Dusk Dances is an outdoor dance festival that brings high quality contemporary and traditional dance to public parks. Dusk Dances features an array of choreographic works presented every night at sunset. As dusk descends, a theatrical host leads the audience — which invariably includes children, dog walkers and local residents — to five eclectic dance pieces that unfold in different areas of the park. Choreographers from various backgrounds are commissioned to create a ten-minute piece inspired by the park’s natural environment. Audiences are invited on a pay-what-you-can basis to an innovative site-specific festival, which is not only an artistic event but a social and cultural one as well. 2012 will be Dusk Dances’ 18th season.
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Mandate
As producers, our mandate is to bring dance to the community by making it accessible physically (our venue is a public space), financially (admission is pay what you can), and artistically (our programming is diverse, for all tastes and ages). Our mandate as presenters is to give choreographers a unique opportunity to showcase their work in a non-traditional dance venue, in front of a large and mostly new audience.
Dusk Dances is a member of the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts and Candance network.
History
With a bold vision to bring dance into the lap of an urban community, dancer/choreographer Sylvie Bouchard created Dusk Dances in 1993, using the natural beauty and magic of Trinity-Bellwoods Park's ravine (Toronto) for a site-specific dance event. The event was part of the Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists (fFIDA) and united six local choreographers. Dusk Dances was successful beyond her expectations.
