Guest Artists Arrive!

Propeller is now in rehearsal for our end of year show in May and June at CentrepointeTheatre. Some of us are rehearsing and creating at Arts Court and it’s our first time in a new space! The space is pretty big, it has mirrors, sprung wooden floors and it is very spacious.  Arts Court is also the home of the Ottawa Dance Directive (ODD), and other arts organizations.

For this year’s end of year show, Propeller will present four pieces. The company is creating two new pieces and then we have the community classes on Monday and Wednesday, so it’ll be really fun. The first company piece is being created and choreographed by Renata. The dancers are Rob, Liz, me, and two guest artists—Kirsten Andersen from Ottawa and Melissa Addison-Webster from Toronto.

Kirsten teaches at Dance Educators and is the dance outreach coordinator for the National Arts Centre (more details in the next blog!) And Melissa traveled by train from Toronto to Ottawa to collaborate with us on this piece. (She is coming for a series of one-week intensives every month.) I was really happy that Melissa was coming into town; we met her in Kingston at the AbleArtists Forum and we really connected.

Monday, after our rehearsal, I had the pleasure to talk to Melissa about working Propeller. She said, “I was really excited to work with all of you, and the creative process here, is un-hierarchical and it honours all of our opinions.” She also said that traveling from Toronto to Ottawa was exiting because she was getting out of the city and collaborating with all of us. We are so happy to have her here. We just want to say “Welcome Melissa.”