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Peter Chin | He is an award-winning multidisciplinary
artist born in Kingston, Jamaica and based in Toronto. He is
active as a musician/composer, dancer/choreographer, performance
artist, designer and director. He is the Artistic Director of
Tribal Cracking Wind.
Peter was Now Magazine's Best of Toronto
dancer/choreographer/designer in 2008. He won the 2006 Murriel
Sherrin Award for International Achievement in Dance at the Toronto
Mayor's Arts Award and is a co-winner of the 2005 inaugural Interdisciplinary
KM Hunter Award. He is also a Chalmers Fellowship recipient and
his work has been awarded a prestigious Gemini Award for 'Best
Performance in a performing arts program' in Nick de Pencier's
film 'Streetcar', for which he choreographed, performed and composed
the music. Peter received four Dora Mavor Moore Awards: Outstanding
New Choreography for 'Stupa' in 2005; Outstanding New Choreography
for Northeastsouthwest in 1997; Outstanding New Choreography
and Outstanding Performance for 'Bite' in 2000. He has also been
nominated three times: for 'Language' in 1998, 'Ghost Train'
in 2001 and 'Transmission of the Invisible' in 2008.
His musical training began
at St. Michael's Choir School in Toronto where he completed his
A.R.C.T. in piano, grade X in organ, and began composing choral
works, several of which were sung by the choir in the cathedral.
At York University, he received his bachelor's degree in Fine
Arts studying painting, sculpture, video art and performance
art. He also continued his musical training and began writing
poetry under the tutelage of bp Nichol. Other teachers at York
University included James Tenney, Vera Frenkel, Toby MacLennan
and Casey Sokol.
Peter Chin lived in Java during
the 1990s, studying and researching classical Indonesian dance
and music, and aboriginal performing arts, both privately and
under the auspices of the Department of Education and Culture
of the Indonesian Government. In 2003, he did a five-month research
residency at the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh,
Cambodia, studying classical Khmer dance and music in post-Khmer
Rouge era, and Angkorian Temple architecture.
Peter's works have been presented
internationally and throughout Canada: at the Canada Dance Festival
in Ottawa; Festival International de Nouvelle Danse in Montréal;
Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival; the Peterborough Festival
of the Arts; Dancing on the Edge in Vancouver; the Asian Heritage
Month in Vancouver; St. John's Sound Symposium; the Other Festival
in Chennai, India; the Indonesian Dance Festival; the International
Jakarta Festival (representing Canada); the National Gallery
of Jamaica; Sutra's Gerak Angin Festival in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia;
the Singapore Festival Fringe; the Ijsbreker Festival in Amsterdam,
Holland; Lakhaon: Rencontre Internationale de Théâtre,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia; and in Toronto among others with Harbourfront
Centre World Stage, DanceWorks, INDE '92 Toronto, Art in Open
Spaces, the Gamelan Summit, the Shared Habitat Festival and Dances
For a Small Stage. Peter has also toured 'fLight' in Japan, a
work he created with Tokyo dance artist Hideo Arai and German/Canadian
visual artist Cylla von Tiedemann.
He is highly acclaimed as a
choreographer throughout the dance community, as shown by the
numerous commissions he has been offered, including: Dancemakers,
Toronto Dance Theatre, the Harbourfront Centre for the Toronto
Music Garden, the CanAsian Dance Festival where Chin created
a solo for National Ballet of Canada's Chan Hon Goh, Canada's
only orchestra devoted solely to contemporary repertoire Esprit
Orchestra, Fujiwara Dance Inventions <INSERT LINK>, Yvonne
Ng's Princess Productions, Erasga Dance Society, Red Sky, Kate
Alton's Overall Dance, Bill James, Marie-Josée Chartier,
bharatanatyam dancer Hari Krishnan, ArrayMusic, Dancers for Life,
the Moving Pictures Festival, the School of Toronto Dance Theatre,
Canadian Childrens' Dance Theatre, TILT sound+motion, the York
University Dance Ensemble and Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young
People.
Peter Chin has collaborated
with a great many artists in projects that have involved a wide
range of arts disciplines. These include Katherine Duncanson,
architect Derrik Revington, performance artist Nobuo Kubota,
composer John Oswald, Coleman Lemieux & compagnie, bharatanatyam
dance artist and arts producer Anita Ratnam, pianist/composer
Lee Pui Ming <INSERT LINK>, shakuhachi master Christopher
Yohmei Blasedale and the aboriginal company Red Sky in a project
involving composer Barbara Croall and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Peter has also worked with Canadian First Nations artists such
as Raoul Trujillo, Jerry Longboat and Alejandro Ronceria.
Peter Chin has been the featured
dancer/choreographer in the film 'Tari Rickshaw' directed by
Nick De Pencier, which won the Cinedance Award for Best Director
at the 1998 Moving Pictures Festival in Toronto. He further collaborated
with Nick De Pencier in 'Streetcar', a 30-minute film with photography
by Peter Mettler and performances by Peter, Nobuo Kubota and
a cast of nine dancers. Streetcar won the Gemini Award 2004 for
Best Performance, as well as the Dance and Media Snail Award,
Grand Prix, Tokyo, and was nominated for a Banff Rockie Award.
