We are delighted to present a new site-specific dance commission Leap (of faith), choreographed by Jenn Goodwin and Sarah Doucet and created in collaboration with a stellar cast of performers. Last year, Jenn’s brilliant and moving work, If I Should Stumble, engulfed our art lovers in awe and surprise. Leap (of faith), is rich in meaning, suspension and humour. Don’t forget to look up!

Leap (of faith)

Saturday, July 8 at 1:00 PM & 4:00 PM
Sunday, July 9 at 1:00 PM
Nathan Phillips Square

Leap (of faith) is the final installment of a trilogy of dance works, including Closer and If I Should Stumble, portraying a feminist journey through an urban landscape. 

The work explores the body as a site of power where precarity, resilience and vulnerability negotiate the dominant social structures of contemporary public space. It references a collectively devised movement vocabulary from diverse female-lead protest dances, and uses materials attributed to the location which exists as a place of gathering, decision making, celebration, and protest. 

The physical action of leaping is one of mid-motion, with the body both grounded and suspended between potentials. In this new work, architecture frames bodies in restriction and expansion, between a concrete ground and an endless sky. Bodies explore the physical and metaphysical, the temporal and infinite, inscribing a desire for nuanced meaning in this time and place.

The title itself speaks to a belief or trust in something intangible, like hope. 

Leap continues Goodwin’s choreographic examination of collectivity and poetic physicality, solidarity and the feminization of space, and resiliency in the face of day-to-day challenges. 

Concept & Choreography: Jenn Goodwin
Choreography and Rehearsal Direction: Sarah Doucet
Performers & Choreographic Collaborators: joey eddy, Jen Dahl, Kiki Kennedy, Christy Stoeten, Danah Rosales, Jaz ‘Fairy J’ Simone, Jenn Goodwin
Costume Design: Sarah Doucet
Creative Producer: Briana Brown
Original Music Composition: Victoria Cheong aka New Chance
Production Support & Consultation: Alana Mercury-Conter and Chris Teeter
Commissioned by Toronto Outdoor Art Fair
Supported by Toronto Arts Council with funding from the City of Toronto
With thanks to Brandy Leary, Kate Nankervis, Neville Quinlan, Lela Kouyoumdjian

Jenn Goodwin

Jenn Goodwin is a Tkaronto/Toronto based dance artist, curator, and artistic producer/programmer. A settler, feminist, learner, and mother of two, much of her art and producing practice focuses on dismantling barriers to art for both artists and publics, temporary art in public space and championing artists and communities by way of their art practices. 
Her work and collaborations often explore the play, power, and politics of the body in motion, the feminization of public space, women’s presence, absence, and resilience, and the choreographic of the everyday. Over the last 25 years her dance work has been shown across Canada and internationally. Goodwin founded DoorTODoor Dances during the Covid-19 pandemic with Sarah Doucet, Kate Nankervis & Zoja Smutny to deliver dances to the doorsteps of long-term care homes. 
She is currently the Curator of Public Programs at The Toronto Biennial of Art. Prior to that she worked with the City of Toronto Arts & Culture Department with a focus on Nuit Blanche and more recently ArtworxTO. She has written for various magazines and journals including Holding Ground, Nuit Blanche & Other Ruptures, the Journal for Curatorial Studies, Canadian Theatre Review, The Dance Current, ANANDAM and others.

