2 weeks Ago By Ben Waldman
This weekend, a genre-defying local dance organization is kicking off celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of taking its first collective breath. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * This weekend, a genre-defying local dance organization is kicking off celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of taking its first collective breath. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? This weekend, a genre-defying local dance organization is kicking off celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of taking its first collective breath.
On Sunday, supporters and alumni of the Young Lungs Dance Exchange will gather at Kilter Brewing Co. (450 Rue Deschambault) to launch a commemorative 172-page publication, host a collage-making party and reveal the lineup of featured artists slated for the collective’s anniversary in June. Co-founded in 2004 by Natasha Torres-Garner, Jennifer Essex, Johanna Riley and Freya Björg Olafson, Young Lungs “represented a vital act to take control of my life as an artist, to feel a sense of agency as a dancer,” Riley writes in an introductory paragraph.
SUPPLIED Young Lungs will celebrate its 20th anniversary this Sunday with a DJ and collage-making. “Young Lungs was us coming together to combine our energies and talents, and this made taking that leap into the world of artistic creation and self-production so much easier with the support of our peers.” In the intervening decades, the dance exchange has served as a creative incubator for dozens of emerging artists and as a venue for cross-disciplinary discussion and collaboration, says executive director Alex Elliott.
Elliot was a dancer and choreographer who had formative experiences with Young Lungs before taking on a leadership role. At the time of the exchange’s founding, Elliott says organizers recognized a shift in the local dance landscape. “It was really evident to them that as they started to come out through dance training programs that they would actually need to generate their own choreography, their own performances.
They realized they were stronger together. Rather than being one artistic voice within a group of dancers, there were so many artistic voices collaborating at once,” says Elliott. At Sunday’s free event, the organization’s past and present gather to toast its future, with Kilusan (Maribeth Tabinera) DJing from 7 to 9 p.
m. and a collage-making workshop led by Sarah Struthers, an emerging theatre artist. Elliott says the organization’s 20th season will build its reputation for performance development and artist training.
In June, Young Lungs will present its first performance festival, which will feature upwards of 20 performers taking the stage at the Centre culturel franco-manitobain from June 26 to 29. “I knew I wanted to find a space that would be conducive to all types of performance. Every day you’ll see something completely different,” says Elliott.
[email protected] Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the .
Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the while earning his degree at Ryerson University’s (now Toronto Metropolitan University’s) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. . Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the ‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism.
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Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support. Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the .
Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the while earning his degree at Ryerson University’s (now Toronto Metropolitan University’s) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. . Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the ‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism.
Read more about , and . Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider .
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support. Advertisement.
