The Kudelka-Taylor Project

A program of contemporary dance by James Kudelka, including the world premiere of a unique collaboration with countertenor Daniel Taylor.

“it is as it was” (world premiere)
Created by: James Kudelka
Performed by: Andrea Boardman, Bill Coleman, Andrew Giday, Laurence Lemieux and Daniel Taylor.
Music: Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater, performed by Daniel Taylor and period ensemble Theatre of Early Music.

Fifteen Heterosexual Duets (1991)
Created by: James Kudelka
Performed by: Anik Bissonnette, Andrea Boardman, Marc Boivin, Bill Coleman, Andrew Giday, Sasha Ivanochko, Sylvain Lafortune, Laurence Lemieux, Anne Plamondon, Victor Quijada, Mario Radacovsky.
Music: Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata

Soudain, l’hiver dernier (1987)
Created by: James Kudelka
Performed by: Victor Quijada, Sylvain Lafortune
Music: Gavin Bryars’ Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet.

Two works of German baroque music:
Dove Sei
from Handel’s opera Rodelinda (1724)
Performed by Daniel Taylor and Theatre of Early Music
Lamento sopra la morte di Ferdinando III
by Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (1623- 1680)
performed by the Theatre of Early Music

James Kudelka is internationally renowned for the quality and depth of his body of work. He has created over 70 ballets that feature in the repertories of companies as diverse as the Toronto Dance Theatre, the San Francisco Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, the American Ballet Theatre, Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, Les Ballet Jazz de Montréal and artists Margie Gillis and Peggy Baker. Learn more…

Daniel Taylor was recognized by Opera Canada as “Canada’s star countertenor.” He appears in opera, oratorio, symphonic works, recital and film with such companies as Metropolitan Opera of San Francisco and Rome, Monteverdi Choir, The Gabrieli Consort, the Dallas, St. Louis, Philadelphia and Toronto Symphonies and Vienna Konzerthaus. Daniel Taylor has made more than 50 recordings and has been awarded Artist of the Year at the Opus awards in 2000. He is the Artistic Director of the Montreal Early Music Festival.

Coleman Lemieux and Compagnie have brought their work to Peterborough through Peterborough New Dance many times over the last decade and are always very popular with Peterborough audiences. Laurence Lemieux, awarded the Dora Mavor moore award in 1998 and regarded as one of Canada’s finest dancers, has presented five of her works in Peterborough including Varenka, Varenka! and Les Paradis Perdus. Bill Coleman, recipient of the 2002 Jaqueline Lemieux Prize from the Canada Council, subject of the award winning 1997 film Heartland which was partly shot in Peterborough, has created over 50 works presented throughout the world and has danced with Dublin City Ballet, Toronto Dance Theatre and as a guest artist for the Martha Graham Dance Company. Learn more…

CLASSES AND TALKS

JAMES KUDELKA: SURVEYING THE PAST, GLANCING INTO THE FUTURE
a lecture by JAMES NEUFELD
November 30, 7:30pm
Peterborough Public Library
345 Aylmer St. N.
Admission is free.

Dance historian James Neufeld will speak about the work of James Kudelka, one of Canada’s greatest living choreographers and the former artistic director and now resident choreographer of the National Ballet of Canada. Kudelka’s newest work, “it is as it was”, will receive its world premiere at Showplace Performance Centre in Peterborough in January, 2006, as part of Peterborough New Dance’s 2005-2006 season.

James Neufeld has been a keen observer of Kudelka’s work over the past 15 years and is the author of Power to Rise: The Story of the National Ballet of Canada. His talk will focus on aspects of Mr. Kudelka’s work he has noticed cropping up in various ways since first seeing his work Pastorale in 1990. Some of these may provide a few guideposts in preparation for seeing his newest work.

James Neufeld teaches English at Trent University. In addition to Power to Rise he is the author of numerous reviews and articles about dance, published in Canadian and international journals. An entire program of James Kudelka’s contemporary ballet choreography will be presented on January 15, 2006 at 2pm at Showplace Performance Centre. More information about this event and others in the Peterborough New Dance season can be had by calling 745-1788.

