Moving Roots: Reflections / Program Notes

June 3 & 4, 2022 - 7PM CDT

1. Re-Tangled

Choreography and visuals by Robin Poitras and Edward Poitras
Dancers: Anastasia Evsigneeva, Anna Protsiou
Music: Chiyoko Szlavnics
Costumes: Farley Chatto
Lighting design: Hugh Conacher

2. TANGLED

This collaborative work ignites the start of Moving Roots company. “How does physical connection change relationships from hate to love, from mothering to suffocation…”- this is a leitmotif in the contemporary dance duet. The combination of personal life, artistic practice, and several images, taken from nature, traditions, and beliefs regarding hair in different cultures, had finally formed a vision for TANGLED. Later on, the idea of the project developed into making a short dance film. The work has been realized both as a live performance and as a film, and the live version was premiered at the Art Outloud Festival in Regina in June 2021. This show presents the world premiere of the short film TANGLED.

Choreographer: Anastasia Evsigneeva with an artistic input by Anna Protsiou
Film direction/ Dancers: Anastasia Evsigneeva, Anna Protsiou
Music: Fadi Gatoussi
Videography/ Editing: Dania AboAoun
Outside-eye: Robin Poitras, Edward Poitras

3. Intro

This work is based on a poem written in the summer of 2020 while being under stress due to personal realizations and the world pandemic. The inspiration for the performance was driven from the works of Butoh artists. The poem is originally written in Russian and later translated into English. It is an artist’s experiment on how the audience’s perception of the poem changes if they don’t know the meaning of the words. If you don’t understand the Russian language, I invite you to give yourself a chance to be misled by the unknown language before reading the translation below.

English Translation

I made it all up:
You, your eyes, your character, and body…
I made it all up:
Landscape, skies, wind, pine trees, and chickadee.

Sometimes I would ask myself
How were those things
Produced by my imagination?
Why did I think of 5, not 6 books on the shelf?
And what is real is just my mind’s connotation.

What lessons my creative consciousness will strive,
When making running, always-changing world around?
If all that’s true, then bringing dreams to life
For one who’s making world is not compound.

And all you need is an ability to ask,
And clarity in your requests and wishes.
Don’t hide your face from Macrocosm in mask
Just straight up tell it all of your ambitions.

All that you see around is your thought,
A well-thought-through delusionary image…
Do others see the same one or not?
How many more truths people have envisaged?

Shhhh…*whispering* river rolling over rocks…
See? Water streaming all your grieves and feelings…
It’s carrying dreams, your stories, and your talks
That urge to reach to other human beings.

I made it all up:
World, myself in it *laugh*
And all around is just my mind’s reflection.
I made it all up:
This is how it is
It's a pure dream inside creationist’s perfection.

Author/Performer: Anastasia Evsigneeva
Lighting design: Hugh Conacher
Outside- eye: Emily Solstice Tait

4. Metamers

Metamers is a choreographic solo that transcends the viewer from the inner depths of the human body to outer space. Metamerism is the perceived matching of colors that actually reflect different wavelengths but appear the same under certain lighting conditions. Colors that match under some lights but not others are called metamers. Our perception of the world is often based on many illusions and what we choose to see through our own experiences that can shift drastically from one human to the other or under different circumstances. When the brain communicates the information by sending signals down the spine nothing is without questions, curiosity; What do you see? What do you hear? Maybe it has nothing to do with what you think. Is it the birth of a new idea or a new version of me?

Choreographer/ Dancer/ Concept & Costume/Set design: Anna Protsiou
Music: Rayannah
Lighting design: Hugh Conacher
Costume construction: Brenda McLean, Claire Sparling
Outside-eye: Emily Solstice Tait

5. ME-Error

Being trapped alone in a world full of distorted perceptions molds your self-perception to what the surroundings want you to be. ME-Error brings up the question of self-image being formed by very high, unachievable standards that modern society dictates to us. The work was created along with the research of Egyptian mythology, the world history of mirrors, and rituals performed with them in different cultures. The inspiration also came from personal experiences, love and loss, and psychology studies.

Choreographer/ Dancer/ Concept & Costume and set design/ Voice: Anastasia Evsigneeva
Music: Rayannah
Lighting design: Hugh Conacher
Set construction: Steven Vande Vyvere
Costume construction: Brenda McLean, Claire Sparling
Outside-eye: Emily Solstice Tait

6. Re-Flexions

Disappearing, blending in with one another and the outer space, reflecting on the concepts; creating the concepts; seeing them. What is that? The reflection or reality. Diving in and bending over, curving the lines, the artists create the illusion of what is seen versus perceived.

This piece is a study on the physicality of the spine and back fluidity alongside visual illusions created with specific costume choices and lighting design. One of the ideas for the work was the idea of duality between Anna and Anastasia which has also been brought up in other works by Moving Roots. An excerpt of the duet was first performed at Dead of Winter Cabaret in January 2021 presented by Prairie Circus Arts in Winnipeg.

Choreographers/ Contortionists: Anna Protsiou & Anastasia Evsigneeva
Music: Johannes Brahms- “3 Intermezzi, Op. 117: No.2 in B-Flat Minor” interpreted by David Troya, edited by Rayannah
Lighting design: Hugh Conacher
Costume design consultant: Brenda McLean
Cutter/ Sewer: Claire Sparling