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INK (2004)
Presented as part of the 2009 CanAsian International Dance Festival
Choreographer: Andrea Nann
Performers: Alison Denham, Kate Holden, Andrea Nann
Visual Artist: Wayne Ngan
Andrea Nann collaborates with visual artist Wayne Ngan to create INK, a work for three dancers inspired by the transcendent art of Chinese painting and calligraphy.
“As performed by the excellent Alison Denham, Kate Holden and Nann, the first part is very sculptured. Gzowski has imitated Chinese musical chords replete with bells and gongs, against which, first Nann, then the other two, perform slow, beautiful and elegiac contortions to cleverly mimic ink characters being drawn…the
choreographer uses Gzowski's faster, rhythmic music to bring all three
women together in a synchronized, energetic trio, and we realize that
they collectively have become the brush, and that Ngan's characters
rolling across the screens are stylizations of the dancing body. Like
all Nann's works, INK is beautifully thought-out and crafted.” Paula Citron - The Globe and Mail
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Photographer: Chris Randle
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Andrea Nann
My professional career has been about creating, inspiring and bringing different people together. My art form is dance. I find joy and challenge in exploring the expressive transcendental beauty, dynamism and connectivity of movement and physical expression. Growing up as a female member of a visible minority in Canada I spent my time searching for ways to fit in, to feel included. I have been a member of the Canadian arts community since 1988 when I received my BFA from York University and began a professional career that would include a fifteen year engagement with one of Canada’s most prominent dance companies, the Danny Grossman Dance Company. During that time I also had the unique experience of maintaining a parallel dance career, creating and premiering over 45 new roles for some of Canada’s most influential independent choreographers. In 2005 I created Andrea Nann Dreamwalker Dance Company (ANDDC) a company mandated to create and produce work that explores the human experience through artistic collaboration with artists from all disciplines. ANDDC facilitates opportunities for artists to observe, discover, create, reflect, expand and share; and actively reaches out to diverse community groups through workshops, master classes, presentations and cultural exchanges. Through these extraordinary dance opportunities, I have had the great privilege of sharing some of my life experiences in performances and workshops across Canada, and in parts of the US, Europe and Asia. As an arts educator I have engaged students and participants of all ages and backgrounds in artistic explorations that foster creativity, imagination and emotional expressiveness. My process involves empowering students as thinkers, evaluators, interpreters and creators. It is my ambition to create opportunities to inspire and transform lives through creative experiences because I believe that as a society we need to work hard and work together to cultivate and nurture an appreciation for the impact that creative expression can have on daily life.
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