Brain Body Connection #4 Danny Grossman and Eddie Kastrau
by Free Flow Dance Theatre Inc.Monday, 30 May 2022 from 2:30 PM (CDT) to 4:00 PM (CDT)224 25th St. W. , Saskatoon, SK S7L 0C4
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Overview
Professional and emerging dancers are welcome to attend either in-person (please register as such) or the online zoom platform-based Brain-Body Connection Professional Development Series hosted by Free Flow Dance Theatre free of charge. If you would like and can afford to make a donation to support the future of the company please do! We are pleased to host this series of workshops with the support of the Community Initiative Fund, City of Saskatoon, and Sasktel.
Join Danny Grossman and Eddie Kastrau at the Free Flow Dance Centre in-person or via zoom!
“I am a narrative choreographer, profoundly influenced by the theatrical masks of tragedy and comedy. I have choreographed works that deal with personal, social, political, and spiritual transformation.”
-Danny Grossman
The great contribution of the modern dance pioneers, which allowed them to attack new themes pertinent to the twentieth century, was the revolutionary use of the torso and pelvis
I will teach this necessity, as well as the gesture, mime, and physicality inherent in my own social/political work.
Each workshop will deal with new choreographic material.
Assisting me will be Eddie Kastrau, a 36-year company dance artist, archivist, and videographer.
Jogging shoes and kneepads are recommended, and I will incorporate the use of the stretch band (some will be provided in person), or please have your own stretch band or scarf.
Media
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Details
Danny Grossman was born in San Francisco in 1942. In 1963, he joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company and spent the next 10 years performing and touring with the company. In 1973, Grossman joined Toronto Dance Theatre in Canada and became a faculty member at York University. In 1975, he choreographed Higher to tremendous praise leading to the formation of the Danny Grossman Dance Company in 1977. Grossman has since created a repertoire of more than 60 works, touring across Canada and internationally. His choreography has been in the repertoire of Toronto Dance Theatre, The Paris Opera Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, and The National Ballet of Canada and has also been performed by modern dance training institutions such as Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, New York State Summer School of the Arts, Adelphi University, City College of New York, Brown University, York University, School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Ryerson University, and Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre. Grossman has been the recipient of numerous awards including the prestigious Toronto Arts Council Foundation’s William Kilbourn Lifetime Achievement Award and was recently inducted into the Canadian Dance Collection Danse Encore! Hall of Fame. In 2008, the company embarked on a new initiative, the Danny Grossman Dance Foundation, as a means of reconstructing and licensing his repertoire. In June of 2018, in honor of his 75th birthday, Danny presented a full evening of his own works, including 3 world premieres.
“My dance is mime that moves with the strength and physicality of a football player. Dance that is clear, concise, daring, and universal – not afraid of subject matter. I take my narrative from everything I encounter from music to paintings, to ritual, to social issues. The themes relate directly to my life and the times in which we live. I am also an entertainer.” –Danny Grossman
Eddie Kastrau, a dancer with the Grossman Dance Company since 1986, has been a creative muse for many of Grossman’s original roles. Besides dancing in over 40 of Grossman’s works, he has performed other modern masterworks, including Paul Taylor’s Aureole, The Beloved by Lester Horton, Anna Sokolow’s Rooms, Charles Weidman’s Lynchtown, and Canadian classics by David Earle, Patricia Beatty, Peter Randazzo, Robert Desrosiers, Paula Ross and others. Mr. Kastrau has also danced independently for numerous choreographers in Canada and abroad including David Earle, Patricia Beatty, Nenagh Leigh, Menaka Thakkar, Janak Khendry, Rina Singha, Bill James, Michelle Silagy, Terrill Maguire, Randy Glynn, Andrea Nann, Claudia Moore, Joan Phillips, D. A. Hoskins, Newton Moraes, and Lawrence Gradus.