Sarah Doucet

Sarah Doucet’s vast and varied career includes contemporary dancer (most notably 10 years with Animals of Distinction (Dana Gingras) as performer, collaborator, rehearsal director and costume designer), choreographer, rehearsal director, jewellery designer and for the past several years, costume designer and stylist. In January Sarah began training to be a certified Intimacy Director and Coordinator, which she hopes to complete by the end of 2024. 
Costume design highlights include L-E-A-K (Sara Porter- spring 2023); ‘IF I SHOULD STUMBLE’ (Toronto Outdoor Art Fair 2018, 2022), CLOSER (Summerworks ,Geary Art Crawl 2022), STILL LIFE WITH SAND,WOOD, GRASS AND MOVEMENT, (Jenn Goodwin, TO);  6 full length shows with Decidedly Jazz (DJD) in Calgary, with shows including JULIET AND ROMEO(2017); FAMILY OF JAZZ (2022); SUSPENDING DISBELIEF; LOVESTRUCK, BEAUTIFUL NOISE, TERRA;  Rehearsal director and costume designer for ONE HUNDRED MORE, a collaboration between Justine Chambers(Vancouver) and Laurie Young (Berlin), premiered in 2019 in Berlin; 3 city(Van, Mtl, Ottawa) Canadian tour in Fall of 2022; 
‘NEW TRICKS’ (Christopher House, TO,2022), ‘RING’ (Ame Henderson, Toronto Dance Theatre, 2019),‘ ‘IMAGO DEI’ (Moni Hoffman, Propeller Dance, Ottawa, 2022); ‘no place’ (Amanda Acorn, 2022)
FLESH&SPOKE (Renata Seuter, Propeller Dance,2019); SPASTICUS (Elizabeth Winklaar, Propeller Dance, Ottawa, 2019); FLOOR’D (Holla Jazz,TO, 2018); LULU V.7 // ASPECTS OF A FEMME FATALE (The Red Light District, TO, 2018); THE WOLVES (The Howland Company&Crowe’s Theatre, Dora Nomination for Outstanding Costume Design 2019 ,TO); DÉRIVES,(Noémie LaFrance,2019, Bentway, TO); HEART AS ARENA(Animals Of Distinction, Dana Gingras, MTL). 
In February of 2022, Sarah led a successful class action against the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and a former male teacher who had been taking nude/semi nude photos of female students for 30+ years and selling them worldwide on line.

Briana Brown

Briana Brown has worked with a breadth of arts organizations, from grassroots collectives to large-scale institutions including the Canadian Stage Company (Metcalf Artistic and Producing Intern), Seventh Stage Productions (Associate Producer), Paprika Festival (Artistic Programs Manager), and Brave New Play Rites Festival in Vancouver (Artistic Producer), Nova Dance (Administrative Producer) and spent almost a decade working with Anandam Dancetheatre. She is a practicing playwright, screenwriter, and theatre director.

Jen Dahl

Jennifer Dahl is a contemporary dance/theatre artist, post rehabilitation movement specialist and fascial movement facilitator and educator. She began her dance/movement training in Saskatchewan and continued her training in Montreal and New York City(Alvin Ailey American Dance Centre) before graduating from The School of the Toronto Dance Theatre in 1994. Since then Jennifer has performed across Canada and Europe for over 25 years. She has worked/collaborated with a multitude of both established and emerging creators in both dance and theatre including Volcano Theatre (The 4 Horseman Project), Susanna Fournier (4 Sisters-Empire Trilogy) Citadel and Co. (Grasslands, Hymn to The Universe featuring the Sun Ra Arkestra), playwright Jordan Tannahill and Canadian Stage (Declarations) and The Dietrich Group (This is a Costume Drama, FIELDWORK) in pieces created for the stage, film and site specific locales. Jennifer teaches specialized conditioning and movement related courses throughout North America, Europe and Asia.She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Toronto.

Kiki Kennedy

A member of Toronto Dance Theatre for ten seasons before turning freelance, Kiki has performed works by many of the country’s leading choreographers, both nationally and internationally, has appeared in several dance films for BRAVO and CBC. They relocated to LA in 2015 and spent 6 years there during which they were a founding collaborator of Good Trouble Makers. Kiki is also a potter whose work can be seen on instagram @QUEERDObykiki. Endlessly grateful for the opportunities to dance, choreograph, model, act, create, skate, and make pots with their body.

New Chance

New Chance is a Toronto-based producer and vocalist. Her work in music includes DJing, remixing, scoring for film and video, and a long time collaborative practice in contemporary dance. Recent projects include performing on tour with Justine Chambers and Laurie Young’s choreographic work, One Hundred More, composing for Aisha Sasha John’s Diana Ross Dream , producing with Picastro’s Liz Hysen and musical collaboration with reggae legend Willi Williams. Her voice and songwriting have appeared on recent records by Lee Paradise, Isla Craig, LCON, Miszczyk, Chandra, and Jennifer Castle. In 2021, New Chance released her full-length LP, Real Time (We Are Time). She is currently developing new modes of personal musical practice as part of a Canada Council-funded research project on the ancient Greek philosophical concept of The Metakosmia.

