EMBRACE
Embrace: Performance
As a part of our commitment to creating meaningful artistic opportunities for individuals of all abilities, Embrace has moved from working purely recreational & training contexts and has developed a professional performance stream. This professional stream focuses on developing new works collaboratively with teams of neurodivergent, chronically ill, disabled, and non-disabled artists . Embrace: Performance strives to create innovative, multidisciplinary pieces that are rooted in the stories our artists have to tell.
Current Work
Briny
Briny is an original piece of sensory theatre for young audiences. In Briny, small groups of young audiences and their caregivers will join our artistic team directly in the swimming pool for a rich sensory exploration.
Original Artistic Team:
Claire Bruce
Carolyn Moon*
Devon Lewis*
Emily McFarlane
Erin Koop
J. Paun*
Kathleen Greenfield*
K. Skrobek*
Logan Swain
Tiffany Tjosvold
*Artists who worked on the piece during the initial period of development
We want to acknowledge the generous support of both the CRD Arts & Culture Service, the BC Arts Council, and the Canada Council For The Arts for making this project possible.
Image: A drawing of a jelly fish that has been coloured in with blue, green, yellow, and orange crayons. This is overlayed onto a photo from under the water in the ocean. Below the jellyfish is the text "Briny"
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Image: A cluster of 5 mixed race, mixed ability dancers wearing bright colours. They all take silly poses as they look at the camera.
articulate
articulate is a dance film exploring the central theme that "Play is an important form of communication" It is a celebration of the original electronic music score created by a team of three youth composers, and Embrace’s Director of Music programming, Erin Koop. The youth composers range in age from 8 - 12 years old.
articulate consists of 9 structured improvisations. Each piece is based on a different childhood games like hide and seek, hopscotch, and pass.
Original Artistic Team:
Andrew Barrett
Claire Bruce
Dave Wallace
Devon Lewis
Erin Koop
J. Paun
J. Raine
N. Freitag
Max Lumsden
Tiffany Tjosvold
We want to acknowledge the generous support of both the CRD Arts & Culture Service, and the British Columbia Council For The Arts for making this project possible.
Previous Work
Image: Adam is wearing a purple suit jacket, a bow tie, furry hat, and drawn on mustache. He has his mouth wide open and his colourful gloved hands in the air.
Chilly
Join Mister Zooie Kazooie on his quest to find Chilly. Will he find the creature in time?
Chilly is an immersive online show featuring at-home tactile play. This light-hearted quest was written by Adam Irwin-Gunn and Tiffany Tjosvold.
For audience members based in Greater Victoria, the show was enriched with the addition of an interactive tactile map that aligns with the story and provides an opportunity for audiences to engage with some tactile fun and imaginative play in their own space.
Original Artistic Team:
Alexa Andolong
Adam Irwin-Gunn
Bennett Nowak
Claire Bruce
Erin Koop
Glenn Nowak
Max Lumsden
Randi Edmundson
Tiffany Tjosvold
We want to acknowledge the generous support of both the CRD Arts & Culture Service, and the British Columbia Council For The Arts for making this project possible.
Image: Luka is in the bottom corner sticking their tongue out. Above them on a diagonal is the text S___PACE. Above that word is a blurry rocketship taking off.
S___PACE
Jo wants more space, in every sense of the word. Perhaps 384,400 km could do the trick? S___PACE is an interdisciplinary outer space adventure comprised of stories, poems, science facts, mixed ability dance, puppetry, and even a little bit of bluegrass music.
S___PACE was developed as a part of Impulse Theatre's Peek Fest 2019. We're excited to see where this show goes in 2020.
Original Artistic Team:
Luka Garvin
Erin Koop
Tiffany Tjosvold
Sylvia & The Cephalopod
The fish just haven’t been biting lately for Sylvia – but one afternoon when she finally gets a catch, she pulls in much more than she bargained for.
Sylvia & The Cephalopod debuted as a part of Theatre SKAM's 2019 SKAMpede festival.
Image: Sequined octopus tentacles hold mallets and play a rainbow set of tone bars.
bloom
bloom is a mixed ability movement piece exploring community and mental health. The artistic team worked to meld together a mix of original music and poetry, dance and physical theatre on these themes. The magical and messy story that was shared in Nov. 2018 as the end of our initial period of development. We cannot wait to see how this piece continues to unfold.
We want to acknowledge the generous support of the CRD Arts & Culture Service for making this period of development possible
Image: Alida with her back to the camera, in front of a mirro with clothing draped on it. She wears a cape.
Creature Caste
In July 2018, Embrace debuted Creature Caste as a part of Theatre SKAM's SKAMpede festival.
Creature Caste is a short mixed ability dance piece that explores the social hierarchy in a group of gremlins. This comedic piece follows these creatures as they fight to come out on top (quite literally).
Image: The cast stampedes towards the camera down a concrete incline. They are outdoors and there are trees in the background. In front of them is a barrier made of chain.
We are thankful for the generous support of:
