no place

a state of being. a dance.

no place assembles artists working in dance, experimental music and design to create a vibrant container for feeling. You are invited to witness, tune in, and sense the environment as the performers move and build landscapes together. Deepening the improvisational scores and practices developed with Acorn’s group works multiform(s) (2015) and Leisure Palace (2018), no place approaches the body as an empathetic and malleable system to explore expansive modes of being and creating. Connecting animate to inanimate, the performers co-create and build vibrant sculptures and landscapes as choreography. 

Choreographer Notes

“This work is an experiment in ways of being together that engages a kinds of knowing that can feel unfamiliar and disorienting. It follows non-linear pathways, and ways of attuning to the world which orient towards curiosity, sensation and connection.This work belongs to all of the artists who made it, alongside me for the last 5 years. I’m so grateful to share such a deep and extended creation period with these brilliant and generous artists who sat in the questioning with me in the most beautiful ways. We’re glad you’re here. Thank you for coming, to witness, to listen, to vibrate and be with us.

I want to thank Justin DeLuna and Paul Chambers for their contributions to this process, and to Rui Pimenta and Layne Hinton for being in supportive dialogue and for presenting an excerpt in process, at their ArtSpin bike tour last Summer. Thank you to Laura Nanni for programming the work and providing the platform for it to meet the public.” - Amanda Acorn

Land Acknowledgment 

We are grateful to work and dance here on Treaty 13 territory, the traditional lands of the Mississauga, Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Wendat Nations. Gathering to practice and create, at this site for the last 4 weeks, we have engaged with embodied listening and working to attune to the seen and unseen, present here at this site. In creating this work, and dancing it here, acknowledging and co-creating with respect to this land and its stewards, past, present and future. 

Artist Bios

Amanda Acorn / choreographer

Amanda Acorn is an artist and facilitator based in Tkaronto, Canada. She creates intimate sensorial encounters and responsive environments for embodied exchange. Her practice includes somatic movement, improvisation, writing, drawing and exploring the choreographic in everyday actions. She is currently researching and creating a new group work, no place that imagines Utopia as an embodied relational state. Her first group work multiform(s) was awarded the Canadian Stage Award for Direction at SummerWorks Performance Festival (2015) and went on to tour in Montréal, Hamilton and was remounted in Toronto, at the Music Gallery and the AGO in 2018. Her work has been presented across Canada including the Festival TransAmériques in Montréal, the Art Gallery of Ontario, The Citadel, Videofag, Toronto Dance Theatre, Summerworks Festival, Music Gallery in Toronto, Workers Arts Heritage Centre in Hamilton, Festival of New Dance in St John’s and Dancer’s Studio West in Calgary, PushOff at the Push Festival and Gold Saucer Studio in Vancouver. She was the emerging artist in residence at Dancemakers (2016-2018) where she created the group work Leisure Palace, presented at InFuture and began the research for no place.  She co-founded the Love-In with Eroca Nicols in 2010. Amanda is a passionate facilitator of movement and works to build spaces for care through the intersections of her art practice and her work as a movement guide. She is pursuing an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies at York University studying Dance, Phenomenology and Sensory Anthropology. 

Robert Abubo / performer

Robert Abubo is a graduate of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, where he studied under David Moroni in the professional division. He worked with Le Groupe Dance Lab in Ottawa from 1994 to 2006 under artistic director Peter Boneham, and with Dancemakers from 2008 to 2015 (under artistic director Michael Trent until 2014). As an independent artist, he has worked with Tedd Robinson, Sylvain Émard, Lynda Gaudreau, Shannon Cooney, Bill James, Luc Dunberry, Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, Heidi Strauss, Kate Hilliard, Ame Henderson, Dana Gingras, Ben Kamino, Valerie Calam, Robyn Breen, Kate Nankervis, Amanda Acorn, Plastic

Orchid Factory, Jordan Tannahill, Louise Lecavalier, K.G. Guttman, Mohammadreza Akrami, and Andreane Leclerc. His choreographies have been presented at the Canada Dance Festival, Tangente, Dancer’s Studio West, Kaeja d’Dance, Dancemakers, Nuit Blanche (Toronto), CanAsian Dance Festival, Toronto Love-In, Interplay, ODD, DJD, and Short & Sweet (Guelph) with Lexi Vajda.

Lori Duncan / performer

Lori has had the pleasure of working with Amanda Acorn since 2015, performing in her works Leisure Palace (Ontario Place) and Multiforms (The Music Gallery). She has been dancing professionally in Canada since 2000 working and performing with many esteemed Canadian dance companies and choreographers. In 2018, Lori opened a coffee shop in Toronto called Hunter.

