READY FOR SLED ISLAND
In & Out of Love a festival highlight
Jamie Tognazzini acknowledges love can be muddy and says that’s a good thing for this year’s edition of One Yellow Rabbit’s Listening Party.
In & Out of Love: A Listening Party to Watch, which is part of the 2017 Sled Island festival, will run in the Arts Commons Big Secret Theatre June 21 to 24 at 8 p.m.
In the past, Denise Clarke choreographed the Listening Party to the English rock band Radiohead, but this year is a departure.
“The music is not an album but a mixtape with a meandering narrative, and it’s a really great playlist that includes artists like Planningtorock, Zola Jesus, Amanda Palmer, Grime and IAMX,” says Tognazzini. “What is so exciting about this playlist is that they are not love songs we’ve been listening to for years. It’s a really contemporary spin on love. It’s such cool, hip music.”
She stresses that Clarke’s choice of music is what fuelled the theme of this year’s show.
“There are so many different kinds of love that it was necessary for us to step away from the concept of monogamous, heterosexual love and look at how people today are exploring their sexuality and completing themselves.”
In & Out of Love is set at a wedding.
“The wedding is the framing device, which allows us to look at the various kinds of romantic love and at unrequited love. We also look at self-love, which is a spiritual thing, and it is the basis of how we deal with such things as heartbreak and heart-mending.”
To elaborate on self-love, Tognazzini points to the TV series RuPaul’s Drag Race.
“In every episode RuPaul talks about achieving self-acceptance and how important it is for all of us to love ourselves first before trying to love someone else. Love is not an item. It is an action. It’s a behaviour.”
She stresses that In & Out of Love is “a movement piece that the group created together with the guidance of Clarke.
“It’s not a play in the traditional sense of the word, but we still play characters and there are still relationships and interaction and a storyline. The character I play is in love with one of the members of the wedding couple and she has to come to terms with that and so does that person.”
Clarke calls her company the beautiful young artists and this year that includes 26 artists.
“It’s a huge group and we’re all here because we love to dance and we love to work with Denise. “She is such an inspiration.” Tickets for In & Out of Love: A Listening Party to Watch are available at oyr.org, the Arts Commons box office or by phone at 403-294-9494.
There will be a limited number of pay-what-you-can tickets available each evening at the Big Secret Theatre box office on a first-come basis. For more information and a trailer for the show go to oyr.org.
The wedding is the framing device, which allows us to look at the various kinds of romantic love and at unrequited love.
BILL BROOKS IS AWAY THIS
WEEK. HIS STORIES AND PHOTOS COVERING CALGARY’ S BIGGEST PARTIES AND FUNDRAISERS WILL RETURN SOON.