informed by my primary training in dance performance and improvisation, and is strongly influenced by my love of other contemporary art forms, particularly music and film.
The work that I’ve created to date is deeply routed in rhythm, and as a performer, interpreter and choreographer my ability to use timing is one of my strengths. Along with being a contemporary dance artist, I’m also an avid tap dancer and teacher. I’m fond of using pop music from the 1920’s-now as a soundtrack to my choreography. When an audience recognizes a song, they have an immediate connection to the environment that’s being created on stage and therefore they are able to relate to the work, and feel apart of it – this is intriguing to me.
I am currently curious about task based work and choreographic scores. Task based work, provides clarity for the performer to be engaged in a very specific and often impossible chore, this clarity allows the audience to capture an understanding that something is occurring on stage in real time.” –Christy Stoeten
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As a child and teen she performed and competed throughout North America primarily in jazz, tap and highland dancing.
In 2001, Christy moved to Toronto to attend the University of Toronto. While at U of T her eyes were opened to the world of contemporary dance, eventually leading her to The School of Toronto Dance Theatre where she graduated from their three year Professional Training Program.
As a contemporary dancer, Christy has performed the work of: James Kudelka, Allison Cummings, D.A. Hoskins, Meryem Alaoui (Soft Matter), Company Blonde Dance Projects, Jennifer Dallas (Kemi Projects), Meagan O’Shea, Andrea Spaziani, Simon Renaud, Brittany Duggan, Catherine Murray, Amelia Ehrhardt, Eroca Nicols (Lady Janitor) and many others.
Christy’s choreography has been presented by Luminato, Summerworks, The Toronto Dance Community Love-In, Project: Humanity, Public Energy, ArtSpin, Come Up to My Room and Summer Stage Portugal in Lisbon. Her work explores themes that are grounded in daily life experiences, investigating humour in the everyday, and beauty in the mundane.
Christy has worked extensively as a dance educator in Toronto. She’s a faculty member of The Swansea School of Dance. She has also had the pleasure of teaching for: The National Ballet of Canada YOUdance, Durham District School Board, Luminato, The University of Toronto and The City of Toronto. She is an associate jazz and tap teacher with the Performing Arts Educators of Canada.
Sonia Gemmiti is a Montreal-based multimedia artist. Her installation work has been presented at Come Up to My Room 2019, Myseum of Toronto and dance: made in canada/fait au canada. Sonia was the recipient of the 2019 Cayle Chernin Award for Media Arts. In 2020, she made her directorial debut with Outside My Window.
In addition to her work as an independent artist, she has had a distinguished decade-long career as a Set Designer in feature films and television. Her credits include Robocop (2014) Maps to the Stars (2014) and Suicide Squad (2016), and she was a member of the design team behind Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak (2015), nominated for the Art Directors Guild Excellence in Design Award (2016)
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Click here to browse the rest of the Pivot 2.0 performances
Pivot 2.0 is presented with support from the Government of Ontario’s Reconnect Festival and Event Program, Department of Canadian Heritage’s Support for Workers in Live Arts and Music Sectors Fund, and the Peterborough Downtown BIA
