CONSISTENT PARTIAL ATTENTION
Concept / Direction:
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Freya Björg Olafson
Researched & Performed with:
Lise McMillan & James Phillips
Lighting Design: Hugh Conacher
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Costume: Wanda Farian
60 to 75 minute performance
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PAST PERFORMANCE DATES
CPA [Consistent Partial Attention] offers a paradoxical meditation on what it means to be present in our contemporary screen-obsessed world. Developed through digital collage the CPA [Consistent Partial Attention] performance is guided by a video score of pre-existing / found Internet footage of individuals improvising in their homes. The performers sight read the choreographic score by referencing diverse sources and monitors. While the performers have familiarity with the digital dances, they can never fully know their ‘choreography’. Thereby CPA sustains as an exercise in ‘nowness’; the performers engage as interfaces in act of realtime translation of data / movement vocabulary from the video score. Through the rich confluence of sources we experience dance as a vernacular, learned language, permeating and crossing communities, provoking consideration upon the evolution of dance in the age of the internet.
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CPA - Consistent Partial Attention is available for presentation and touring internationally.
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The CPA project has been initiated through Collective Corps - an unincorporated group - comprised of performers / dancers Freya Björg Olafson (Winnipeg), James Phillips (Montreal) and Lise McMillan (Winnipeg).
The development of this series was generously funded by:
The Canada Council for The Arts
& Manitoba Arts Council
The CPA project received research support from:
Centre Q - Centre for Questionning (Quyon, Quebec)
Young Lungs Dance Exchange (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
Created with the support of resources available through:
Video Pool Media Arts Centre (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
Winnipeg Film Group (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
Special thank you to School of Contemporary Dancers, Tedd Robinson (for consultations at Centre Q), Shawna Dempsey & Lorri Millan (mentors during the Young Lungs research series) and Carol Ann Bohrn (dancer during the Young Lungs research residency).
Regina, Saskatchewan
DUNLOP ART GALLERY / New Dance Horizons
'URL: IRL' exhibition - view online:
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Curators: Blair Fornwald, Jennifer Matotek, and Wendy Peart
Performance - June 24th, 2018
Mexico City - online performance of 10min CPA excerpt
Centro de Cultura Digital / Movimiento en Movimiento
October 2018
Toronto - online performance of 10min CPA excerpt
7a*md8 – LIVE STREAM / 7a*11d at Trinity Sqaure Video
December 14th, 2017
Montréal, Quebec
OFFTA - Monument National
June 6 and 7, 2017
Ivory Coast, Africa
Les Jeux De La Francophonie
July 17 - 31, 2017
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Cluster Festival of New Music & Integrated Arts
Winnipeg, March 2017
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Asper Centre For Theatre & Film - Premiere of the work
February 18 - 20, 2016
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Showings of Work in Development
Centre Q - Centre for Questionning
July 2015 | Quyon, Quebec
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Rachel Browne Theatre | Young Lungs Dance Exhcnage
Nov 2014 - Winnipeg
Freya Björg Olafson
Winnipeg
Freya Björg Olafson is an intermedia artist who works with video, audio, painting and performance. Her work has been presented internationally at museums, galleries, universities, performance festivals and conferences. Throughout her career, she has benefitted from residencies, most notably through the Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center in Troy, New York (EMPAC). In 2014, Freya was nominated for the National Media Arts Prize from the Independent Media Arts Alliance by Video Pool Media Arts Center. She completed her professional dance training through the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, School of Contemporary Dancers and Springboard Danse Montréal. She holds an MFA in New Media from the Transart Institute / Donau Universität (Krems, Austria).
Concept / Direction
James Phillips
Montréal
James Phillips began dancing in his hometown of Victoria B.C. At 15 he moved to Winnipeg where he completed the professional training program at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School and performed briefly with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in several classical works. In 2005 James completed the professional program at the School of Contemporary Dancers and then moved to Ottawa where he spent four years as a company member of Le Groupe Dance Lab under the direction of Peter Boneham. While at Le Groupe Dance Lab James took part in numerous creative processes notably with Tedd Robinson, Emmanuel Jouthe, and Lionel Hoche. James moved to Montreal in 2009 to join Ginette Laurin’s company O Vertigo. In September 2015 James presented his first solo entitled Cyclical Return at Festival Quartiers Danse. After six years, James recently left O Vertigo and has been a guest artist at Toronto Dance Theater.
Researcher / Performer
Lise McMillan
Researcher / Performer
Winnipeg
Lise is an independent dance artist based in Steinbach, Manitoba. Lise has performed in Canada and abroad with Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers (2007-2014) in works by Sasha Ivanochko, Susie Burpee, Serge Bennathan, Brent Lott, and Rachel Browne. Independent work includes Sinha Danse, C. Medina Dance (Austria), Delfos Danza (Mexico) and several independent creators such as Johanna Riley, Alex Elliott, and Treasure Waddell. She is one third of Collective Corps with Freya Olafson, and James Philips and has produced and commissioned works by Serge Bennathan, Susie Burpee and Lesandra Dodson. Her own work “Current Affair” was presented by Young Lungs Dance Exchange in the 2014 Production Series. Lise is the co-director of TheDancePost, an organization serving Winnipeg’s dance milieu and was selected by Canada Council for the Arts to attend IETM’s 2015 and 2016 Spring Plenaries. Lise holds her B.A Honours Degree in Dance, and is a graduate of the Professional Program of The School of Contemporary Dancers.
Hugh Conacher
Winnipeg
Hugh Conacher is a well-known Canadian designer who has collaborated with choreographers, directors, dance and theatre companies throughout Canada and around the world. His work has been seen nation-wide, as well as in the United States, Mexico, Great Britain, Europe, Asia and India. His photographic work resides in private collections and has been published internationally.
Hugh serves on the boards of several arts organizations and has been the curator for the High Octane Gallery at the Gas Station Arts Centre in Winnipeg since 2002.
He is a member of the Associated Designers of Canada.
Lighting Designer