Intervening "A Sudden Beginning"
allie higgins, Lauren Runions, Denise Solleza, Yui Ugai and Shelby Wright
MOCA Toronto, February 5, 2020
Intervening A Sudden Beginning marked the opening of MOCA’s 2020 winter exhibitions on February 5, 2020 and took place within and alongside Carlos Bunga’s large-scale cardboard installation, Occupy. Through a succession of slow and deliberate movements carried out by five dancers, this performance positions Bunga’s installation as a passageway and transitional space, softening the relationship between body and materiality. This piece is choreographed by Lauren Runions of I/O Movement.
About the Performers:
Lauren Runions is a Toronto-based contemporary dance artist, choreographer and founder of I/O Movement, a contemporary dance project that considers the flexibility of place and invites movement into daily life. Runions has participated in multiple self-directed and facilitated residencies including Open Space: CreativAction, The Collective Practice Project, Banff Centre: Collective Composition Lab, Dancemakers: Plug & Play, The Roundtable Residency, Connection Dance Works and ANDA. As community development increasingly drives her practice, she has hosted public workshops including Movement at the Mall (Art Starts/Daniel Rotzstain), Dancing + Drawing (I/O Movement) and Field Guide for Performance in Public Space (Maximum City).
allie higgins, originally from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, is a Toronto-based contemporary dance artist and longtime collaborator with Lauren Runions and I/O Movement. She has appeared in such works as Last Song for PS: we are all here, Shell Power for Split Bill, and in various works by New Blue Dance. higgins has also presented her own work for I/O Movement’s This is Our Place residency and Art in the Open (PEI).
Denise Solleza (they/them) is a Toronto-based Filipinx-Canadian dance artist. Graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from York University in 2013, they have worked with such artists as Valerie Calam, Brandy Leary/Anandam Dancetheatre, Hanna Kiel, Roshanak Jaberi/Jaberi Dance Theatre and Tracey Norman. Solleza is also the co-founder of contemporary dance collective Half Second Echo.
Yui Ugai was born in Hiroshima, Japan, and began her training at the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) and Theatre Dance in Hiroshima and Takarazuka. In 2008, Ugai was awarded a prize for excellence in dance by Dance Dance Dance magazine, and has since performed at Nuit Blanche, Luminato Festival, Fringe Festival, Heliconian Club, WE DAY, Dance Ontario Dance Weekend and Dance Matters. She has performed with Ballet Creole, Kashe Dance, Kaeja d’Dance, The Little Pear Garden Dance Company, Parahumans and Anima Inc (Mexico/Peru). She produced Dance Kotoen in 2011, a dance event sponsored by Nishinomiya city to support youth dance artists and community.
Shelby Wright is a Toronto-based dance artist and choreographer who has performed professionally in New York, Toronto, Montréal, Halifax, Winnipeg and Vancouver. Since 2015, Wright has worked with Toronto artist Katie Lyle on a collaborative performance practice combining their artistic backgrounds in dance, film and visual art. Wright also works as co-artistic director of the Toronto Dance Community Love-In.
Video by Lulu Wei. Editing by Lester Lubuguin.
