Archive for the 'dance' Category

Episode 13 - October 4-5, 2008

Published
by
Blair
on October 7, 2008
in Visual art, city, dance, film, music, new media, photography and theatre
. 1 Comment

12 hours. What a night! We started our journey at 6:30pm at City Hall and our heads didn’t hit the pillow until 6am the next morning …

There is so much to cover from this years Nuit Blanche in Toronto. So much in fact that it’s best if you watch the video! :) But here are some of the highlights that we saw on our travels:

Zone A:

  • Stereoscope, City Hall
    An amazing installation turning the windows of City Hall into a giant ping pong game and lighting canvas
  • Our interview with Mayor David Miller
  • Conversation #2, 900 Wellesley Street
    12,000 books laid together to create a beautiful sculpture. The different coloured spines even created moasic images wrapped around the sculpture.

Zone B:

  • r u part of the art?
    An interesting mobile installation - subscribe to a texting service and receive updates throughout the night with various things to do like sing the song from The Muppets (Menamena do do dee do do …). We didn’t see many other people doing it, but it was fun to randomly do stuff during the night.
  • Le Labo, Distillery
    A very calming video/sound installation (for the first while we were there) at Le Labo or Le Laboratoire d’art - a “francophone media and integrated arts lab offering opportunities in production, training & showings.”
  • Higgs Ocean, Distillery
    While they weren’t part of the ‘official’ Nuit Blanche schedule, this installation in one of the alleyways of the Distillery, was a highlight for us as it featured many elements from our youth - Lite Brite, a Big Bird lamp, and old films on video projectors! Unfortunately we couldn’t find any info on the group online - so if you guys see this posting, let us know where to find you!

Zone C:

  • Overflow, Liberty Village
    A smaller scale installation by Michel de Broin of a waterfall coming out the window of a 3 storey building and crashing into discarded furniture on the ground.
  • Imagine Peace, Liberty St. & Jefferson Ave.
    Yoko Ono continues to spread the message of peace with this installation. The public is given tags to write a wish on and the hang on the trees lining the street creating weeping willows of wishes, as it were.
  • I Promise It Will Always Be This Way, Lamport Stadium
    At 5am, watching mascots run wild to mid-90’s techno music was a lot of fun - and a great way to end the night.

We took tons of photos that night and we’ll be posting them in our Facebook Group as well as setting up a flickr home soon for you to view.

What were your highlights? What did you think of the 2008 Nuit Blanche?

Be sure to check out our friends over at Dear Toronto and their coverage of Nuit Blanche!

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Special Pre Toronto Nuit Blanche Edition

Published
by
Blair
on September 30, 2008
in TNIT Info, Visual art, city, dance, film, literature, music, photography and theatre
. 2 Comments

4 days left until at 6:52pm on Saturday October 4th, Toronto awakens for an all night contemporary art thing called Scotiabank Nuit Blanche. If you haven’t been yet … where have you been!? For the past two years, the popularity of this phenomenal free chaotic art frenzy has exploded - hundreds of thousands of Torontonians take to the street and experience art in Toronto like never before.

For those of you who have never been, Katherine and I have put together a little guide - 7 tips on how to survive Nuit Blanche and make the most of your night.

We are prepping for an all night vlogging thing and we want you to be a part of it. We’ll be heading from Zone B to A to C on our bikes. If you want to join us along the way and be a part of our evening, email us at info@nightintoronto.com and we’ll let you know where we are. You can also send us some tips if you know of a great installation we should feature on TNIT!

After we catch up on our sleep, we’ll be posting a vlog from each zone so be sure to sign up to our RSS feed to see the results! Oh, and we’ll also be teaming up with our friends at Dear Toronto to do some cross vlogging - should be a lot of fun.

Enjoy!

- Blair

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Episode 5 - July 3, 2008

Published
by
Blair
on July 4, 2008
in dance, opera and theatre
. 4 Comments

July always starts with a bang in Toronto due largely in part to the Toronto Fringe Festival - the annual tradition when thousands of people descend upon the Annex Neighbourhood and surrounding areas. Hundreds of artists vie for your attention with flyers, posters, costumes, PR stunts and more. And for only $10, you could see the next big hit to grace the stages of Toronto. The Drowsy Chaperone is probably the best and most quoted example of the little Fringe show that could - making its way from its humble beginnings here in Toronto to the bright lights of Broadway and beyond!

Both Katherine and I have a history with the Fringe. I used to tech for a couple of years at a few of the University of Toronto venues while Katherine has produced one of the hit Fringe shows a few years ago and is back at it again this year with The Three Magic Wishes, a Cow Over Moon Children’s Theatre Company production.
Day 2 of the Fringe and we hit up the Fringe text to say hi to some friends, grab a beer and see some great improvisation.

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What we talked about in this episode:

Photo taken of Future’s Bakery at Bloor and Brunswick by Blair Francey

Formats available:MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Flash Video (.flv)

Episode 4 - June 30, 2008 (Mini Edition)

Published
by
Blair
on July 4, 2008
in dance, opera and theatre
. 0 Comments

Once a year, the theatre, dance and opera community come together to celebrate their achievements over the past year at the Dora Mavor Moore Awards. Produced by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA), the Dora Awards have been celebrating excellence on Toronto’s stages for the past 29 years!

In episode 4, Katherine and Blair take you behind the scenes of this years award show from the VIP reception to the after party to talk to the nominees and winners.
It was a long day … but it was worth it. :)

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What we talked about in this episode:

Photo taken from the CN Tower by Blair Francey

Formats available:MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Flash Video (.flv)