Frame of Mind

(2019; 60 minutes)

Choreographer: Shara Weaver, in collaboration with the dancers Music: Jesse Stewart Costume Concept: Genevieve Beaulieu Lighting: Emilio Sebastiao

In Frame of Mind, the theme of mental health gets a breath of fresh air. Choreographer Shara Weaver aims to “open windows of truth, reject assumptions and re-imagine a world of inter-connectedness and understanding”.

 

Living the unDesirable Life 

(2017; 70 minutes)

Choreographer: Renata Soutter, in collaboration with the dancers Music: Jesse Stewart Costumes: Sarah Waghorn Lighting: Chantal Labonte

A photograph of the Propeller Dance Company performing The Desirable Life

[Image Description: A photograph of the Propeller Dance Company performing The Desirable Life. Five dancers dressed in blue – one with a tiara and another with a feather boa – smile at us.]

A series of 15 vignettes that integrate dance and theatre. The piece explores concepts of movement that go against the typical grain, finding and highlighting moments of uniqueness and difference. Based on personal stories of exclusion, oppression, violence, pain, heartbreak and also joy and desire; this is a a piece that embraces the complexity of our human experience!

Circuit 

(2016; 40 minutes)

Choreographer: Shara Weaver Music: DRUMHAND  (Marcus Ali, Dave Chan, Larry Graves, Rebecca Hennessey, and Steve Marcuso) Costumes: Genevieve Beaulieu Set Design: Mike Essoudry Lighting: Chantal Labonte

A photograph of the Propeller Dance Company performing Circuit.

[Image Description: A photograph of the Propeller Dance Company performing Circuit. The dancers gather in the middle of the stage with sticks raised to the sky, the band is behind them.]

Circuit is about societal transformations … from a place where earth and people are impoverished to a place of quiet reflection. A journey through our own interpersonal fogs to get back to the heart of why we exist.

Filmed in 2018, directed and edited by Ed Hanley and premiered at Cinedanse film festival in Ottawa, September 2019.

Flesh and Spokes

(2015; 30 min)

Choreographer: Renata Soutter, in collaboration with the dancers Music: Jesse Stewart Costumes: Rebecca Rowe Lighting: Darryl Bennett

A photograph of the Propeller Dance Company performing Flesh and Spokes

[Image Description: A photograph of the Propeller Dance Company – 9 dancers and a musician – performing Flesh and Spokes on a white stage with the silhouette of the audience visible.]

Exploring equality, beauty and power, the pillars of Soutter’s choreographic process, emotions and the body are mined to reveal limitations. They are what makes us human. We all have them and the dancers flow through movement explorations of curiosity, resistance and acceptance to crack open change. An abstract circular landscape that breeds interconnectedness weaves shapes, patterns and human need into a powerful dance work that shakes perceptions down and opens hearts to celebrate our shared differences. Original sound score composed and performed by Jesse Stewart – the first composition ever created for and on a wheelchair.

Spasticus

(2014; 20 min)

Concept, Direction, Choreography: Liz Winkelaar Associate Choreographer: Renata Soutter Music: Ian Dury, Sylvain Bouchard, Dominique St-Pierre

A photograph of the Propeller Dance Company performing Spasticus

[Image Description: A photograph of the Propeller Dance Company performing Spasticus.]

Created as part of the Emerging Choreographers program. Premiered at Ottawa Dance Directive (ODD) March 2014.

Propeller gives Ian Dury’s irreverent ‘spastic’ anthem legs and wheels in this anarchic, joyous, dark, sexy, funny, and explosive rocking tribute to the man and his cause – a new civil rights movement. Chains are forged and shaken off, bodies find movement, spirits soar, and the oppressed rise up, proudly declaring, “I am Spasticus!”