Zata Omm's vox:lumen Harbourfront Centre's World Stage 2015
Zata Omm's vox:lumen - A contemporary dance production powered by audiences, dancers and renewable energy.
Produced with Harbourfront Centre's World Stage and in association with York University The School of Arts, Media, Performance and Design and Aesthetec Studio.
World Premiere:
4th to 7th March 2015 8 pm
Harbourfront Centre Theatre Previously Enwave Theatre,
231 Queens Quay West,
Toronto, Canada.
Zata Omm Energy Fair in the theatre lobby and outside Harbourfront Centre Theatre: 4th to 7th March 2015
http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/worldstage/voxlumen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?vO39w9XdQMkc
http://www.ontario-sea.org/Page.asp?PageID122&ContentID4491
Conceived, choreographed and directed by William Yong.
Dancers: Michael Caldwell, Irvin Chow, Daniel McArthur, Brendan Wyatt and William Yong.
Music Composer: Andrea Rocca
Set designer and technology consultant: Ian Garrett
Workshops technical director and technical consultant: James McKernan with assistants Jonnathan Leong-Sem and Adam Brewer.
Technology designer, props designer and research partner: Mark Argo Aesthetec Studio with associate designer Phil So
Lighting designer: Simon Rossiter
Director of strategy and development: Randy S'ad
Production technical director and stage manager: Kirsten Labonte
Dance and technology research strategist and video designer: Elysha Poirier
Creative process outside eye: Andrea Nann
Zata Omm company manager: Samantha Mehra
Energy Fair programme consultants: Ian Garrett, Stephen Trigg and John Wilson.
Documentary film maker: Timothy Garrett
Production assistant for documentary film: Hayley Eidelman
Additional guest artists in creative processes: Benjamin Landsberg, Nicholas Melymuk, Anastasia Shivrina, Anisa Tejpar, Mateo Galindo Torres and Naishi Wang.
Actress on film: Kristy Kennedy
Voices in music: Zoe Hunter Narration, Antonia Reiner Vocals and Spoken Word, Francesca Machiavelli, Darren Pangbourne, Arianna Robertson, Lorenzo Robertson, Niccolo' Robertson, John Toomey, William Yong.
Musicians for music recording: Guy Cooper Drums, Andrea Rocca Synthesizers, Electronics, Guitar, Bass, Percussion.
The light as a lure. The light as our voice.
Choreographer William Yong proposes a future in which human labour produces energy and the pleasure of movement works to integrate technology into the social sphere. Thanks to a multi-year creative partnership with ground-breaking researchers at York University and interactive designers Aesthetec Studio, Zata Omm is undertaking a formal experiment of the most absolute practicality: What does a show that is powered by sustainability look like?
Lighting itself with energy created by the dancers, the audience and renewable sources, vox:lumen imagines a situation in which the necessity of illumination structures every human interaction. The performance confronts the audience with the most elemental metaphor for understanding, as dance becomes the interplay of darkness and light the light we make ourselves.
A special Energy Fair will be set up onsite outside the theatre to educate and harvest energy for the production of vox:lumen. Zata Omm has partnered with renewable energy sectors to demonstrate technology to convert solar, wind and kinetic energy into stored electricity for performances. The energy fair will be an educational and interactive experience that will serve to collect energy from every possible alternative renewable source in order to power the show. Children, audience members and passers-by will be encouraged to help generate power for the performance - in a sporting and positively competitive format - which will be stored in batteries for use that evening.
About Zata Omm:
Zata Omm Dance Projects is Zen and the Actualization of Modern Movement. Artistic Director William Yong has made the dance organization a site for research focussing on the integration of dance, technology and broader culture. Zata Omm Dance Projects is in a state of constant development with on-going artistic research to explore the artistic climate, reflect contemporary culture and lead the emerging artistic trends. Zata Omms objective is to create multidisciplinary contemporary dance works using meaningful integration of dance, technology and other art forms on stage in order to provide an alternative way of seeing our world, which facilitates our exploration and understanding of the human condition. Artistic Director William Yong has created more than 60 dance works worldwide which have been presented by major presenters or in renowned festivals.
Zata Omm's vox:lumen is produced with Harbourfront Centre's World Stage and in association with York University The School of Arts, Media, Performance and Design and Aesthetec Studio. Early stage of technology research was funded by George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation. vox:lumen is sponsored by Bullfrog Power and generously funded by Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, Harbourfront Centre and TD Friends of the Environment Foundation. Solar Energy devices are sponsored by Better Current and Kortright Centre for Conservation/Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. Light-emitting diode LED stage lighting is sponsored and costumed made by A.C. Lighting Inc. Energy fair displays sponsored by Asethetec Studio, Kortright Centre