Danah Rosales

Danah Rosales (She/Her/Siya) is a Toronto based cis-queer millennial; second-generation Canadian-Filipin*; a daughter; a dawta; a sister; a sis; a mother of two little humans; a mutha of a kiki house; and an artist in which her work encompasses interdisciplinary performance, ballroom arts, performing, choreography, collaboration, teaching, and active community leading, participation and organization.

Jaz ‘Fairy J’ Simone

Jaz ‘Fairy J’ Simone is a Barbadian-Canadian multi hyphenate artist based in Toronto ON. She is a performance artist, choreographer, movement director, dancer, singer/song writer, outside eye/creative mentor, group facilitator, researcher and handmade skincare small business owner.  Recent credits include: Choreographer: Da Kink in my Hair (SoulPepper Theatre), Choreographer: Death and the King’s Horseman (Stratford Festival Theatre), Ensemble performer: Treemonisha (Opera, Volcano Theatre and Luminato Festival. Jaz is honoured to be working on Leap (of faith) with Jenn Goodwin and her brilliant team of artists.

Christy Stoeten

Christy Stoeten is a dance artist and educator from Toronto. As a child and teen she performed and competed throughout Canada and the United States, primarily in jazz, tap and highland dancing. In 2001, Christy moved to Toronto to attend the University of Toronto. While at U of T her eyes were opened to the world of contemporary dance, eventually leading her to The School of Toronto Dance Theatre where she graduated from their three year Professional Training Program. As a contemporary dancer, Christy has performed the work of: Allison Cummings, James Kudelka, D.A. Hoskins, Meryem Alaoui (Soft Matter), Andrea Spaziani, Simon Renaud, Amelia Ehrhardt, Eroca Nicols and many others. Christy’s choreography has been presented by Luminato, Summerworks, Public Energy, The Toronto Dance Community Love-In, Project: Humanity, ArtSpin, Come Up to My Room and Summer Stage Portugal in Lisbon. Her work explores themes that are grounded in daily life experiences, investigating humour in the everyday, and beauty in the mundane. Christy has worked extensively as a dance educator in Toronto. Teaching credits include: the Department of Dance at York University, Swansea School of Dance, The National Ballet of Canada YOUdance, Luminato, Durham District School Board, The University of Toronto and The City of Toronto.

joey eddy/rasberry jo

rasberry jo is a settler on turtle island whose earliest memories are being wooed by the ocean, her tides and the great orcas. under nature’s powerful magnetism has become an endlessly inquisitive being and sparkly boy on the unceded territory of tkaronto and mooniyang/tiohti:áke. a trans, queer, interdisciplinary dance artist, singer and actor. joey also is a birthworker/transition companion, closely supporting children and families in pre and postnatal care, abortion and somatic release therapy. his work focuses on embryology, energy medicine and stored trauma through genetic memory. he has been practicing as a somatic and energy medicine practitioner for the last 9 years through alignment work, reiki medicine, breath work and somatic release with trauma-informed practice. as a performer, joey feels honored to have worked with artists such as will ellis, brenden jensen, willi dorner, andrew tay, kate nankervis, robert kingsberry, francesca chudnoff, claude wittmann, victoria cheong, ame henderson, brandy leary, katie ewald, kari pederson, rain chan, prince nifty, aria evans, amanda smith, vania vaneau, justin deluna, lo bil, katie ward, leelee oluwatoyosi eko davis, danah rosales, amrita hepi, sara aiken, diana reyes, zee thompson, jamee valin, nyda kwazowsky, hannah schallert, susan wolf, holly timpener, aquarius funkk, grey muldoon. 

joey is fascinated by the sense of found presence in decolonialized, whole being caregiving and is working on the integration of its relativity to the attunement of transformation possible in the body during performance and performance making. he is compelled and thrilled to have queer politics, race politics, gender politics and disability politics centered in the processes he has been working with. a neurodivergent autistic guy, happy to be navigating the earthly currents with y’all one moon at a time.

Thank You