AS COVID-19 shuts down performances, we hope to share some of DanceWorks recent presentations online. The first is Zata Omm’s Eden Planted, presented by DanceWorks in February 2020 at the Harbourfront Centre Theatre.
Eden Planted is an exercise in futurology, a reversal of the fall of humanity and restoration of Eden in our technological age. Choreographer William Yong talks about the world premiere in this interview and photographer David Hou shares these beautiful performance photographs.
Choreographer & Scenic Designer: William Yong
Dancers: Naishi Wang, Anisa Tejpar, Sahara Morimoto, Kaitlin Torrance, Connor Mitton & Andrew McCormack.
Lighting Designer: Noah Feaver
Composer: Joshua DePerry
Projection Designer: Afaq Ahmed Karadia
Costume Designer: Lisa Mann
Outside Eye: Peggy Baker
Performance footages filmed by John Lauener and William Yong. Video edited by W Zento Production. Additional music in videos by Ian Post, Kadir Demir, Frank Schlimbach and Kyle Preston. Licensed by Artlist.
We are extremely grateful that this production is generously funded by Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council , Canada Council for The Arts & DanceWorks. We are thankful that part of the rehearsals studio space was donated by Peggy Baker Dance Projects/National Ballet School residency grant.
Critic hails Eden Planted:
“The themes of this work are timely and urgent, touching upon human evolution and how we envision the future…The work challenges us to consider carefully the legacy we’re creating for future generations. The sheer strength and varied physicality of this moment, and the overall work, never fails to enthral as a timeworn sense of a flawed yet perfect Eden replays itself in a future sci-fi like environment…William Yong’s re-imagining is gorgeous, meditative, simultaneously haunting, empowering and forewarning as it moves through many possibilities for a future paradisiacal garden framed by high tech prowess that intersects with the evolution of human bodies in perpetual motion.” Bateman Reviews
