It’s comparable to seeing your favourite rock band play The Marquee Club, or the National Ballet stepping out on a small stage, said Paul Caskey.
“It’s up close and personal,” said the artistic director of Live Art Dance about being able to bring Company Marie Chouinard to the Sir James Dunn Theatre in September. “It’s such a rare opportunity to see a company of that scale in a 200 seat venue.”
The Montreal-based choreographer — who will present an erotically charged piece called Orphée Et Eurydice — is among the seven visiting performers announced for its 2008-09 season.
Among the other shows Caskey announced yesterday are appearances by Halifax-based Mocean Dance, Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, and a co-production with Ballet Jörgen Canada.
Caskey said his goal for the upcoming season was to bring some of the best dance to the stage, but to also provide a range of content.
“It terms of the diversity we are presenting, each show has the potential to be somebody’s favourite,” he said.
“I wanted to take the programming into directions we hadn’t explored that vigorously yet. So, with Ballet Jörgen, to my recognition this would be the first time a ballet company will be presented by Live Art.
Yesterday’s announcement came on the same day that Live Art Theatre got ready to wrap up its silver anniversary with a solo performance by choreographer Tedd Robinson.
“It offers us the freedom in the sense that we have arrived at a certain place,” Caskey said about being around for a quarter century. “If we didn’t have 26 years of history, of building audience, these artists — like Chouinard — would not come and give us three nights.
“Halifax is certainly on the national dance map.”
