Orion Series in Fine Arts guest talk
Bill Coleman, dancer/choreographer
Gordon Monahan, composer

Bill Coleman and Gordon Monahan discuss their show, Dollhouse, as well as demonstrate the body sensors used in the performance and the physical preparation for the work. They will present an abridged performance of Dollhouse on March 7.

Dollhouse depicts a man whose world is literally falling down on top of him. Informed by such diverse sources as Artaud to The Three Stooges, Bill Coleman is a man out of sync with his surroundings as he tap dances and prat falls through a booby-trapped set creating symphonic chaos. The sound for Dollhouse was created by award-winning artist Gordon Monahan and features elements by Saskatchewan artist Edward Poitras. The result is a tragic, horrifying, bombastic and irrepressibly funny performance.

Bill Coleman has been teaching creativity and movement for over 25 years, most recently at Nipissing First Nation, Ontario; Environmental Arts Festival, Scotland; Centre For Indigenous Theatre, Toronto; New Dance Horizons, Regina, as well as at the University of Archangelsk in Russia, Concordia University, L’Ecole de danse de Quebec, School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Alberta University, University of Toronto and the University of Regina. Coleman was awarded the Canada Council’s 2018 Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts.

Gordon Monahan’s works for piano, loudspeakers, video, kinetic sculpture, and computer-controlled sound environments span various genres from avant-garde concert music to multi-media installation and sound art. As a composer and sound artist, he juxtaposes the quantitative and qualitative aspects of natural acoustical phenomena with elements of media technology, environment, architecture, popular culture, and live performance.