A SPIRE ON FIRE
The body is home to a vibrant spirit
A Spire on Fire ignites bold conversations of spirituality, performance, social justice, and the “self” in a society determined to ‘other’. We ask artists to hold this complex mix in the creation of new performance work.
Where the body is the site for stored memory, experience and trauma, as well as a vehicle for creative expression and liberation; Church sanctuaries are sites with complex histories, containers for community gathering, hope and healing, as well as spaces of violence and institutional oppression.
Knox United Church and Springboard Performance have partnered to commission performing artists to express personal truths and transform these spaces through site-specific creation, not in spite of its physical and cultural burdens, but in collaboration with them. Artists animate the space with their stories; truth-telling, history and healing (or the possibility of it?) through creative self-expression and community reconciliation.
Artists:
Ôta/Here | Rob Hunter
Performance by Rob Hunter with Ethan Hill, organ.
Ôta asks the animals for the pieces of himself back that he accuses them of eating. They see he is gay, as animals have the ability to see clearly into all spirits, & they know the way they will reach him. In his quest they must awaken in him truths that threaten to set their world aflame. Will Ôta achieve his dance?
Peel | Rufi Oswaldo
Peel is about the pains and pleasures of reaching toward authenticity in the face of judgement. It explores vulnerability through various, sometimes competing, mechanisms: the body and spirit; dance, music and theatre; and, emotional truth and the performance of the absurd.
Sister Mary Sells Herself | Jamie Tognazzini
Sister Mary is everyone’s favourite Queer Faith Healer (™), back for another religious experience! You may have attended her anonymous meetings for recovering Cathaholics at last year’s A Spire On Fire… or maybe you’ve gone on a different spiritual journey together over the years (she’s been around)…. What will she preach today, dear congregation? Suspend your disbelief, entertain your curiosity, and find out at mass today- nobody has turned to ash walking through those sanctuary doors (yet! Maybe you can be the first!).