Update July 11, 2017:
From the Georgia Straight:
Edge Four serves up sequins, Bowie, and a haunting look at life on the street
Update July 6, 2017:
From the Vancouver Sun:
Five reasons to check out this year's Dancing on the Edge Festival
From The Province:
Dancing on the Edge continues to step up for creatives
Original June 20, 2017 post:
Caulfield School of Dance Principal, Cori Caulfield, is in today’s Vancouver Sun. Arts reporter Dana Gee’s highlights three of the Lower Mainland companies in the upcoming Dancing on the Edge international contemporary dance festival.
Caulfield ‘s piece “The Poets” is part of the mixed program EDGE 4 with Olivia C. Davies and Ralph Escamillan:
July 10 at 7pm
and
July 12 at 9pm at the Firehall Arts Centre, 280 E Cordova St, Vancouver, BC V6A 1L3
Gee quotes Jennifer Mascall of Mascall Dance saying that the international festival “makes a whole colloquium for the dance community and the audiences that go around the dance community…. Also everyone can afford these performances so it’s really a fantastic place to go to.”
Gee notes that Caulfield “sees the festival as a key part in the learning process for her young performers,” and quotes her saying, “I am not so interested in exposure for the company but I am interested in exposure for my kids…. I’m hoping my kids will get excited about seeing contemporary dance and not just doing it.”
“The Poets” will also include a solo for “tap sensation” (the Georgia Straight) Hailley Caulfield Postle, to an original remix of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” by local composer and long-time coriograph theatre collaborator, Mark Taylor; and a solo for Caulfield to music and poetry by Leonard Cohen.
For tickets and more information on the festival see:
Carter Hayes, Holly Reyburn, and Kaia Goddard in “Grace Too” by Cori Caulfield photo: Aldo Monteforte
Coriograph Theatre Artistic Director and Caulfield School of Dance Principal, Cori Caulfield photo: Steven Lemay
Choreographer/performer Cori Caulfield who has toured with her own acclaimed solo dance/theatre works and performed in the works of international luminaries such as Crystal Pite and Kidd Pivot, is pleased to be part of the 2017 Dancing in the Edge Festival. According to the Georgia Straight: “Local names amid the programming include Serge Bennathan, Jennifer Mascall, Julianne Chapple, Daelik, Naomi Brand, and Deanna Peters. Two other big Vancouver names make long-awaited returns to the fest, as well: Cori Caulfield and Chick Snipper.”
Caulfield was commissioned to create four pieces for 5678 Dance in Kingston, Ontario in late October 2016. She created a piece to The Tragically Hip’s “Grace Too” on 11 students there, and then made a second version of the piece with 19 of her own students.
Rob Baker, lead guitarist of The Tragically Hip with Cori Caulfield during rehearsal for “Grace Too” photo: Katherine Mazurok 5678 Dance
In Kingston, Rob Baker, lead guitarist of the Tragically Hip came to watch a rehearsal. “I kept checking in to see if Rob was ready to leave, but he kept saying he was enjoying watching. He sat there attentively, smiling as we worked. Finally, I told him I’d gone into the dinner break and then he was so gracious letting us take his picture… I told him he had ‘a very high tolerance for dance’ and he said his parents were figure skaters and he loved watching. He is amazing – not only an incredible literal rock star, but also so kind and humble.” Rob Baker also attended one of the local competitions in which the Kingston cast performed the piece.
“The piece was very well received in Ontario and here locally,” said Caulfield, “so I applied to have the kids do it at the Edge even though it was a long shot because the festival only programs professionals. I am so excited to be able to offer the kids the chance for professional performing experience. It’s so hard for young dancers to build up their resumes and get any opportunity to perform in a professional context.”
Caulfield has long been inspired by the music and poetry of The Tragically Hip. With lyrics including: “…The secret rules of engagement / Are hard to endorse / When the appearance of conflict / Meets the appearance of force… Armed with skill and its frustration / And grace, too,” Tragically Hip songwriter Gord Downie said “Grace Too” is in part a critique of the language of the United Nations and the complicated processes that lead to devastating delays or justify, after-the-fact, the inane and unending process of people killing people.
David Bowie’s hook-filled music and vocal range and quality are so incredible that the depth of his poetic writing can be overlooked. “Let’s dance for fear/ your grace should fall/ Let’s dance for fear tonight…”
Leonard Cohen weaves images from our collective psyche into songs that have transported generations of listeners: “Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water/ And he spent a long time watching from his lonely wooden tower/ And when he knew for certain only drowning men could see him/ He said all men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them/ But he himself was broken, long before the sky would open/ Forsaken, almost human, he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone…” Now that is poetry!