Screened online October 24 & 25

The public health situation led us to pivot from a series of small-group live performances, to reconsider the project in this thoughtfully filmed iteration.

Situated outdoors with a scenography of stones and water, The Sway of Stone is an intimate and playful exploration of the precarious and transitional nature of our relationships to one another and our surroundings. The evocative choreographic language emulates the meditative reflections of glass and the kinetic quality of tumbling sea stones. We invite you to wander and discover the liminality of this transient landscape and our collective presence within it.

Approach

The project is the result of four years of research and creative partnership between Nickle and Lucy, based on our shared interest in the relationality of dance, materiality and landscape. Our artistic approach is guided by ecological principles: understanding the dynamic connections between our social, physical, and political surroundings, which shape the sensorially investigative quality of the work.

We invited photographer Nanne Springer during the creation process to lend her eye to the site, further questioning and revealing our place within it through her attention to the surrounding textures.

Credits and gratitude

Choreography and performance by Lucy Fandel and Nickle Peace-Williams, with scenographer Darah Miah, sound designer Kasey Pocius, videographer Nina Vroemen, artistic advisor Sara Hanley, and dramaturg Leyla Sutherland.

This project was possible thanks to the support of the Canada Council for Arts, and developed in an outdoor residency in partnership with Conscience Urbaine at La friche au pied du courant.

Two previous residencies laid the foundations for us, with the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts in Mi’kma’ki/Nova Scotia in 2017, and the Concordia University Department of Contemporary Dance in 2018.

Head photo: Jules Bédard