on air is a physical performance conversation between three women who delicately, forcibly, and collectively ruminate on the complexities of human connection in the digital age, generational difference, and the state of being in-between. It wraps the audience and performers together in an intimate suspended world to experience elasticity of time, passages between points of arrival and departure, and puzzles of incomplete understandings. Accompanying this, a complex, physical language connects the dancers as they adapt to off-centring movement systems and interdependently evolving game structures.
"[Strauss’] goal is to anchor the audience in the shifting reality of the ever-changing world… On Air absolutely engages the mind and the imagination." Paula Citron
on air is a non-linear, non-narrative-based work experienced in the round, in which audio and video live-feed are integrated to create spatial distance with real-time responsiveness. The performers come and go. They exist in and outside the performance environment. They are partly there, partly not, sometimes inhabiting the space through projection or audio feed. The absent presence of those performing outside room challenges habitual attention; the moving image attracts the eye, the faceless voice entices the ear, and then, there is who is in front or beside us. These modes of mediated connection were part of daily pandemic life when sharing real rooms was impossible. They continue to exist now as part of the language of our time. They powerfully remind us of presences we can’t see, but are there still. This in-between state is a state of questioning acceptance – of not needing answers to continue – of a continual listening to oneself, others and the moment we are in together.
collaborators/performers: Syreeta Hector, Jane-Alison McKinney, Amanda Pye
composition: Joshua Van Tassel
projection: Jeremy Mimnagh
costume: Alana Elmer
lighting: André du Toit
stage management: Laura Cournoyea
producer: Rachel Penny
intern/rehearsal & production assistance: Dedra McDermott
production management/technical direction: Kit Simmons w/Aaron Kelly
composition: Joshua Van Tassel
projection: Jeremy Mimnagh
costume: Alana Elmer
lighting: André du Toit
stage management: Laura Cournoyea
producer: Rachel Penny
intern/rehearsal & production assistance: Dedra McDermott
production management/technical direction: Kit Simmons w/Aaron Kelly
Technical residency support:
The Orillia Centre for Arts and Culture (Feb 2019)
The Citadel: Ross Centre for Dance (Nov 2021)
Partnership installation + films:
August 2020 Hope Foundry/Art Spin installation, August + October 2021 Art Spin
Presentation dates:
Feb 18th & 19th, 23rd -26th The Citadel: Ross Centre for Dance, Toronto
Feb 25th Bright Nights live stream The Citadel: Ross Centre for Dance
September 29-Oct 1, 2022 Ottawa Dance Directive, Ottawa
This on air process is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. The presentation is made possible with generous support from Lindy Green & Sam Chaiton.