Performances
The Dybbuk
Description >The Dybbuk
A hypnotic journey of love, obsession and surrender.
A Dybbuk in Hebrew means “glue”, “attachment” or “clinging”. It is a spirit that possesses a human being.
This performance is an adaptation of S. Ansky’s 19th century folk legend, “The Dybbuk.” A woman is given as a bride by her father to an older wealthy business man “an arranged marriage”, however she is in love with her young true love who dies suddenly of a broken heart when he receives this news. On her wedding day, his spirit enters her body to reclaim her. She is empowered by his love to voice her truth and say ‘no’ to family and society’s traditions. This dance opera expresses the themes, emotions and the struggle between the earthly plane and the various spirit realms of the story.
This production illustrates the importance of transcending our belief systems and revealing what is left beyond the body and beyond our thoughts. Incorporating interactive media projection, contemporary dance fused with the technical grace of ballet, and opera in an immensely theatrical presentation
Artistic Director: Maya Lewandowsky
Executive Producer: Evangelos Diavolitsis
Artistic Producer: Jennie Vallis
Composer: Steven Gellman
Performers: Maya Lewandowsky, Nicole Charlton, Megan Gole, Erin Lequereux, Erin O’Loughlin, Elan Pratt
Piano: Steven Gellman
Cello: Dorothy Bishop
Harp: Eily Aurora
Violin: Heidi Pittman
Xylophone: Kelly Schuler
Costume Designer: Anni Kuhn
Sound Design: Marc Sackman
Projection Design: Jennie Vallis, Derek Demassi
Lighting Design: Kalyna Conrad
Stage Manager: Andrew Bathory
The Queen the bear and the bumblebee
Description >The Queen the bear and the bumblebee
A 40 minute musical stage production presented by Pro Musica Society based on Dini Petty’s children book.
With Bumblebee Symphony Orchestra and Children’s Choir
Artistic Producer: Erin Thrall
Choreography and Stage adaptation: Maya Lewandowsky
Dancers: Nathan Todd, Nicole Charlton, Johanne Young, Megan Gole, Andrei Afilipoaei.
Narrator: Samantha Whelan Kotkas
Children dancers: Sienna Webster, Andrea Bujor, Aurin Kuhn, Keeley Partridge, Brooklyn Ross, Kyra Puhl-Trinh, Cathryn Puhl-Trinh
Vocalists: Erin Thrall, Celia Raven Lee, Paul Grindlay
Conductor: Claud Lapalme
Costumes: Anni Kuhn
Lighting: Pierre Marleau
Set: Louis Beaudoin
Composer: Mark D. Goldman & Andrew Homzy
A Place To Begin
Description >A Place To Begin
Fragments Of A Conversation
A 55 minute performance, dancing about architecture. A Place to Begin is about fragments of conversation between choreographer and the aspce, with the lens of architecture as stenographer. The piece explores the texture of spaces and how our five senses influence the space.
In a neutral black box theatre, music, dance, live cello and voice interact with the audience in a playful design, architecting emotions and creating a space of movement. Choreography: Maya Lewandowsky
Performers: Nathan Todd, Nicole Charlton, Megan Gole, Johanne Young, Serenella Argueta
Graduate Architect: Kristofer Kelly
Costumes: Anni Kuhn
Performance History:
February 2011
Alberta Dance Festival – Calgary, Alberta
The Corridor
Description >The Corridor
The Stage of In Between
The corridor is a 55 minute immensely theatrical, intriguing, edgy and inviting dance performance. The corridor is the stage of in between. The Corridor show happens in the silence between the tones, where music is created, in the freeze between the movements. The show is a journey of the heart and the spirit to an imaginary universe composed of primal movements and expressions of energy and passion.
Choreography: Maya Lewandowsky
Performers: Nicole Charlton, April Miranda, Linnae Bellay, Angela Mulrooney, Patricia Maybury, Marc Leclerc.
Costume Designer: Lisa Oehler Lighting Designer: Steve Isom Stage Manager: Luke Dahlgren
Contrast
Description >Contrast
Freedom Within Contradictions
A 60 minute show that aims to touch spectators in the most intimate manner by exploring contradictions related to human existence through music, movements, expression, colors, and emotions. The dancers use the body intelligence and grace of ballet, but they break it to contemporary movements. The broken classical point work combined with “airy” costumes creates an aesthetic feel of flow and air. Contrast is designed to share an edgy atmosphere and demonstrate tension of balances, aesthetics, and subtlety.
Choreography: Maya Lewandowsky
Performers: April Miranda, Angela Mulrooney, Nicole Charlton, Linnae Bellay, Patricia Maybury, Marc Leclerc.
Costume Designer: Anni Kuhn
Lighting Designer: Steve Isom
Stage Manager: Luke Dahlgren
Comme “Barbare”
Description >Comme “Barbare”
An 8 minute presentation that aims to entertain and delight audiences, Comme Barbare determines a new way of expression through dance and voice. Who are the Barbarians?
Choreography: Maya Lewandowsky
Performers: Maya Lewandowsky, Nicole Charlton, April Miranda
Experiment on the Adagio
Description >Experiment on the Adagio
A 12 minute journey of dance and live vocals. Experiment on the Adagio is an exploration of how humans have mastered the mechanics of music and dance. This piece reflects our journey from childhood to mastery and our need to breakthrough to unknown ground, while simultaneously maturing into accepting the constraints of the conditioned journey. We are trained to perform under certain rules of controlled order and discipline while the inner self longs to breakout into movement that abandons structure.
