Introducing Mile Zero Dance’s 2018/2019 Season: “Salt Lick”
This season, Mile Zero Dance (MZD) is celebrating the action of creating something communally through small, persistent efforts. When cows carve salt with their tongues, compelling forms result over time. These “Salt Licks” are a common and often overlooked feature of the prairie landscape. Mile Zero Dance invites our audience to contemplate the art that is around us, and those whose efforts make our place more beautiful.
Artistic Director Gerry Morita has curated a season that features the physical extremes of virtuosic movement; the philosophical and political implications of art in society; and dance, which looks towards the natural world around us as inspiration. Joining us this season is Plastic Orchid Factory (Vancouver), James Viveiros (Montréal), Hong Kong Exile (Vancouver), Man Up! (Edmonton), and many more!
Season subscriptions are $175 through Eventbrite (https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/mile-zero-dance-201819-season-subscription-tickets-47520173117) and MZD membership is $15/year for discounted drop-in class, performances, workshops, and/or rental rates.
MILE ZERO DANCE 2018/19 SEASON
September 15-22 | REELING: Dancing on the Streets in Little Italy | By donation
Dance film is a rapidly changing medium that encompasses every dance style and point of inspiration. Join us in Little Italy to view some of the most striking short dance films creations that the world has to offer. Short dance films in the streets and in local businesses of Boyle McCauley that are curated by Gerry Morita and Julia Grochowski.
Mile Zero Dance Salons | Thematic interdisciplinary events featuring Edmonton’s most compelling performing artists that are rarely seen together.
Fridays at 8 pm, except for Dance Blitz
$15 members, $20 non-members
November 30 at 8 PM – Dust
This salon asks artists to interpret dust and the ways it exists in this city physically, spiritually, and intellectually. What is the dust we breathe composed of? What is this substance that we are all becoming?
January 18 at 8 PM – Backbone (or the skeleton show)
Dancers spend a considerable amount of time analyzing skeletons and the way the body is configured. But what are the other implications of having vertebrae? How does the idea of a skeleton affect other art practices and methods?
April 29 at 8 PM – Dance Blitz – Location TBA
Mile Zero Dance is going to celebrate International Dance Day with an event that exalts the short dance piece. Come see artists play with short format works (3 minutes or less) in an unexpected, casual environment.
Dirt Buffet Cabarets | MZD’s interdisciplinary variety shows with a wide array of emerging and experimental artists. An all-ages and all-embracing event with an amazing new group of curators from a variety of backgrounds and artistic practices.
Thursdays at 8 PM
$10 (or best offer)
This season features:
October 4 – Nasra Adem
December 6 – Barry Bilinsky
February 7 – Steve Pirot
March 7 – Krista Posyniak
April 4 – Jake Tkaczyk
May 2 – Cindy Baker
Dance Crush Series | Evocative movement-based work that is indicative of the wide-ranging contemporary dance scene in Canada.
7:30 PM (door), 8 PM (show)
$15 members, $20 non-members
November 8 and 9 | Two shows per night at 7 PM & 8 PM
Digital Folk – Plastic Orchid Factory (Vancouver)
Created by Vancouver-based interdisciplinary company Plastic Orchid Factory, Digital Folk is an interactive music + dance performance + costume party + video game + installation that promises to completely transform Mile Zero’s Spazio Performativo. Digital Folk lives as an in-between world that is not quite a home and not quite a theatre—a responsive performance space, meets rec room, meets art installation—where the desire for music, dance and community is focused through the lens of video game culture and accelerated technology, creating an irreverent, interactive and looping experience.
December 14 and 15 | 8 PM
MELT – James Viveiros (Montreal)
MELT—a prefix for a prayer—is a solo inspired by the idea of melting the boundaries that divide us. It is a dancing ritual and an exercise on freedom. The piece, created by James Viveiros of GAGA, engages the audience in surprising ways, giving each individual an opportunity to experience this openness from new perspectives. The word MELT refers to a softening of the heart and of our behavior; melting away the physical barrier, which causes fear or inhibition to connect.
February 15 and 16
NINEEIGHT and Room 2048 – Hong Kong Exile (Vancouver)
Two shows from Vancouver’s Hong Kong Exile. A co-production with Azimuth Theatre for Expanse Movement Arts Festival as part of the Chinook series.
NINEEIGHT is a multi-media dance theatre work for three performers with live-generated electronic sound and projection. The work reflects on personal fractures, disorientation, and the significance of “motherland” at times of political, social and geographical transition.
Room 2048 is a dream machine for the Cantonese diaspora. In digital light and smoke, we pursue a history that is not ours. A living past, a dying future, and a stillborn present. We will lie. We will cheat. We will spend thousands of years here.
March 29 and 30 | 8 PM
New Work – Man Up!
New work by Edmonton’s Man Up!—an all-male revue—that uses the body and burlesque to explore masculinity, sexuality, authenticity, and vulnerability.
May 16–19 | Zero Gravity International Performance Art Festival
This four-day performance art festival and one-week workshop—curated by Beau Coleman—presents a cutting edge array of international visual performance artists. We are living in dangerous and precarious times. Zero Gravity asks us to use art as a way to get above it all and to think in new ways; not only to escape, but to act. What do artists have to say about the gravity of the world? Invited performance artists include: Dagmar Glausnitzer-Smith (Germany), Francesco Kiais (Italy-Greece), Pashias (Cyprus), Alexandra Zierle (Germany), and Coleman herself. The Zero Gravity Performance Art Workshop will run May 10 – 16.
MZD Mainstage
April 12 and 13 | 8 PM
Field Work – Gerry Morita
Starting with the idea of creating a concert for cows, Artistic Director Gerry Morita will create new work that returns to her rural roots to explore movement and images that involve animals, the land, and the infinite impossibility of ever finishing work.
Fall/Winter Intensives | Accessible movement workshops for beginners and professional dancers.
October 12–14
Fall Contact Intensive with Andrew Harwood
December 10–14
Winter Gaga Intensive with James Viveiros
All performances and workshops at Spazio Performativo (10816 95 Street) unless otherwise stated.
For more information, visit www.milezerodance.com or follow us on Twitter and Instagram @milezerodance
