Thank you for being a part of the 2024 SummerWorks Performance Festival!
On this page, you will find information on…
Don’t forget that everyone on your artistic and production team has access to a $10 Artist Discount for other presentations in the Festival. Our team has pulled the list of eligible artists from the credits listed on your project’s website page.
If there is a member of your team missing from the credits on your project webpage, please send their name to boxoffice@summerworks.ca ASAP so their name can be added to the list before the Festival begins!
As a reminder, these $10 discounted tickets can be purchased (subject to availability) in-person at the box office (Aki Studio from August 1-4 / Theatre Centre August 6-11). You will need to provide your name and photo ID to receive the discount.
Previously, it was shared that these tickets would be available 1-hour prior to a performance, however we have changed that so that you can book your ticket for any performance on any day of the Festival! We hope that this change gives you more flexibility to book your own tickets to see each other’s work during the Festival.
Wednesday, July 31st || 6:00 – 8:00pm
Union TD Summer Outdoor Stage
65 Front Street West
FREE — No registration required.
You’re invited to kick off this year’s Festival a day early, at the Union TD Summer Stage! Join us for a lively and fun summertime event, featuring a welcome from Elder Duke Redbird and a live music/DJ set with Tdesu.
ASL interpretation will be provided for all speeches and performances.
Tdesu is a Toronto-based music producer & DJ known for his ear-catching remixes that blend soulful melodies with rhythms from around the world. His name-recognition in the global Soundcloud scene has given him opportunities to spin in cities across Canada and the US including Los Angeles, New York, and Montreal. With track features on major radio platforms (Apple Music, Soulection, Rinse FM) and a consistent output of Toronto parties focused on building community through music (co-organizer of Stir Fry and Soul Cleanse)—he continues to be one to watch in 2024.
Monday, August 5th || 3 Separate Workshops
Factory Theatre, Rehearsal Hall
125 Bathurst Street (3rd Floor)
RSVP HERE
FREE — Festival Artists ONLY!
Nova Dance is hosting a series of FREE workshops and creative sessions, specifically designed as a moment to rest, pause, slow down, relax, and reflect. You all deserve it!
These workshops are exclusively and only for Festival artists, and our gift to all of you! Please note that the Rehearsal Hall is only accessible by stairs.
Body Unbreak
11:30am – 1:00pm || Facilitator Neena Jayarajan
Spend time with Neena as she takes you through targeted pain relief and relaxation techniques for your body. Learn methods to find ease of tension from head to toe and understand the body’s needs towards restoration and longevity by giving it a helping hand. This will involve both self directed and hands on approaches. If you have areas of your body that give you consistent trouble, we will work through them together and learn how to maintain our optimal selves trough stretch, massage and strengthening! Lets unbreak our bodies together.
Floating
1:30 – 2:30pm || Facilitator Nova Bhattacharya
Float, to rest on the surface of or be suspended in a fluid…….
Breathe and be still; imagine and invoke; rest and rock and whatever else flows when we share space with intentional fluidity allowing the collaborative forces inside our bodies and minds to melt, dissolve, soften and solidify……
Therapeutic Art: 7 Types of Rest
3:15 – 4:45pm || Facilitator Rachel Robbins
Let’s explore the 7 types of rest, as named by Dr. Saundra Daulton-Smith. In this workshop, you will be guided through a series of intuitive art reflections that will help you discover what rest looks like for you and how to access it. Therapeutic Art can be a powerful way to look inwards, express emotions, and connect with others. The focus of these sessions will be on process-oriented exploration with different media. Together we will notice, play, and get curious about rest.
August 5th || 8:00 – 10:30pm
The Theatre Centre Cafe / Bar
1115 Queen St West
RSVP HERE
FREE — Festival artists + staff/team ONLY!
Co-curated by Ravyn Wngz and Akash Bansal, SummerNights is the Festival party for us – SW artists and staff/team!