CASTRATI, COUNTERTENORS, AND THE HIGH MALE VOICE:
a lecture by TIMOTHY McGEE

Wed, January 11, 2006, 7:30pm
Peterborough Public Library, 345 Aylmer St. N., Peterborough
Free admission

Although male singers with high voices would seem to be unusual, they have been around for a very long time. Their principal source of employment has always been church choirs, but for several centuries a number of important opera roles were written for male altos and sopranos. The discussion will include the different types of high voices, their history, and the music they sing.

Farinelli by Corrado Giaquinto c. 1750

Professor McGee’s talk is being held in conjunction with the appearance in Peterborough of Canada’s star countertenor, Daniel Taylor, who will be performing with his early music ensemble on a program of dance and music at Showplace Performance Centre on January 15. Tickets for this event will be available at Prof. McGee’s talk or by calling the Showplace Box Office at 742-7469.

Biography
A professor for 30 years at the University of Toronto, and currently an Ashley Fellow at Trent University, Prof. McGee has long been Canada’s leading specialist in the music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and a noted authority on the music of Canada. Author or editor of over ten books and innumerable articles on a wide range of subjects relating to early music, Prof. McGee’s texts are standard works of reference for early music scholars and performers throughout the world. A noted performer as well as scholar, Prof. McGee was the founding director of the Toronto Consort, Canada’s first ensemble dedicated to Medieval and Renaissance music, which he directed from 1972 to 1979.

BALLET with MARIO RADACOVSKY
Take a ballet class with one of Canada’s greatest classical dancers.

SAT, JAN. 14
10 am – 11:30 am
THE ACADEMY OF DANCE
57 Hunter St. East
Cost: $10. Please register in advance. Call 745-1788

Radacovsky’s international career has included work with many of the greatest classical choreographers across Europe and now in Canada, where he has been a star with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and has partnered with some of the country’s greatest dancers, including Evelyn Hart.

Bio
Mario was born in Czechoslovakia and studied at the Dance Academy in Bratislava for eight years. In 1989 he became principal dancer of the Slovak National Theatre and also worked closely with the National Theatre of Prague. In 1992 Radacovsky joined the Netherlands Dance Theater where he stayed until 1999. He enjoyed featured roles in works by Jiri Kylian, Paul Lightfoot, Hans van Manen, William Forsythe, Nacho Duato, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin, Itzak Galili. In 1999 Radacovsky left Holland to join Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal as a principal dancer where he continued to dance for the next five years. He is a regular feature at Le Gala des Etoiles in Montreal. In 2005, Mario danced with Anik Bissonnette at opera Roma, with Evelyn Hart with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and with ProArte. Mario has been choreographing since 2002, and his work has been presented in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and in Europe.

POSTURAL SOMATIC AWARENESS WORKSHOP
with BetsyAnn Baron, Structural Massage Therapist

SAT, JAN. 14 3 pm
5 PRANAS YOGA STUDIO
414 George St. N., 2nd floor
$10. No registration necessary

This 90 minute workshop is built around discovering posture: the way in which physical parts relate to each other. The goal of this class is to enhance your ease of balance, movement and breath by increasing your postural somatic awareness through breath work, stretching and the all important 5-point somatic awareness exercise.

Based in Montreal, BetsyAnn Baron is in Peterborough as massage therapist for the visiting dance company, Coleman Lemieux & Co, performing at Showplace on Jan. 15. She is a former ballet dancer and is a highly regarded massage therapist and teacher in the Montreal dance community.

Bio
BetsyAnn Baron has been a massage therapist since 1991. Her early studies began with Kinetic Swedish Massage and Masso-Kinesitherapy at Kine-Concept Institute. She quickly moved on to build her knowledge of Cranio-sacral Therapy and Visceral Manipulation through the Upledger Institute. In 2001 she began studying CORE Myofascial Therapy with George Kousaleos, culminating in her teaching certification of this technique. During this time, BetsyAnn also studied with Stuart Taws in Soft Tissue Release and with Aaron Mattes in Active Isolated Stretch, adding therapeutic stretching techniques to her repertoire. In 2002 she was accepted to study CORE Structural Integration and now devotes her time to treating people with the techniques and philosophies that encompass structural integration.

Before turning to massage therapy, BetsyAnn had a long and exciting career as solo dancer with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal. At the close of this physically demanding career, BetsyAnn applied her interest in movement and pursued a more bio-mechanical understanding of how the body works. Her years as a dancer and the injuries that were part of that career gave her the desire to help people overcome physical discomfort.