TRILOGY OF BEING - 2023

RE:IMAGININGS - World Premiere 2022

Time, place, movement -TPM

Is rooted in the re-investigation of contemporary Caribbean dance language, like bpm (beats per minute); the work explores Caribbean rhythms, cultural practices and the influence they have had on the Canadian cultural landscape. Re:Imaginings (time, place, movement -TPM) unearths historical/cultural connections of the Caribbean in Canada.

Re:Imaginings TPM will be tied to our Black History month celebration. The work will have both a live component and a recorded live-streamed portion.

FACING HOME - LOVE & REDEMPTION 2016

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BLURB

Using dance, the music of Bob Marley and Dancehall as a basis for the creation, FACING Home: Love and Redemption will leave you spellbound by the music and dance traditions of Jamaica, Africa and the Americas with modern, ballet and dances from the Diaspora. Experience culture and movement in this unique opportunity of dance The Question and Answer Period as part of the performance will unpack dance in a way that we hope is meaningful to experiential learning in education. It will offer connections to Social Sciences, History (African, Jamaican, Caribbean and Canadian), Dance, Physical Education, Theatre, music and the Arts in general. KASHEDANCE BELIEVES THAT EVERYTHING ARTISTICALLY STARTS WITH AN INQUIRY AND THAT CREATIVITY IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF INNOVATION, SOCIETY AND HUMANITY

FACING Home: Love & Redemption is contemporary dance production by choreographers Chris Walker and Kevin A. Ormsby. Danced by KasheDance, the work investigates the global impact of Bob Marley’s music—its expression of humanity’s struggle and inspiration toward love, redemption and hope. Set to covers of Marley, and to popular dancehall music, the work faces a West Indian paradox, which allows for the liberation found in Marley’s music while the lyrics in dancehall simultaneously suppress the abilities and oppress members of LGBTQ communities. The work emerges as a conversation in African Diaspora contemporary dance and poetry, with space for community dialogue.

LOVE & REDEMPTION

Draws from the many influences of reggae music and Jamaican culture and is set to covers of Bob Marley’s songs by Matisyahou of New York City, Luciano of Jamaica and Jonathon Butler of South Africa, among others.

“I wanna love you and treat you right…is this love, is this love that I am feeling?” – Bob Marley

“FACING Home highlights the paradox around the West Indian preaching of liberation we find in Marley’s music, while simultaneously oppressing the LGBTQ’s community’s ability to participate in family, community and culture,” says Walker, who is also an Associate Professor of Dance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,

“We’re inviting audiences to think of the global influence of Bob Marley’s music and its connection to larger social issues. We’re inviting them to ask themselves ‘when did I first hear Marley’s music?’ and ‘when did I first fall in love?’” says Ormsby, “We hope audiences fall in love all over again while thinking about love and redemption in light of the real stigmas of homosexuality, especially in the West Indian/Jamaican community.”

Walker’s previous work, FACING Home: A Phobia premiered in New York City in June 2013. It explored the violent attitudes towards homosexuals in their home countries that, for many, resulted in forced exodus and the reconstruction of their identities in new lands as a means of survival. Reconstructions of identity are also explored in Love & Redemption as it champions hope in spite of adversities.

A production residency and performance of FACING Home: Love & Redemption was be held in Wisconsin at the Margaret H’Doubler Performance Space, University of Wisconsin-Madison Dance Department November 19-21, 2015 where the first university degree program in dance in America started in 1926. It’s performance in Madison, Wiscon was voted Top 10 performance in the city for 2015. Its Toronto premiere November 26-29, 2015, saw rave reviews and previews and enlivened conversations about the work. It’s New York City, premiere was performed on the same night as the Orlando Massacre, highlighting the importance of this production in not just the West Indian but North American spaces.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

FACING Home: Love & Redemption is made possible with support from the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, Donors of KasheDance, the University of Wisconsin Foundation, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Graduate School, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Dance Department

RECALCITRARE - 2011

Premiered at Canada Dance Festival’s

Fresh Canadian Choreography” (2011) “to be a recalcitrant is to resist and question authority. Kevin A. Ormsby was curious about the symbiosis of dance techniques, it’s relationship to art and music. Questioning perceptions of the instruments of the classical period, the Erhu, Cello and Kora drives the musical score.

