KAMUYOT

Sep 26 - 30
In-Person | Multiple Venues

Playful and mischievous, KAMUYOT is a dance experience that will excite your inner child and capture the imagination of the youngest to the eldest audience member. Over 45 minutes with no clear boundaries, connections are weaved between the performers and the audience, formulating a language that seems like it has always been there.

Overview

Created by world renowned dancemaker Ohad Naharin and performed in Toronto by Charlotte Ballet under the direction of the company’s new Artistic Director Alejandro Cerrudo, KAMUYOT is a contemporary experience for all ages, developed with the vocabulary of Gaga. Naharin’s iconic movement language, Gaga is both innovative and ever evolving, characterized by a deeper connection to the body, freedom found through movement and a return to the feeling of pleasure.

For this unique presentation, audience members will be invited to take a seat on the stage, surrounding the dancers, creating a shift in the dynamic between performer and audience. At the heart of the show stands a simple invitation – to dance. Breaking away from the traditional theatre hall, the show also liberates the audience. A hand’s reach from the dancers, over 50 minutes with no clear boundaries, connections are weaved between the dancers and the audience, formulating a language that seems like it has always been there. An inspiring and moving experience that allows the audience “to be with” dance and not only watch it.

View the playbill for this event.

Kamuyot means in Hebrew, quantities. Like if you do something ‘in Kamuyot’ it means ‘in quantities.’ And the name lived up to its intention because we have had more than 1,000 shows of this already!

- Ohad Naharin

PRODUCTION IMAGES FROM KAMUYOT

View the gallery

When & Where

Ada Slaight Hall at Daniels Spectrum
585 Dundas Street East

Plan Your Visit

Tuesday Sep 26
8:00 PM

Wednesday Sep 27
4:00 PM
6:00 PM*
*Post-Show Artist chat moderated by Kyle Scheurich

Thursday Sep 28
6:00 PM
8:00 PM*
*Post-Show Artist chat moderated by Kyle Scheurich

Friday Sep 29
6:00 PM
8:00 PM

Saturday Sep 30
11:00 AM

PRICE

All Seats $15 (+ HST and fees)
General Seating

KAMUYOT is part of our FLEX Package (10% savings) and SUPER FAN Package (20% savings)
Learn more here

Running Time:
45-minutes without intermission

BUY TICKETS

All KAMUYOT performances are being moved to Ada Slaight Hall at Daniels Spectrum, managed by Artscape. Due to extenuating circumstances, Ada Slaight Hall was chosen in consultation with Charlotte Ballet and our festival’s production team to provide the best experience possible for the artists of KAMUYOT and our audience. The decision to move KAMUYOT was made prior to Artscape announcing that it was being placed in a receivership. Daniels Spectrum has been a dedicated cultural hub in Toronto’s Regent Park neighborhood and we were encouraged to see Mayor Olivia Chow’s Sep 2 announcement that Artscape’s receivership will be delayed for at least 30 days. We look forward to hosting KAMUYOT and Charlotte Ballet at Ada Slaight Hall from Sep 26 - 30, 2023.

If you have already purchased tickets for KAMUYOT, you do not need your tickets to be reissued. For further details, please see your recent email from the TO Live Box Office about this change (don’t forget to check your spam).

If you have further questions about your tickets please contact TO Live box office team at boxoffice@tolive.com.

For questions about this venue change please reach out to the FFDN team at info@ffdnorth.com.

Did you know - FFDN ticket purchasers to any of our events are offered a special, two-month trial to internationally renowned streaming platform Marquee TV, giving you digital access to the arts.

Link to redeem will be sent with ticket purchase confirmation. Valid for first time subscribers.

