Image, courtesy of the artist

In the 80s, theatre and dance artists in Toronto were making work that didn’t wait for permission. They built their own spaces, their own style, and their own systems of support.

At this year’s SummerWorks Performance Festival, Allison Cummings (Artistic Director, Moonhorse Dance Theatre) and Louis Laberge-Côté are remounting Phalanx, a major work by DNA Theatre and Hillar Liitoja and Cathy Gordon. DNA Theatre no longer exists and Hillar, its founder, passed away in 2023.

DNA Theatre, founded in the 80s, was creating work that was uncompromising, physical, and formally groundbreaking. They were part of a new wave of companies who were shaking things up and shaping what came next. We don’t talk about that period of performance history enough, so it’s not surprising that much of that work, and the artists that made it, has been forgotten.

But maybe this work should be forgotten. Maybe that’s exactly why it matters. Maybe we need to make work now that refuses legacy, that couldn’t care less about being saved or remembered. Work that burns and leaves nothing behind. Work made like you don’t give a shit.

But even then, there’s something about returning to the past. To the artists who made something impossible, unrepeatable, necessary. Maybe we owe them a glance back, not out of nostalgia, but to ask ourselves what the hell are we doing now and why?

Let’s bring together a group of artists who were there (and are still here!). Who were they?  What were they responding to? And how did SummerWorks, founded in 1991, grow out of that energy and become a home for it?

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A conversation, long table, or maybe some other form that emerges on the day, hosted by Allison Cummings and Franco Boni.