“Recalcitrare uses the choreographic vocabularies of Western contemporary dance, classical ballet and the movements of traditional African and Caribbean dance in a way that further develops Kevin’s growing and unique choreographic style. Rather than existing in opposition to each other, those multiple traditions merge into a piece that’s fresh and inspiring, and whose appeal defies categorization.” Anya Wassenburg – Sway Magazine Online

Recalcitrare came out of movement explorations in Toronto

and Kevin A. Ormsby’s 2011 Artist in Residence at the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts at the University of the West Indies, Kingston Jamaica. Using inspiration from research at the National Gallery of Jamaica with support from Veerle Poupeye and Oneil Lawrence. Examining the poses of renowned Jamaican artist, Edna Manley, and other artists the work was developed also through movement exploration with Renee McDonald. Set to the music of Ballake Sissoko and Vincent Segal among others, the work investigates connections to the classic period through stringed instruments from three continents Africa, Europe and Asia; lending to a sonic and beautiful juxtaposition of the kora, cello and erhu in seamless cacophony with dance.

BARAKA - 2010

Traditional and modern dance from Africa and the Caribbean
merge seamlessly with elements of classical ballet in pieces that
are fresh and vibrant…” Anya Wassenburg

Baraka is a cultural homage to the African aesthetics in the Jamaican, Caribbean, North American and Canadian landscapes.

The inspiration for the creation of the work was fuelled by the movie “Boys of Baraka”,
which followed a school in Kenya where troubled teenage boys from Baltimore attended. This experience ultimately changed their lives. As it did for blacks everywhere. Choreographer, Kevin A, Ormsby this work in his assertion that “I am an artist foremost who happens to be of African heritage…black is not what I am, it was a definition subscribed to me. If there is a tenant of truth in this statement, what would it be?” Baraka speaks to African Diasporic traditions that survived through time; which now is a living testament of experience of living in the Western Hemisphere.

Baraka is a cultural homage to the African aesthetics in the Jamaican, Caribbean, North American and Canadian landscapes.

In SEARCH of OURselves - 2010

Explores journeys we take personally, physically and spiritually the piece is about the questions that we ask ourselves everyday and it is based on displacement of cultures and people. It employs music from the aborigines in Australia and Native American music and Afrobeat creator Fela Kuti

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In Search

The year for KasheDance started with some great news which enabled the research and creation of the ballet, “In SEARCH of OURselves” made possible through funding from the Ontario Arts Council. Finding a forum for presentations in the Arts is no easy task, as many artists seek out unique places and performance series to showcase their work as choreographer or dancer. Such an opportunity aroused for the company at the Cultural Pluralism in Performing Arts Movement Ontario’s (CPPAMO) Town Hall (Jan 2010) at the University of Toronto Scarborough where Artistic Director Kevin Ormsby performed “Ke-ashe (Interludes within)” which received a honourable mention from dance critic Paula Citron and

The dance immersion performance series 2010 followed suit and the company worked tirelessly with Artistic Advisor and dramaturge, Ronald Taylor to hone the essence of the choreographer’s vision for “In SEARCH of OURselves” . The showcase featured emerging artists or choreographers from across the country and all had to undergo a selection process as well assigned a dramaturg, attend a lighting workshop and also worked with a Lighting Designer, Sharon DiGenova. The inspiration for the creation of “In SEARCH of OURselves” came from watching the war documentary WAR DANCE and the premise that we all ask ourselves questions at the day’s end and these questions affirm or further complicate how we understand ourselves and the society. “Choreography that used a fusion of vocabularies for a truly contemporary voice”

In Search

“ The choreography used a fusion of vocabularies for a truly contemporary voice. The company is technically quite brilliant, Kevin in particular is a virtuoso performer. Their style is above all expressive, making the athletic prowess simply part of the flow. The stand out was the finale set Fela Kuti Kinetic Afrobeat music, an urban tableau complete with briefcases and passersby. ”

“Explores journeys we take personally, physically and spiritually - the piece is about the questions that we ask ourselves everyday and it is based on displacement of cultures and people. It employs music from the aborigines in Australia and Native American music and Afrobeat creator, Fela Kuti.”

KE-ASHE - INTERLUDE WITHIN (2009)

Originally choreographed as a five minute solo which received honourable mention from renowned dance critic, Paula Citron.

“Kevin A. Ormsby literally and figuratively stripped away the strictures of assimilation. When he first appeared in Ke-ashe (Interludes within), he was walking around in office wear and sporting a laptop case—but just couldn’t keep himself from flailing out his hands and limbs in dance. In later sections, he communed with his innate African rhythms, those ancient cultural physical languages that fight to come out—and doffed the clothes suffocating them. (The Southern-U.S. tourist seated behind me got quite an eyeful for his first experience in contemporary dance.)” Janet Smith – Straight.com Impetus for creation came out of the visual stimulus of seeing business workers on their way to work every day and personal inquiry into the life of Choreographer Kevin A. Ormsby wondering how many person’s choices like that of going into business compared to an artist’s idea of work. What were the inner interludes or rhythms that we follow in either cases? Those rhythms, lost, gained, and affirmed

Choreography | Kevin A. Ormsby with support from the artists (2009)