As part of Fall For Dance North’s presentation of KAMUYOT, we are excited to welcome certified Gaga instructor, Kyle Scheurich from New York between Sep 27-29 to host a variety of exciting opportunities for our audience to learn about and engage more deeply with the Gaga movement language.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

TALKS:

Kyle will be moderating post-show Q&A with Charlotte Ballet Artistic Director Alejandro Cerrudo and company dancers immediately following the 6:00 PM performance of KAMUYOT on Wednesday Sep 27 at TMU Theatre and the 8:00 PM performance on Thursday Sep 28 at Holy Blossom Temple.

Get your tickets for the performances here.

___

FREE WORKSHOPS:

Gaga/people
taught by Kyle Scheurich

Thursday Sep 28, from 6:00-7:00 PM, at TMU Theatre (43 Gerard Street East).
Open to participants of all abilities, ages 16+
No dance experience or registration required.
First come first serve.

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

Gaga/people classes offer a framework for participants to connect to their bodies and imaginations, experience physical sensations, improve their flexibility and stamina, exercise their agility and explosive power, and enjoy the pleasure of movement in a welcoming, accepting atmosphere. Throughout the class, participants are guided by a series of evocative instructions deployed to increase awareness of and further amplify sensation. Rather than turning from one prompt to another, information is layered, building into a multisensory, physically challenging experience.

Gaga/people classes are open to people ages 16+, regardless of their background in dance or movement. Participants should wear comfortable clothes and be prepared to dance barefoot or in socks. It is advisable to bring a bottle of water and a towel for use after class.

Gaga/dancer
taught by Kyle Scheurich
co-hosted by Keith Morino
Generously supported by Canada's National Ballet School

Friday Sep 29, from 11:30 AM-12:45 PM, at Canada’s National Ballet School (400 Jarvis Street).
Open to dancers and advanced dance students, ages 16+
No registration required.
Limited capacity, first come first serve.

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

Gaga/dancers deepens dancers’ awareness of physical sensations, expands their palette of available movement options, enhances their ability to modulate their energy and engage their explosive power, and enriches their movement quality with a wide range of textures. The classes are built on the same principles as Gaga/people classes but also employ the specific vocabulary and skills that are part and parcel of a dancer’s knowledge. The layering of familiar skills with Gaga tasks presents dancers with fresh challenges, and throughout the class, teachers prompt the dancers to visit more unfamiliar places and ways of moving as well, unlocking the endlessness of possibilities. Dancers are guided to connect their effort to pleasure and to discover the virtue of silliness.

ABOUT KYLE SCHEURICH

Kyle Scheurich was born in 1992 in New York. In 2010 he graduated from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and the Performing Arts. During his time at LaGuardia High School he also studied at Manhattan Youth Ballet under the direction of Francois Perron. He graduated from The Juilliard School and joined Batsheva – the young Ensemble in 2014. Kyle joined Batsheva Dance Company in 2016. Currently Kyle teaches Gaga and performs with P.OR.K, under the vision of Marlene Monteiro Freitas.

WHAT IS GAGA?

During his tenure as artistic director of Batsheva Dance Company, Ohad Naharin channeled his lifelong curiosity about movement into a concerted, dynamic research that took form as Gaga. Weekly classes with the troupe’s dancers in the 1990s served as a significant laboratory, and after a member of Batsheva’s wardrobe staff approached Naharin in 1998, he embarked on a parallel research process with the company’s office workers, friends, and family. Classes were first made available to the general public in 2001, and in 2002, at the request of Batsheva’s dancers, Naharin’s movement language became the main daily training for the company. Naharin coined the name Gaga in 2003, and he continues to research and develop Gaga daily. Classes are offered to the public in Israel and around the world in two main tracks: Gaga/people and Gaga/dancers.

Learn more about Gaga.

QUESTIONS?

Please contact:
Faith Buchanan
Education & Residency Coordinator
education@ffdnorth.com

Ohad Naharin is the House Choreographer of Batsheva Dance Company and creator of the Gaga movement language.

