Thaw (TouchX Solo2)
Thaw is a 15-minute solo featuring Mio Sakamoto as performer. It is a multi-sensory visual world of what remains in the body through wanted and unwanted touch and in particular the embodiment of the body thawing after years of entrapment. This solo material has been developed for 5 years with Mio and pulls from both the choreographer and dancer’s experience. A moving image of what has ‘touched’ us most over our lives - the thought, memory, fragility, and ephemeral nature of touch - its presence and absence, the solo was distilled from the full-length 40 cast member production called TouchX (premiered as part of TORQUE International Dance Series at HCT) in Toronto, November 2022. It is one of a series of 3 different solos, each performed by a different femme IBPOC artist, from this work.
Thaw (TouchX Solo 2) excerpt
Photo Credits: Drew Berry
Dancer: Mio Sakamoto
Credits
Concept, Direction & Choreography
Karen Kaeja
Created with Performer
Mio Sakamoto
Original Score Composer / Instrumentalist
Greg Harrison
Original Lighting Design
Simon Rossiter
Set Design
Karen Kaeja and Sonja Rainey
Costume Design
Sonja Rainey
Created with the support of Lyricist Frances Miller in collaboration with Karen Kaeja
Vocalist
Frances Miller
Musician
Amahl Arulanandam
Dramaturgy
Pil Hansen
Shannon Litzenberger
Outside Eyes
Uche McKenzie
Pamela Shoebottom
Allen Kaeja
Rehearsal Director & Project Coordinator
Jordana Deveau
Photography
Zahra Saleki
Drew Berry
Zhenya Cerneacov
Solo adaption from TouchX full evening work (Premiered November 2022)
Thank you to Nathalie Bonjour, Iris Nemani for inviting TouchX to Harbourfront and Sahara Morimoto for engaging in the early development of this solo material
Video shot by
Drew Berry
John Marsonet