New Tricks

Victoria Premiere.

Contains nudity. Adults only.

New Tricks is an intimate work that uses costume, disguise, ritual and 44 years of choreographic research to explore new ways of being in a veteran body. Personal and playful, it is grounded in a desire to embody liveness, the ambiguity of gesture, the poetry of failure and inefficiency, and a queering of both the imagination and the body.

Choreographed and performed by Christopher House in collaboration with sound designer Thom Gill, lighting designer Simon Rossiter, costume designer Sarah Doucet and outside eyes Tedd Robinson and Rosemary James, New Tricks premiered in Toronto in March 2022 and has subsequently been performed in St. John’s NL and Vancouver BC with future dates in Halifax and Ottawa.

The soundtrack is a series of covers of popular songs by composer/performer Thom Gill with special guests Alex Samaras, Lydia Persaud, Veda Hille and Edwin de Goeij.

The veteran choreographer and performer explores the queering of the body and the imagination in riveting solo. – Stir

This show was supported by Canada Council for the Arts, National Arts Centre, Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity, Neighbourhood Dance Works, Citadel + Cie

Credits:
Photos by Omer Yukseker

Accessibility:
The Accessibility Guide & Visual Story for The Metro Studio can be found here.

About the company/artists:
Born and raised in St. John’s, NL, Christopher House is a queer choreographer, performer, director, educator, and curator. He was resident choreographer and a leading dancer with Toronto Dance Theatre from 1979-2020, the last twenty-six years as Artistic Director. He has worked with many companies and artists including The National Ballet of Canada, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Ballet Gulbenkian, Cirque du Soleil, Kimsooja, and The Hidden Cameras. His works have been performed in nineteen countries. He has had a long career as a performer, most recently in collaboration with Ame Henderson, Jordan Tannahill, and post-modern icon Deborah Hay. Recent projects include choreography for I Forgive You (Artistic Fraud) at the National Arts Centre and his solo New Tricks (2022) in Toronto, St. John’s, and Vancouver. He is currently working with Dance Collection Danse on an exhibition on the impact of HIV/AIDS on Canadian dance. He is a long-time Associate Dance Artist of the NAC and a member of the Order of Canada.