Naharin was born in 1952 in Mizra, Israel. His mother is a choreographer, dance teacher, and Feldenkrais instructor, and his father was an actor and psychologist. He joined Batsheva Dance Company in 1974 despite having little formal training. During his first year, guest choreographer Martha Graham invited him to join her own company in New York. Between 1975 and 1976, Naharin studied at the School of American Ballet, The Juilliard School, and with Maggie Black and David Howard. He then joined Maurice Béjart’s Ballet du XXe Siecle in Brussels for one season.

Naharin returned to New York in 1979 and made his choreographic debut at the Kazuko Hirabayshi studio the following year. From 1980 until 1990, Naharin presented works in New York and abroad, including pieces for Batsheva Dance Company, the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, and Nederlands Dans Theater. At the same time, he worked with his first wife, Mari Kajiwara, and a group of dancers in New York. Naharin and Kajiwara continued to work together until she died from cancer in 2001.

In 1990, Naharin was appointed Artistic Director of Batsheva Dance Company, and in the same year, he established the company’s junior division, Batsheva – the Young Ensemble. He has since created over thirty works for both companies. After almost thirty years of leading Batsheva, Naharin stepped down as Artistic Director in 2018, and continues to serve as the Company’s House Choreographer.

Naharin’s work has also been featured in several films. In his 2007 documentary, Out of Focus, Director Tomer Heymann filmed the process of restaging Decadance with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. And in 2015, the Heymann Brothers released their comprehensive documentary about Naharin, Mr. Gaga, to critical and audience acclaim.

A citizen of both Israel and the United States, Naharin currently lives in Israel with his wife, dancer and costume designer Eri Nakamura, and their daughter, Noga.

Photo by Ilya Melnikov

What is Gaga?

Free Event Co-hosted by the Canadian Opera Company

Join us for a dynamic introduction to Gaga, Ohad Naharin’s world renowned movement language lead by Kyle Scheurich, certified Gaga instructor based in New York City. In the first part, guests are invited to experience what Gaga is first-hand, and engage in activation of the body through rich imagery that stimulates the imagination and emphasizes physical sensations for a playful and exploratory multisensory experience. In the second part, Kyle is joined by Alejandro Cerrudo, Artistic Director of Charlotte Ballet, and select members of the company to share more context about Gaga in relation to KAMUYOT. Guests will gain a deeper understanding of this unique movement language through a demonstration of how Gaga informs the rehearsal process and Ohad Naharin’s choreography.

Thursday Sep 28, from 12:00-1:00 PM
The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
145 Queen St. W.

First come first serve.

About The Speakers

Kyle Scheurich

Alejandro Cerrudo

Alejandro Cerrudo was born in Madrid, Spain. His professional career includes work with Victor Ullate Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater 2 and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC). Cerrudo became HSDC’s first-ever resident choreographer in 2008 and held that position until 2018.

Cerrudo’s body of work has been performed by over 20 professional dance companies around the world. Honors include an award from the Boomerang Fund for Artists (2011) and the Prince Prize for Commissioning Original Work from the Prince Charitable Trusts (2012) for his acclaimed, first evening-length work, One Thousand Pieces. In 2014 he was awarded the USA Donnelley Fellowship by United States Artists. Also, Cerrudo was one of four choreographers invited by New York City Ballet’s Wendy Whelan to create and perform original duets for Restless Creatures. In 2017 Cerrudo was invited by Daniil Simkin to choreograph a site-specific performance for the Guggenheim Rotunda, a Works & Process Rotunda Project commission, featuring Daniil Simkin and original costumes by Dior. Cerrudo’s Sleeping Beauty, created with Ballet Theater Basel in 2016, was nominated as “Production of the Year” in Switzerland in the “Tanz, Jahrbuch 2016” by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

In 2020 Cerrudo was appointed Pacific Northwest Ballet’s resident choreographer, with that, he became the first artist in the company’s history to have the honor of holding that title. Independently, he directed and choreographed his show, “It Starts Now,” which premiered in 2020 at The Joyce Theater in New York. In 2022, Cerrudo was appointed artistic director of Charlotte Ballet.