Why I Love the FTA
Posted by Paul Caskey on June 15, 2011(FTA = Festival TransAmériques) A brief and selective history… Those that know Montreal, know it is truly a city that knows how to put on a great festival. Jazz, francofolie, comedy, lobster… you name it, Montreal has a festival for it! Two of my favourites have always been the FTA and the now defunct FIND (Festival International de Nouvelle Danse). Happily, several years ago, several of Canada’s arts funders announced a request for proposals from org’s interested in replacing the FIND (well, replacing what the FIND represented to the arts (and art-going) community in Montreal). The FTA won the competition and their excellent bi-annual, theatre festival became an even more excellent annual dance & theatre festival. 2011 marked the 5th edition and it was a whopper, continuing the festival’s tradition for presenting a wide cross-section of work that represents both emerging artists and international superstars. From the delightfully palatable to the outrageously provocative, the FTA draws huge crowds while in no way shying away from work that is confrontational. What I find absolutely amazing is that every show I attended was full: from the informal 100 seat studio performances to the grandiose 1000+ seat extravaganzas, Montrealers manifest their appreciation for … Continue reading
Art and the Muck of Ignorance
Posted by Paul Caskey on June 9, 2011It has been a long time since I’ve posted… somehow between wrapping up our season, witnessing a new conservative majority come to power, and getting ready to shift into festival mode, there has been little time to put any thoughts down in print. While so much has happened in the past several weeks, I’ve chosen three things to share. From politics, to media persuasion, to glorious art, in no particular order here’s a salvo of things worth thinking about: 1) My colleague Gay always tells me to start things off with a bit of positive stuff (good advice!), but in this case, I have to get something off my chest. Perhaps like you, I support many of the issues brought to light by AVAAZ, and am proud to have helped thwart Sun Media (SM) in its bid for public funding. This of course couldn’t stop them from being on the air, but it did prevent us taxpayers from having to pay for their vile skewing of information. Case in point: the SunNews/Krista Erickson interview with Margie Gillis, aptly headlined ‘A lack of Compassion”. The attack – it can be called no less than that, certainly not objective journalism – launched … Continue reading
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The new fAce(s) of Dance in Hfx
Posted by Paul Caskey on May 21, 2013Dance as an art form is so ephemeral, coming to life for the specific duration of a given performance and then disappearing into memory. Sure, it's true that all live performance is like this, IE. exi... [read more]
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