In 2005, Peter was the featured dancer/choreographer in the film
'No Man's Land' by director Alexandre Oktan, which won the Dance
Camera West Choreography Media Honors 2007 in Los Angeles. Peter
was also one of the choreographers selected for the inaugural
season of 'Freedom': a series of documentaries portraying Canadian
dance artists.
Most recently in February 2008,
Tribal Crackling Wind's Cambodia/Canada co-production 'Transmission
of the Invisible' premiered at the prestigious Harbourfront Centre
international series WorldStage. It will tour across Canada,
Singapore and Cambodia.
Here is a short list of works
by Peter Chin, including choreography for film, theatre and original
dance/music works:
02-2008 | Transmission of the Invisible (70 minutes) Cambodia-Canada
co-production, choreography, music and costume by Peter Chin,
five dancers, video Cylla von Tiedemann, music / sound design
Garnet Willis, set David Duclos, lighting Arun Srinivasan, presented
by Harbourfront Centre WorldStage 2008, at the Enwave Theatre
in Toronto
04-2006 | Mind's Hammer (25 minutes solo) choreography, music
and performance by Peter Chin, music commissioned and played
by Evergreen Gamelan, at the Isabel Bader Theatre Toronto
10-2005 | Stupa (75 minutes) choreography, music, costumes and
text by Peter Chin, for seven dancers, eight musicians and one
meditator, presented by Danceworks at the Harbourfront Centre
Theatre, Toronto. Winner of a Dora Mavor Award for best original
choreography.
02-2005 | Berdandan (30 minutes) choreography and music, with
Indonesian master dancer Didik Nini Thowok, live music by 20
artists: gamelan musicians from Gamelan Toronto, guests and choir,
at the Premiere Dance Theatre, Toronto
04-2004 | My Peers into the future (10 minutes) commission by
Canadian Childrens' Dance Theatre, choreography and music by
Peter Chin, at the Winchester Street Theatre, Toronto. Peter
Chin was choreographer in residence at CCDT for 2003-2004.
04-2004 | Ritual with frogs, butterflies and others (15 minutes)
commission by TILT Sound+Motion, choreography and music by Peter
Chin, at the Winchester Street Theatre, Toronto.
03-2004 | Streetcar (30 minutes film) director/producer: Nick
de Pencier, choreography by Peter Chin for 11 performers, music
by Peter Chin and Garnet Willis. Winner of a Gemini Award for
best performance in the performing arts program.
04-2003 | Nocturne (12 minutes) commission by Esprit Orchestra,
dance and choreography by Peter Chin, music by Colin McPhee,
at the St. Lawrence Centre, Toronto
03-2003 | Dancing Americas (45 minutes) commission by Red Sky
Performance (aboriginal dance theatre company), choreography
by Peter Chin for six dancers, at the DuMaurier Theatre Centre.
Top 10 selection for best dance work in the Globe and Mail and
The Toronto Star
11-2002 | Converse (25 minutes) commission by Toronto Dance Theatre,
choreography, music and costumes by Peter Chin, for 13 dancers,
at the Premiere Dance Theatre, Toronto
07-2001 | Wilderness Extempore, as part of the 25th Sutra Festival,
in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, full evening of three solo works with
choreography, music, costume and dance by Peter Chin
06-2001 | Bridge (65 minutes) choreography, music and costumes,
for six dancers, film installation in collaboration with Nick
DePencier, and live performances by 20 musicians: Gamelan Toronto,
choir and Hands On (West African Drumming ensemble), at the DuMaurier
Theatre Centre, Toronto
03-2001 | VibREDtion (10 minutes) commission by CanAsian Dance
Festival, choreography and music by Peter Chin for Chan Hon Goh
(National Ballet of Canada), at the Betty Oliphant Theatre, Toronto
12-2000 | DAG (16 minutes) choreography and music by Peter Chin,
solo danced by Peter Chin, premiered at The Other Festival in
Chennai India
09-2000 | fLight (50 minutes) international co-production with
Tokyo artist Hideo Arai and visual artist Cylla von Tiedemann,
created in residency in Kyushu Japan, touring four centres in
Japan and then presented by Shared Habitat Festival in Toronto,
choreography by Peter Chin and Hideo Arai, music by Peter Chin
and Mika Shibue
10-1999 | Hutan Belantara (20 minutes solo) choreography, music,
costume and performance by Peter Chin, for Festival International
de Nouvelle Danse, Tangente Theatre, Montréal
03-1999 | BITE (65 minutes) choreography, music and costumes
by Peter Chin for six dancers and 12 musicians, presented by
Danceworks, at the DuMaurier Theatre Centre, Toronto. Winner
of a Dora Mavor Award for both best original choreography and
for best performance in Dance for the ensemble.
