Creation – Production – Curation
Our mission:
To provide original platforms for dance artists to show their work outside of the confines of the traditional theatre context. To challenge the choreographic process by providing guidelines for creation that compel choreographers to examine their artistic practice. To diversify and broaden the audience for contemporary dance by creating shows which are engaging and unpretentious. To create links between Montreal choreographers and bridge the gaps of language, experience, and dance aesthetics.
is a contemporary dance choreographer living and working in Montreal. Since graduating from Concordia University she has developed and choreographed a total of 15 works involving some 40 interpreters and other artistic collaborators. Sasha has shown her work in Montreal at Usine C, Espace Tangente, Theatre d’Aujourd’hui, 5ieme Salle, and Studio 303. Her choreographies have also been shown at Kinetic Studio in Halifax, Nova Scotia, The Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, and at the Fredericton Playhouse in New Brunswick.
Along with partner Andrew Tay, Sasha created Wants&Needs Danse, a company that seeks to bring contemporary dance to a greater variety of audiences, and to find innovative approaches and venues for presenting dance. Together they created the Piss in the Pool, Short&Sweet, and Involved performance series.
Sasha debuted her new full length choreography Chorus II at the Montreal, Arts Interculturels in April 2013.
“Sasha Kleinplatz steps up to the big leagues with this captivating work that extols the essence and beauty of masculinity freed from its shackles” -Fabienne Cabado, Le Voir
was born in Windsor Ontario where he attended the Walkerville Centre for the Creative Arts. Since finishing his B.F.A in contemporary dance at Concordia University, Andrew has presented his work at venues and festivals throughout Canada, New York and Europe. His work has appeared in films, installations and multi media projects for companies such as Moment Factory, Bravo! and Dpt.
In 2005 Andrew co-founded (with collaborator Sasha Kleinplatz) the company Wants&Needs danse. Since then the company has produced the wildly popular dance events Piss in the Pool, Short&Sweet and Involved in Montreal. In June 2012 the duo choreographed the Cirque du Soleil show Les Frontieres de Pixels and were nominated for a Quebec Notables award in the Arts&Culture category.
Andrew was awarded the Dance WEB scholarship in May 2012 (Impulstanz festival-Vienna). In 2013 he participated in the Rencontres internationales de jeunes créateurs et critiques des arts de la scène professionnels (Festival TransAmériques -Montreal). He was also selected to participate in 8 Days, an Intergenerational meeting of dance artists from across Canada organized by the company Public Recordings. In June 2014 he will take part in the Copycat Academy (Luminato Festival- Toronto) organized by Hannah Hurtzig of the Mobile Academy. He currently sits on the board of directors representing dance for ELAN (the English Language Artist Network), and on the administrative council of Le Regroupement québécois de la danse.
“Andrew Tay fait preuve d’un style articulé, d’une symbolique poussée, et son corps exprime puissamment plus qu’il n’interprète.” Marion Gerbier DF danse
Videos:
Summoning Aesthetics
Short & Sweet
On Power and Permission (teaser)
Piss in the Pool
Site specific dances in an emptied out indoor pool every summer.
Short & Sweet
25 artists. 3 minutes each. Anyone going over the time limit has their lights and sounds immediately cut off.
“By curating performance series that are constructed around a specific choreographic challenge, Kleinplatz and Tay provide a framework within which the choreographers must work,”
Kate Stashko – Dance Current“If you’re not really sure what contemporary dance is, Short & Sweet is the perfect introduction. It’s the YouTube of the dance world: short clips of stuff you never knew existed but now urgently want to watch over and over again. Conversely, if you are familiar with Montreal’s contemporary dance scene, Short & Sweet offers a moment of respite from the usual venues and formal atmospheres. The moment may be short and sweet, but it’s one to remember.”
wherearetheshows.com