Free from any specifications, with the freedom to just be… be a dancer without the image of being a dancer, a singer without the image of being a singer, an actor without the image of being an actor…to being or not at all…
Choreographer: Maya Lewandowsky,
Performer: Maya Lewandowsky
Music: Albinoni
Press & Commentary
A Place To Begin
“…the most interactive performance I have seen in a long time.”
“The edges of comfort and being contained by personal boundaries were nudged in this performance. The boundary between the dancer, the dance and the audience became fuzzy.”
“The use of vocal sounds seems to cross a barrier between the dancer and the audience, bringing a new universal language onto the stage, but one that is unfamiliar in this modality. The audience then has the potential to be moved or to respond to the sound/dance with a range of emotions.”
Julie Walker
Full Circle Adventures – 2011
Contrast
“Choreographer Maya Lewandowsky may be Calgary’s answer to Marie Chouinard”
Bob Clark
La Caravan Cruises to the Grand Theatre
Calgary Herald – November 3rd, 2008
“…These performances, along with the many others, represent some of the finest in contemporary dance. But while the majority of the festival focuses on the overwhelming local talent of the Tri-City region, the organizers culled together performers from across the nation, from K8 Alsterlund and her fellow breakdancers from Montreal to the exquisite ballet-fusion performance of Calgary’s La Caravan Dance Theatre.”
Duncan Day-Myron
The decade of dance Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival still strong, 10 years later
The Ontarion – June 5 2008
“…La Caravan brings a blast of exoticism to town. Calgary’s dance milieu has not been the same since the arrival from Israel of dancer/choreographer Maya Lewandowsky”
High Performance Rodeo Review – Janunary 2007
The Corridor
“…The entire first performance struck me as being layered with texture and with culture, especially through the music and some of the movements and yet retained a universal note in the content of the dance and the feelings expressed. For the first time in my experience with dance, I could watch a movement and hear the silence of it even while the beat of drums and guitar played fully all around us…”
Julie Walker
Full Circle Adventures – 2009
“…you’ll be seeing a lot more of this outrageously accessible yet avant-garde troupe. Israeli-born artistic director Maya Lewandowsky blends the technical grace of ballet with the physically pummelling crashes of La La La Human Steps and the theatrical costumes of Cirque’s Quidam and Alegría”
Janet Smith
The Georgia Straight (Vancouver) – July 21, 2005
“…with these meanings in mind, Lewandowsky has created an abstract narrative, using imagery, primal movement and expressions of energy”
Fast Forward Weekly – April 7, 2005
“…Ballet met rave met faux fashion-show grit in Maya Lewandowsky’s risky creation…. In an askew sense of bliss and aggravation, Lewandowsky and four other dancers took the floor in aggressive movement…”
Fast Forward Weekly – March 3, 2005
“…the wild imaginings of this zany company might be the edgiest show at this year’s festival…”
Mary Kelly
The Dance Current Different Lenses, Different Views
Dancing on the Edge Festival 2006
Vancouver
History
January 10, 11 2013 The Dybbuk
High Performance Rodeo – The Vertigo Play house – Calgary, Alberta
October 20, 21 2012 ContainR
Fluid Festival Calgary, Alberta
September 29 2012 ContainR
Alberta Culture Days Calgary, Alberta
September 22 2012 The Dybbuk – excerpt and Play Me
La Soiree Calgary, Alberta
May 11 2012 Amazonia
Sweet City Celebrations Calgary, Alberta
March 24 2012 Interaction and Dancers as a living powerpoint
Movement in Politics Calgary, Alberta
February 12 2012 Voice of the Wheel
JNF – Taste of Israel Calgary, Alberta
September 14 2011 - Tranzit
La Soiree Calgary, Alberta
July 7 2011 - A Taste
Central United Church Calgary, Alberta
April 10 2011 - The Queen The Bear and The Bumblebee
University Theatre Calgary, Alberta
February 2011 A Place To Begin
Alberta Dance Festival, Calgary, Alberta
February 24-27 2010 Face On
Dance Explosions Festival, Calgary, Alberta
December 2009 Homage
Herzelia’s Centre for Performing Arts, Herzelia, Israel
December 2009 The Voice
Felicja Blumental Music Centre, Tel Aviv, Israel
October 2009 Love
Fluid Festival – Calgary, Alberta
May 2009 Experiment on the Adagio
Vernissage Dance Montréal, Québec
February 2009 Contrast – excerpt
Dance Explosions Festival – Calgary, Alberta
June 12-14 2008 New Compilation of Work
The GRAND Theatre – Calgary, Alberta
May 31 2008 Contrast – excerpt
Guelph Comtemporary Dance Festival – Guelph, Ontario
February 7-9 2008 Comme “barbare”
Dance Explosion Festival – Calgary, Alberta
January 8-9 2007 Contrast
High Performance Rodeo – The Vertigo Play house – Calgary, Alberta
July 2006 The Corridor
Dance on the Edge – Vancouver , British Columbia
July 2006 The Corridor
Feats Festival- Edmonton, Alberta
January 2006 The Corridor
Vertigo Play House – Calgary, Alberta
July 2005 The Corridor
Dance on the Edge – Vancouver, British Columbia
April 2005 The Corridor
Dancers Studio West – Calgary, Alberta
February 2004 In Proximity
Dance Explosion Festival – Calgary, Alberta
February 2003 Experiment on the Adagio
Explosions Festival – Calgary, Alberta
September 2002 Experiment on the Adagio
StoryBook Theatre – Calgary, Alberta
August 2002 Experiment on the Adagio
Jubilee Auditorium – Calgary, Alberta