PREMIER
NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE
SOUTHAM HALL
SEPTEMBER 10 / 11 2024
OTTAWA > CANADA
SUPPORT:
NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE
CIRCUIT-EST CENTRE CHORÉGRAPHIQUE
SALLE PIERRE MERCURE
CREDITS
Artistic Direction: Andrea Peña
Choreography and Creative Concept: AP&A
Music Director and Conductor: Alexander Shelley
Electronic Music Composer: Eƨƨe Ran
Music: Alexander Shelley with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Eƨƨe Ran
Photography and Video: Edward Burtynsky
ANDREA PEÑA & ARTISTS
Performers: Gabrielle Kachan, Jontae McCrory, Jo Laïny Trozzo-Mounet, Francois Richard, Rebecca Margolick, James Phillips, Erin O'loughlin, James Viveiros, Justin Calvadores, Brianna Lombardo
Projection Design: Bobby León
Lighting Design: Hugo Dalphond
Scenography: Jonathan Saucier
Producer: Isabella Salas
Rehearsal Director: Helen Simard
Technical Director: Vladimir Cara
Video Chief: Gabriel Ranon
Digital Asset Coordination and Consultation: Jim Panou
Production Consultant: Marcus Schubert
Communications and Logistics: Polina Boltova
Production Agent: Isaïe Richard
Promotional Photography: Augustina Isidori, Jeanne Tétreault, Bobby León & Jonathan Auger, Rodolfo Rueda, Fatine-Violette Sabiri
Promotional Video Direction: Bobby León
Promotional Video - Director of Photography: Jonathan Auger
Documentary Video: Agustina Isidori
With support from EDWARD BURTYNSKY STUDIO
Producer: Julia Johnston
Director of finance: Connie Hitzeroth
Head of Business Affairs: Julia Johnston
Director of Studio Operations and Gallery Relations: Karen Machtinger
Project Coordinator, Field Producer: Jim Panou
Director of Publications, Exhibitions & Special Projects: Marcus Schubert
Studio Manager: McKenzie Grey
Archivist & Manager of Production: Paul Sergeant
Media & Communications Manager, Production Coordinator, Special Projects: Alanna Smith
NATIONAL ARTS CENTER
Executive Producer (NAC): Caroline Ohrt
Senior Producer (NAC Dance): Tina Legari
Managing Director (NACO): Nelson McDougall
Senior Manager of Artistic Planning (NACO): Daphne Burt
Production Manager: Alex Gazale
Festival Manager (SPHÈRE): David Gazaille
UAQUE is an NAC DANCE and NAC-ORCHESTRA
co-commission.
Andrea Pena & Artists has received support from:
Conseil des arts du Canada
Conseil Des Arts et Lettres du Québec
Conseil des Arts de Montréal
UAQUE
UAQUE
UAQUE is an interdisciplinary collaboration that intersects the radical choreographic universe of Andrea Peña & Artists with the evocative landscapes of Canadian photographer Edward Burynsky, in order to reflect on the anthropocene within a performative event. The seminal landscapes of Burtynsky, which capture the environmental catastrophes of human industrialization on the earth, are woven visually into this transgressive performance to question our interconnected relationship with the landscapes we have scared.
Accompanied by the live presence of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in dialogue with electronic music composer, Eƨƨe Ran, ten performers are juxtaposed against the magnitude of Burtynsky’s images which viscerally reflect onto the audience our globalized effects on the land. The performers, stripped bare, embody both meditative and resilient states through the vulnerability of their own flesh, as they welcome us into nuanced reflections, a place of communion between humanity and the scarred earth.
UAQUE is an interwoven symphony with 80 performers, who merge multiple artistic mediums, share with us a visceral call to action, to prompt collective transformation. A work that does not offer a definitive solution to the scale of our epoch, rather prompts us through Peña’s indigenous Colombian heritage to reconsider union and unity, leveling the human and non human form. UAQUE challenges the myth of human superiority, laying bare the consequences of our separation from the natural world through searching for a state of union, as referenced by the title meaning KIN, relative, neighbor, friend in Peña’s ancestral indigenous Muisca language.
As we confront the devastating consequences of our actions, UAQUE proposes a transformative reflection in perspective—a recognition of our intrinsic connection to the earth as a collective ritual.