06-1998 | Inirian (40 minutes) a commission by Canada Dance Festival,
for six dancers and four musicians, choreography, music and costumes
by Peter Chin, National Arts Centre Theatre, Ottawa.
11-1996 | Northeastsouthwest (55 minutes) choreography and music
(with John Oswald), and costumes by Peter Chin, for five dancers,
at the Dancemakers Studio Toronto, winner of the Dora Mavor Moore
award for best original choreography
05-1995 | Southwestnortheast (20 minutes) choreography and music
by Peter Chin for four dancers, representing Canada at the International
Jakarta Festival, Gedung Kesenian Theatre, Jakarta
Videos by Peter Chin
Transmission of the Invisible
'Transmission of the Invisible'
is a stunning new project by Artistic Director Peter Chin featuring
dancers Sean Ling, Andrea Nann, Heidi Strauss, Phon Sopheap (Cambodia)
and Yim Savann (Cambodia); video by Cylla von Tiedemann, sound
installation by Garnet Willis, lighting design by Arun Srinivasan
and set design by David Duclos. Nominated for the Dora Mavor
Moore Award Outstanding Sound Design/Composition in 2008, the
work premiered in February 2008 at the Enwave Theatre in Toronto
and toured to Western Canada in January 2009.
The cultural and human losses
of the Khmer Rouge era in Cambodia forms the background to this
work, but with a primary focus on the subsequent recovery and
rebuilding, especially of the arts, that started in the 1980s.
'Transmission of the Invisible' was initially inspired by watching
an aged classical Cambodian dance teacher as she instructed her
student in an almost lost classical work (since with the deaths
of approximately 90 per cent of artists, much repertoire had
been lost with them). With a searching eye for what lay beneath
the gestures between the teacher and student, Peter Chin has
created a work that meditates on how we pass on to one another
the unseen essence of a people that is contained and distilled
in the cultural forms of that society. By extension of this theme,
'Transmission of the Invisible' is also about the way that strange
and seemingly impenetrable parts of a foreign culture can nevertheless
connect and resonate within our psyches by mysterious routes.
STUPA
Choreography, music, costumes
and text by Peter Chin.
A stupa is a Buddhist monument
in the form of a dome or bell-shaped building. The piece, inspired
in part by Buddhist temple architecture and South East Asian
theatre, conjures a world populated by wrathful demons and benign
deities. Integrating dramatic full-body dance movement and precise
facial choreography with vocalization techniques from many eastern
cultures, 'Stupa' explores the notion of sacred space in both
the physical and metaphysical realms as well as the sanctity
of the human body and spirit.
Inspired by Chin's years of
work and research in Asia, 'Stupa' is evocative of Asian dramas
where performers are equally skilled in voice and movement; but
is decidedly a contemporary and international stage work.
Seven outstanding dance artists
perform this riveting work: Piotr R. Biernat, Yves Candau, Susanna
Hood, Mark Johnson, Hiroshi K. Miyamoto, Yvonne Ng and Carolyn
Woods along with performance artist Katherine Duncanson who meditates
on stage throughout the piece, reflecting one of its major themes.
The live music is an intriguing
blend of eastern and western instruments and scales, performed
by Debashis Sinha, Mark Duggan and Nur Intan Murtadza (percussion
and Javanese gamelan instruments), Scott Good (trombone), Kathleen
Kajioka (violin), Peter Pavlovsky (bass) and Andrew Timar (Indonesian
flutes and zithers). Other talented collaborators for STUPA are
Guillaume Bernardi (Dramaturgy) and Arun Srinivasan (Lighting
Design).
Berdandan
'Berdandan' (Indonesian word
meaning grooming, personal embellishment, dress up, get dressed,
decorated, made elaborate) is a live theatrical event co-choreographed
by Peter Chin and celebrated Indonesian artist Didik Nini Thowok.
A classical dancer/choreographer, expert in styles from West
Java, Central Java and Bali, Didik is one of few dancers who
continue the long Asian tradition of cross-gender dance roles.
The piece features dramaturgy
by Guillaume Bernardi, a live on-stage video installation by
visual artist Cylla von Tiedemann and is accompanied by Gamelan
Toronto, a full central Javanese court gamelan involving 20 musicians,
with musical direction by master Javanese court musician Setya
Sutrisno Hartana.
'Berdandan' explores the moments
of transformation, as Didik becomes the female performer of the
famous Golek Lambang Sari dance. It is from the classical Javanese
repertoire and portrays a young girl putting on make-up, dressing,
and adopting the poses of an adult woman. An old Javanese song
depicts a transgender tradition in the courts: a prince was invited
to perform in the Mangkunegaran palace of Surakarta and danced
Golek Lambangsari. The song describes the beauty of his dance
movement and his face, such that the men in the audience did
not recognize that he was a man, and in a state of enchantment
followed him to the dressing room, only then discovering that
he was a man.
Streetcar
Peter Chin's work has been
awarded a prestigious Gemini Award for Best Performance in a
Performing Arts Program in Nick de Pencier's film Streetcar,
for which he choreographed, performed and composed the music.
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