Commissions & Creative Partnerships

Commissioning of new works or Creative Partnerships from both established and emerging choreographers. Works are presented at DanceWeekend in January. To date choreographers commissioned include Nenagh Leigh, Meagan O'Shea, Terrill Maguire, Lucy Rupert, Vivine Scarlett,Jenn Goodwin, Sasha Ivanochko, Marlee Cargill, Malgorzata Nowacka, Nova Bhattacharya & Louis Laberge Cote,Sashar Zarif & Holly Small, William Yong, Lacey Smith, Amy Hampton & Keiko Ninomiya, Jessica Westermann, Lucy Rupert and Barbara Pallamino, Pamela Rasbach and Robert Stephen, Amy Hampton & Keiko Ninomiya and Apolonia Velasquez & Ofilio Portillo.
Image: Amy Hampton & Zhenya Cerneacov Oh, No! by Walter Lai.

2011 Recipients

From 20 applications received, the Dance Ontario Selection Committee (Peter Ryan, Jennifer Watkins and Yasmina Ramzy) has commissioned artists Jasmyn Fyffe and Keiko Kitano to bring two exciting world premieres to the Fleck Dance Theatre stage in January as part of Dance Ontario DanceWeekend 2012.

Up and coming choreographer Jasmyn Fyffe will present Pulse, a physical work for eight dancers that explores the complex social behaviour associated with human touch. A roller coaster ride through the emotional landscape of conflicting needs and desires, Pulse features an original score by composer Robert Kingsbury who is also a dancer with Dancetheatre David Earle and is the recipient of this year's Premier's Award for New or Emerging Individual Talent.

Solo artist Keiko Kitano's Milky Way tells the story of a lonely soldier's wife, waiting and hoping for her husband's safe return. The story is adapted from a Japanese myth about two lovers who can only meet once a year, over the Milky Way. Avant-garde saxophonist Daniel Schnee will perform live with Kitano, supported by a dark and mysterious soundscape by Rick Thomson.

Jasmyn Fyffe is a dancer, choreographer and teacher and the Artistic Director of Jasmyn Fyffe Dance, which she founded in 2007. She recently produced a concert as part of DanceWorks CoWorks and co-produced a sold out show with Vivine Scarlett of Dance Immersion and has presented her work in many festivals across the province. Fyffe has been commissioned to create works for a number of organizations and, as an independent dancer, was recently a featured dancer with Grammy Award winning artist Nelly Furtado, in her music video "Night is Young " and in Vision Entertainment"s program of "The Seven Deadly Sins". She studied at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Ballet Creole, and York University where she graduated with an Honours Double Major in Dance and Kinesiology.

Keiko Kitano, a contemporary dance artist, had studied and worked in Tokyo prior to immigrating to Toronto in 2003. From 1991-2003, she was a principal dancer with the dance company Miyako Katoh Dance Space in Tokyo. She worked with many artists in Tokyo including composer Maki Ishii dancing with the Butoh group Dairakudakan for his new Opera under Katoh's choreography. She has also collaborated with many Toronto artists and performed in works by Holly Small, Sashar Zarif, Susan Cash, Maxine Heppner, Viv Moore, Emily Cheung, Dave Wilson and Terrill Maguire. As a solo dance artist, Keiko has choreographed and performed internationally, and taught technique and improvisation classes in Germany, Russia and Singapore since 1996. In 2001, she co-founded The Tokyo Dance Collective along with multimedia artist Rick Thomson and composer Hiroshi Tamura and created new pieces for dance, media and music. Keiko holds a Master's degree in Dance and shares her passion for the discipline as a part-time faculty member at York University.
Images: Keiko Kitano & Jasmyn Fyffe