Beside Each Other
Concept - Andrea Nann
Created/Performed by - Brendan Wyatt and Andrea Nann
Facilitation/Dramaturgy - Guy Cools
Music/Poetry - Gord Downie
Visual Designs - Elysha Poirier
Lighting/Production Designs - David Duclos
A Dreamwalker Dance and Young Centre for the Performing Arts co-production
Beside Each Other is a contemporary dance performance that captures the intimacy of this work with a series of short duets. Performed by Andrea Nann and Brendan Wyatt, Beside Each Other explores the private landscape between two lovers as they tread through deep intimacy, heartache, restlessness, separation and transcendence into a harmonious love. Beautifully articulate and complex, paired on the same landscape, one near the other, their balance creates wholeness.
"Gorgeous dancers... stunning partnering." - Paula Citron, Globe and Mail
"[Wyatt and Nann] capture the honesty and feeling of Downies words." - Janet Smith, Georgia Straight
"Each dancer tenderly accepts the others fragility." - Jodi Lundgren, Plank Magazine
"The dancers [speak] poetry to each other, sharing Gords words back and forth like candy." - Katie Munnik
"A work of delicate humour, profound insight and extraordinary physical skill." - Shirley Goldberg
Beside Each Other: Collaborator Bios
Andrea Nann, co-creator/performer
Andrea Nann is a Toronto based contemporary dance artist and artistic director of Dreamwalker Dance Company. She is a graduate of York University's Fine Arts Program and is currently Visiting Artist at River Run Centre (Guelph), The Grand Theatre (Kingston), Burlington Centre for the Arts and Brock Centre for the Arts (St. Catharines). As creator of The Whole Shebang, a multi-arts performance platform, Andrea has developed a unique collaborative interdisciplinary engagement process, the Shebang Process, that is being shared with artists across Southern Ontario. Andrea has created over 30 works for the stage, film and various outdoor sites. As an interpreter, Andrea was a member of Danny Grossman Dance Company from 1988-2003 where she created performed and taught major roles from the works of Mr. Grossman and guest choreographers. Andrea was a Resident Artist at Soulpepper Theatre (Toronto) from 2008-2014, and she is currently a guest artist with Peggy Baker Dance Projects, Astrid Dance, Volcano Theatre and Modern Times Stage Company.
Brendan Wyatt, Co-creator/Performer
Award winning Canadian dance artist and performer Brendan Wyatt was born in rural Saskatchewan. He started dancing at the age of four and later spent nine years training at Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet and The School of Toronto Dance Theatre. In 1997, he co-created and instructed an interactive dance program for the postural and spatial awareness of visually impaired students with the CNIB in Victoria, BC. A prolific performer Wyatt has created and performed in a multitude of works by several companies and choreographers nationally and internationally. Wyatt has been a core collaborator for The Chimera Project (since 2004) ProArte Danza (2006) Dreamwalker Dance Company (2008) BoucharDanse (2009) and blackandblue dance projects (2010) In 2008 he was a founding member of The Dietrich Group with Director/Choreographer DA Hoskins and dance artist Danielle Baskerville. In 2010 he was the recipient of a Dora Mavor Moore Award for his performance in ‘this time’ an aldheid production by Heidi Strauss. In 2011 Wyatt was nominated for outstanding choreography with Andrea Nann for their full length evening ‘Beside Each Other.’
Guy Cools, Dramaturge
After having trained as a dramaturge, Guy Cools became involved with the new developments in dance in Flanders from the 1980s, initially as a dance critic and from 1990 onwards as theatre and dance director of Arts Centre Vooruit in Ghent. As vice-president of the Dance Council, he contributed to the cultural policy towrads dance of the Flemish Community. He curated fance events in Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Venice and Montréal. In 2002, he left Vooruit to dedicate himself full-time to production dramaturgy with amongst others, Koen Augustijen - Lisi Estera (Les Ballets C. de la B.), Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (B), Anabel Schellekens (B), Lia Haraki (Cyprus), Danièle Desnoyers (Montréal), Akram Khan (London), Christopher House (Toronto Dance Theatre). With Lin Snelling and Ginelle Chargon, he developed a series of workshops to support the creative process of artists, choreographers in particular. He regularly gives lectures and publishes in Belgium, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Holland and Greece.
Gord Downie, Poet/Musician/Songwriter
Gordon Downie is the lead singer, songwriter and lyricist of the Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip. He has released three solo albums, Coke Machine Glow in 2001, Battle of the Nudes in 2003 and The Grand Bounce in 2010, and published a book of poetry, Coke Machine Glow.
Elysha Poirier, Visual Designs/Performer
Elysha Poirier is a visual artist and designer working in various forms of performance, theatre and installation. Her methods in painting and design have been adapted to video for live interaction and scenography. She has performed with a diversity of artists stemming from dance, experimental music, film and theatre such as Crows Theatre (Seeds), Kitchen Band Productions (Boblo Island), Andrea Nann (The Whole Shebang), Michael Montanaro & Sha Xin Wei (Topological Media Lab), Nick DePencier (Mercury Films) and Evalyn Parry (Outspoke Productions).
Elysha’s work has been described as playfully organic, and embraces strong relationships to sound and movement. She's recently conducted research in modern dance and technology as technology strategist for Zata Omm Dance Projects. She is also a researching artist at Concordia University at the Topological Media Lab working with students, faculty and international artists focused on movement, experimental philosophy and architecture. Elysha has taught various workshops on interdisciplinary arts and runs her own freelance business Peartree Design, which strives to work on unique projects within the arts community. www.elyshapoirier.com
David Duclos, Lighting/Production Design
David is a lighting and set designer, a painter, a woodworker and a sculptor. David was the set designer for Peter Chin's Transmission of the Invisible, a dance with multi-media elements which premiered at Harbourfront in 2008 and subsequently toured Western Canada, was presented at the Canada Dance Festival in Ottawa, and then toured to Cambodia and Singapore. David has worked recently with bluemonth inc., designed the lights and set for the site-specific theatre collective's Dance Marathon, which premiered at Harbourfront in 2009 and has toured to Cork, Ireland, and to Vancouver, BC, where it was presented as part of the Cultural Olympiad. In the past, David has worked with experimental theatre companies like Tononto's emergency exit and DNA Theatre. From 1994 to 2004, David was the Artistic Director of the Theatre Centre in Toronto.
Performing in the Baby Grand, within the Grand Theatre
