Hey everyone!  This season wants&needs danse is proud to collaborate with Studio 303 on a couple of projects.  Studio 303 is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary of being one of the primary centres of experimental contemporary dance and interdiscipliary art in Montreal.  It’s been a breeding ground for some great talent (ourselves included!) so we’re excited to work with them.  Wants&needs will be performing and presenting an artist kiosk at the Studio 303 open house on Fri Sept 25 as part of les Journées de la culture. After that Sasha Kleinplatz will be participating in Vignt, the Studio 303 twentieth anniversary gala.  She’ll be showing a 3 minute work along with 20 other local choreographers.  Finally, Wants&Needs will be curating the Studio 303 vernissage danse called Involved.  We’ve set up a unique proposition for choreographers, looking for pieces that confront the audience’s relationship to performance, pieces that involve audience participation, and choreographies which offer the spectator a unique way in which to watch dance work.  More details to come.

Andrew just performed a duet created in collaboration with Dana Michel for the post baroque music event Partylike it’s 1699. The event which was conceived by Aleks Schurmer, featured baroque music, sopranao Ariane Girard, poetry by top model Irina Lazareneau, a carboard set created by Jonathan Sevigny and  contemporary choreography by Andrew Tay, Dana Michel and Melissa Raymond.  Held at the unique Interstice loft space, this was a truly original and exciting evening which gave a youth culture context to “classical” music.   If you missed it, here are some photos of Tay and Michel’s performance.

Andrew just perfromed his duet The Space between with dancer Annabelle Savard at the Festival of New Dance in St. John’s Newfoundland this past week.   The piece was really well received by the local public and press. Please check out Neighbourhood dance works at www.neighbourhooddanceworks.com to find out more about the festival and the great work that they are doing to program innovative dance on that side of the country. We’ll soon be setting up some links to the press from the festival.

For those of you who don’t know, wants&needs has opened their own dance studio which has been up and running since May.  The new space will be home to company rehearsals and activities and is located  at 10 pins west suite # 412.  The new space is a bit rough around the edges right now, but it’s a great size (suitable for small group rehearsals) and we have plans for renovations in the coming months to make it a really comfortable work environment.  We have already been renting the space out at an affordable price to dance and theatre artists who are looking for a nice central rehearsal spot.  In the future, we have plans to start hosting very informal showings where people can get feedback on works that are in early stages of development, and where choreographers can really get together and talk about their craft. If you are interested in renting the space or want to know more about our informal showings, please write to info@wantsandneeds.ca

A special thanks to all of the amazing artists, dancers, and volunteers involved in this year’s Piss in the Pool. It’s the first year we’ve had 3 shows and we had records numbers come out for our 5 year anniversary edition.  There were some truly magic moments…As the above pictures prove (courtesey of Camille Liver).  A special congrats go to wants&needs choreographer Sasha Kleinplatz for winning the most innovative local choreography prize from the Fringe for her piece Oh, Indeed. See you all next year!

Piss in the Pool is back, and celebrating it’s fifth year of bringing site specific dance to the Bain St. Michel.

For this anniversary edition we are welcoming back some of our favorite choreographers who have presented at previous editions of Piss in the Pool, as well as giving some fresh talent the opportunity to adapt their work to the empty pool space.

This year the show will feature the work of Andrew Turner, Andrew Tay, Dana Michel, Caroline Laurin-Beaucage, Catherine Lafleur, Sasha Kleinplatz, & Steven Horwood.

Don’t miss out on our annual choreographic pool party!

Show dates: June 18th, 19th, and 20th
Place: Bain St. Michel, 5300 St. Dominique (corner maguire)
ShowTime: 9:00 pm
Tickets purchased at the door:  $ 11
Or by phone: 849-FEST

Or go to:www.montrealfringe.ca

Hope everyone likes our new website! We’ll be using this blog to let everyone know about all of the company’s achievements and also to post topics and events in the dance/art world that we feel should have your attention. You can subscribe to this blog and you’ll always be in the loop.  Thanks to everyone who has supported wants&needs in the past.  There’s more to come.

Andrew and Sasha

Move! Just to let everyone know that we choreographed a dance sequence which appears in the short film Move! The movie was written and directed by Montreal filmmaker Caroline Bacle and produced in association with Bravo!Fact.  Move! features performances by dancer Andrew Turner and actress Elisa Schwarz with original music by Mitchell Akiyama. The film premiered on Feb 25 at the Rendez-Vous du Cinema Quebecois and will eventually be airing on Bravo…watch out for it.