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Martin Austin
Martin Austin is a PhD student at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies. Martin’s research explores the past and current state of ethics in Euro-American dance practice. He is research assistant for Category Is, a study of house ballroom communities in Toronto and Montréal, and lead administrative coordinator of the Institute for Dance Studies.
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iPhoto caption: Farren Timoteo in Made in Italy. Photo by Trudie Lee.
Theatre Calgary announces 2025–26 season
The 2025-26 season at Theatre Calgary features six productions, including a world premiere musical, a contemporary Canadian classic, and the return of a sold-out comedy.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Colton Curtis Photography.
Genny Sermonia sweetens the pot as choreographer of Waitress
When Genny mentions that her brother Julius is part of the ensemble, I smell a story cooking — so I attend a rehearsal at the Grand Theatre to watch the duo in action.
iPhoto caption: Photo of Ada Aguilar by Dahlia Katz.
Speaking in Draft: Ada Aguilar
“I'm really passionate about the role of stage management as social activism, and as a way to provide safety and support for a production and its people,” says Aguilar. “We put everything of ourselves into these productions, but we also have to be good to ourselves.”
iPhoto caption: Steven Gallagher for Intermission. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
A love of theatre runs so deeply through Gallagher’s bones that you’d think it was a path he began to follow as soon as he could walk and talk. But for a boy who came of age on a rustic farm in Quebec and favoured sports venues over stages in high school, an eventual career in theatre was hardly a given.
iPhoto caption: Miriam Fernandes as the Storyteller, with Anaka Maharaj-Sandhu as Arjuna and Neil D'Souza as Krishna in Why Not Theatre’s Mahabharata (Shaw Festival, 2023). Photo by David Cooper. Set design by Lorenzo Savoini, costume design by Gillian Gallow, lighting design by Kevin Lamotte, projection design by Hana S. Kim.
For the creators of Why Not Theatre’s Mahabharata, nothing is more contemporary than an ancient epic
“I’ve been [telling] the company to embrace time as a collaborator,” says director Ravi Jain ahead of the show’s April run at Canadian Stage.
iPhoto caption: Kayla Sakura Charchuk, Jay Leonard Juatco, Kimberly-Ann Truong, Jun Kung, and Raugi Yu in Cambodian Rock Band. Set design by Jung-Hye Kim, costume design by Stephanie Kong, lighting design by Itai Erdal. Photo by Moonrider Productions.
REVIEW: Cambodian Rock Band makes scintillating Canadian premiere at Vancouver’s Arts Club
Jumping back and forth through time, it weaves the story of a father-daughter relationship together with high-energy musical performances and meditations on the traumatic effects of the Cambodian genocide.
iPhoto caption: Production still from The Nutcracker courtesy of the National Ballet of Canada.
Why should you go to the ballet?
My childhood memories of learning to dance were front and centre for me when I attended opening night of The Nutcracker, performed by the National Ballet of Canada at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.
iPhoto caption: ROSA promotional image courtesy of RUTAS.
RUTAS redefines ‘American’ theatre and performance
“I think [Latinx artists] have always been a strong voice, but now we need to be even louder to the rest of Canada,” says multidisciplinary performance artist Carlos Rivera. “The things that we can bring to the table and bring to the stages can show the beauty, and the strain, and the capacities that Latino Americans carry with us in our bodies, in our minds, in our souls.”
iPhoto caption: Original photos by Kendra Epik.
With its Spring Double Bill, Toronto Dance Theatre centres community and new voices
For the Spring Double Bill, artistic director Andrew Tay is considering how programming can be a means of supporting emerging artists.
iPhoto caption: Photos by Roya DelSol
REVIEW: Boundary-pushing TDT double bill features face-riding and odd sensuality
Both pieces in the winter double bill are par for the course with TDT’s recent artistic output: unabashedly queer and consistently experimental.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Ambra Vernuccio.
REVIEW: Jungle Book reimagined needs a little reimagining
Indeed, Akram Khan “reimagines” a historically complex story into a two-hour exposé on the environmental catastrophe. Jungle Book’s captivating visual effects and dynamic physicality brought the opening night audience to their feet. But as the choreographer’s first billing as director, Jungle Book’s storytelling doesn’t always live up to Khan’s skill as a dancemaker.
When it comes to dance made in Canada, there’s an overabundance of great work happening.
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