Bee Pallomina / performer

Bee Pallomina is a dance artist making and performing work for stage, installation, film/video and puppets. Her practice includes movement, care, and the everyday. She is an artist, educator, and mom.  

Ann Trépanier / performer 

Ann Trépanier Ann Trépanier is a dance artist and maker based in Toronto, Canada. She completed her dance training at l’École de Danse de Québec and the School of Toronto Dance Theatre. Trépanier works with, for and alongside a range of makers including Amanda Acorn, Amelia Ehrhardt, Angela Schubot, Andrew Tay, Bill Coleman, Christine Bonansea (DE), Companie Ici’bas (CH), Kenny Balys (IS), Jennifer Dallas, Kate Nankervis, Meryem Alaoui, Naishi Wang, Simon Renaud. From 2018 to 2022, Ann joined the Toronto Dance Community Love-In as one of their Co-Artistic Directors leading on Programming and Producing. Ann is in constant exploration through different somatic practices to seek out the authenticity of movement and state of being, using it to define how we connect with each other and our environment. This research is at the base of her work, performances and everyday life.

Benjamin Landsberg / performer

Benjamin Landsberg is a contemporary dance artist working between Toronto and Montreal. Since graduating from Toronto Metropolitan University's Performance Dance program, he has collaborated with companies such as ProArteDanza, Compagnie Flak, Landerer&Company, and Andrea Peña & Artists. Benjamin is currently researching a new work with Toronto-based choreographic collective The Platform.

Prince Nifty / live sound

Matt Smith is a Toronto-based musician, composer, sound engineer and dramaturg. Alongside his recording project Prince Nifty, Matt makes music for theatre and dance, bars and clubs, headphones and all things between. He has collaborated on and composed music for Andrea Spaziani's Silver Venus, Toronto Dance Theatre (Ame Henderson's Noisy, Christopher House and Jordan Tannahill's Marienbad) and Bad New Days (Flashing Lights). Matt has produced and engineered recordings for Lido Pimenta, Bernice and Isla Craig, and is a long-time collaborator with Owen Pallett.

Lauren Wilson / scenography

Lauren Wilson is a Toronto based floral designer, stylist and owner of Timberlost. Her work is focused on exploring and preserving the authenticity of nature in the constructed medium. With a background in literature, she loves telling stories with florals, whether they be surrealist, classic or romantic narratives. She is drawn to contemporary and emotive designs. She is always evolving Timberlost to reflect the changing tide both within her as an artist and ever evolving environment around her. This came to life in her first retail location in Toronto, a floral concept store named SOLIDAGO located at 1234 College St W. 

Sarah Doucet / costume and fabric sculptures design

Sarah Doucet’s vast and varied career includes professional dancer, choreographer, rehearsal director and for the past several years, costume designer and stylist. Costume design highlights include ‘NEW TRICKS’(Christopher House, TO), ‘RING’ (Ame Henderson, Toronto Dance Theatre),‘ ‘IMAGO DEI’ (Moni Hoffman, Propeller Dance, Ottawa) FLESH&SPOKE (Renata Seuter, Propeller Dance); SPASTICUS (Elizabeth Winklaar, Propeller Dance, Ottawa); FLOOR’D (Holla Jazz,TO); LULU V.7 // ASPECTS OF A FEMME FATALE (The Red Light District, TO); THE WOLVES (The Howland Company&Crowe’s Theatre, Dora Nomination for Outstanding Costume Design 2019 ,TO). Sarah is THRILLED to be working with Amanda and company for the second time (MULTIFORMS) and now NO PLACE, which will go down as a new design favourite. 

Credits 

Created with and performed by Robert Abubo, Lori Duncan, Bee Pallomina, Ann Trépanier, Benjamin Landsberg and Matt Smith

Choreography: Amanda Acorn

Outside eyes /choreographic support: Justine Chambers, Andrea Spaziani, Brendan Jensen

Sound design: Prince Nifty

Scenography: Lauren Wilson 

Costume design & fabric sculptures: Sarah Doucet 

Technical support and lighting: Jasper Jacobs

Producer: Bran Ramsey

Production support: Emma Sherman, Sarah Koekkoek, Susanna Haight

Promo photography: Francesca Chudnoff

Design: Kristen Stambolic

Funders

Creation supported by Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Arts Council and Festival TransAmériques. 

Residency support from Dancemakers Centre for Creation, Stoneboat Artist Retreat, Summerworks Open Studios.