Over a series of meetings, Ravyn and Akash wrestled with “rest”: What is it? What does it mean to experience rest in community? What does it feel like to experience rest as an artist? As a spectator? How can we make a (creative) process restful and generative? How do we find the energy to rest, knowing there is always more work to do? And what exactly is restful about a midsummer’s night?
In the swirling heat, bodies tend to move in spontaneous ways; maybe a summer night’s rest is heat’s sticky play. Our curators have commissioned a trio of storytellers, (Kaela Willey, Thrasher, and Erin Poole) who will improvise performative relationships to rest alongside DJ Trustfall. DJ Trustfall will also share a new and exciting interactive performance called Prepared Karaoke, where a group of writers have been invited to cut, edit and alter the lyrics of popular karaoke songs to be sung by party guests.
Food is provided ; Cash bar w/ one (1) drink covered by SummerWorks
ASL interpretation provided upon request; subject to interpreter availability
Due to limited space and capacity, +1s are not invited (please message Michael directly, if there are any issues)
This year, we are offering a bespoke experience of the Festival to Industry representatives, with a small group of artists, curators, presenters, and community members. These individuals will have an opportunity to engage with all of the Festival offerings, network and dialogue with industry peers, and meet/engage with Festival artists.
We invite you, as Festival artists, to join four (4) SummerWorks Focus events, to share space and connect with the industry gathering participants:
*Scroll down to view all of these event descriptions.
Naishi Dance Company
Tuesday, August 6 || 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Meridian Hall || RSVP Required
Based in Toronto and born in Changchun, China, Naishi Wang is a renowned choreographer and visual artist. He explores the motivations behind bodily movements and the emotions they convey. His exceptional improvisations and dance-inspired drawings are widely acclaimed. Wang’s solo “Taking Breath,” part of the Citadel program in April 2018, captivated audiences in Montreal, Halifax, and Hamburg, Germany. This piece explores intimate bodily communication, a theme he revisits in “Face To Face,” a duet examining virtual communication and its intricacies, which toured to FTA, Usine-C in Montreal, Tanzmesse in Düsseldorf, Schrittmacher in the Netherlands, and Tanz Ist in Austria. Currently touring “Deciphers” with UK-based artist Jean Abreu across Canada, Wang is an artist in residence at the Citadel and TO Live. He has received prestigious awards, including Les Respirations du FTA (2021), the Small Scale Creation Fund from CanDance (2021), and the Chalmers Arts Fellowship from the Ontario Arts Council (2022).
RSVP HERE
Tuesday, August 6 || 2:15pm – 3:45pm
Meridian Hall || RSVP Required
This conversation is an opportunity to engage with diverse contexts, by sharing experience and knowledge as resources; a chance to hear what’s on the mind of producers working on international projects and collaborations, including questions they’re asking, strategies they’re developing, and what they’re excited about.
Guest producers include:
Brigita Gedgaudas
supported by Chimerik 似不像
Wednesday, August 7 || 11:00am – 12:30pm
Charles Street Video || RSVP Required
Brigita Gedgaudas (e/he/they) is an emerging, interdisciplinary, trans*, and diasporic-Lithuanian artist working in so-called Toronto, represented by Chimerik 似不像. Eir work engages with in-betweenness as they explore contradictory experiences of gender and cultural heritage through realms of dance and digital worldbuilding. Using glitches as mechanisms for queering Lithuanian folk dance, they are interested in translating the body between physical and digital worlds through interactive and immersive installations.
RSVP HERE
Tiny Bear Jaws
featuring Elena Beleya and Tori Morrison
Thursday, August 8 || 10:45am – 12:00pm
Thursday, August 8 || 12:30pm – 1:45pm
The Theatre Centre || RSVP Required
Founded in 2015, Tiny Bear Jaws is an agile, femme and queer-run cross-Canadian theatre company managed by Elena Belyea (Artistic Director) and Tori Morrison (Executive Director and Artistic Producer). We produce and tour innovative, provocative, and engaging new works. We are committed to exploring the creative possibilities that exist exclusively in live performance and creating theatre that’s transgressive in content and form.
RSVP HERE