Past Shows Projects and Events

Bind

Premiered 2016
BIND is a 6-performer, 25-minute aerial circus work that looks at feminism, health, exorcism, trauma, and flutter-fetti. This work is raw, edgy, and bold. The piece is a combination of contemporary dance and aerial work on an aerial ladder. The ladder changes rigging configurations throughout the piece. The music ranges from the ethereal sounds of Max Richter to blues-rock of Jack Black. The costuming begins in gender-neutral mechanic jumpsuits, which are soon removed. The rest of the work takes place in woolen underwear and bras.

 

BIND Credits (Live Show)

Concept by: Holly Treddenick

Direction: Monica Dottor

Performer (s): Angola Murdoch, Natlalie Fullerton, Lara Ebata, Lindsay Goodtimes, Holly Treddenick

Costuming: Sara Torri 

Painting credit: Diane McGrath

Videography: Eamon MacMahon

Performance history: Rhubarb Festival, Buddies In Bad Times Theatre, Toronto, February 2018

 

BIND (Video)

Concept by: Holly Treddenick

Performer (s): Angola Murdoch and Holly Treddenick

Music: Jennifer Castle, Dr. Draw

Photo Credit: Upstage Dynamics Inc

Videography: Upstage Dynamics Inc

Performance history:

St. John’s International Circus Fest (digital festival), September 2020

Mighty Niagara Film Festival, Stratus Winery, July 2021

REV

REV is a steampunk, post apocalyptic contemporary circus and dance work. Five fierce ladies work with an aerial ladder as their fallen aircraft. They hang, swing, spin and eventually soar as they work to to finally get their aircraft back into flight.

 

 

Concept by: Holly Treddenick

Creation by: Holly Treddenick

Performer (s): Lara Ebata, Natalie Fullerton, Diana Lopez, Angola Murdoch

Music: Squid Lid

Videography: Eamon McMohnn

Booking contact: Femmes du Feu Creations

Performance history: HarbourKids Circus 2019 

Commissioned by Harbourfront Centre for HarbourKids Circus 2019

AIRSHIP

Premiered 2011

Direction & Concept: Sabrina Pringle and Holly Treddenick 

Performer (s): James FIsher, Natalie Fullerton, Lara Ebata, Sabrina Pringle, Holly Treddenick

Music: Squid Lid

Costuming: Sabrina Pringle

Photo Credit: Dan Huziak

Videography: Peter Benedetti

Performance history:

Zero Gravity Circus, Toronto, 2010

Toronto Pride Festival, Buddies In Bad Times Theatre, Toronto, 2010

The Grand Theatre, London Fringe Festival, 2010

Hamilton Fringe Festival, 2010

The Aster Theatre, Winnipeg Fringe Festival, 2010

Femmes du Feu’s Holly Treddenick and Sabrina Pringle brought back performers Lara Ebata and Natalie Fullerton to collaborate and join forces with musician James Fisher of Zirco Circus to create their new aerial dance show Airship.Inspired by the culture and esthetics of Steampunk, Airship imagines the path not taken for technology in the early explorations of flight, and reveals the inner workings of a ship powered by human movement.

Leonardo Da Vinci said “For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return”.

 

Commissioned by Harbourfront Centre for HarbourKids Circus 20

THE PLANK

Premiered 2010

Jump into the rigging, set sail and dive into the legend and lore of women on the high seas in this aerial dance show!

 

Concept by: Sabrina Pringle and Holly Treddenick

Creation by: Sabrina Pringle and Holly Treddenick

Direction: Mark Richard

Performer (s): Sabrina Pringle and Holly Treddenick

Costuming: Sabrina Pringle, Lucian Matis

Performance history:

Zero Gravity Circus, Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto Fringe Festival

Winnipeg Fringe Festival

Past Circus Sessions

CIRCUS SESSIONS #6

June 6 – 11,2022

Circus Sessions 2022 in partnership Lab De Cirque

(TOHU, The Cultch, Femmes du Feu Creations)

Date: June 6 – 11, 2022

Where: The Bank Art House, Welland, Ontario

Project Description: 

Circus Sessions is a creative residency for circus artists and multidisciplinary artists who intersect with circus, originally conceived by Holly Treddenick and Lynanne Sparrow.

In this 6th iteration of Circus Sessions, we focus hyper local and hyper now with mentors and all artists from across Ontario. Alex Bulmer (Common Boots Theatre) and Angola Murdoch (LookUp Theatre) will guide artists through a week of exploration, play and collaboration focusing on telling our stories and working through the unique approach of “de-centralized vision” developed by Alex Bulmer.

CIRCUS SESSIONS PROGRAM 2022

2022 Participating Artists:

Sara Lou Stuart, Kaylie Kreatrix, Hayley Landry, Jordana Greenblatt, Erica Liu, Tanis MacArthur, Diana Lopez Soto, Hilary Wear, Thomas Vaccaro, Angola Murdoch

CIRCUS SESSIONS #5

June 17-29, 2019
Circus Sessions (now in it’s 5th year) is a weeklong circus laboratory and think-tank that will offer a small group of contemporary circus artists the opportunity to work with internationally renowned circus artists, instructors and researchers.  For the first time, this year’s Circus Sessions will run for two weeks – one for emerging artists and one for professional artists.

WEEK 1
Monday, June 17 to Saturday, June 22 – Emerging Artists

  • Monica Dottor (mentor)
  • Bahia Watson (mentor)
  • Jordan Reinwald
  • Celeste Bliss
  • Elizabeth Munn
  • Nicole Malbeuf
  • Leah Skerry
  • Leïla Maillard
  • Alexandra Watt Simpson
  • Christine Conroy
  • Valerie Arthur
  • Grace Law
  • Nicole Belfer
  • Rhen Molly Miles
  • Sage Lovell (with ASL)
  • Thurga Kanagasekarampillai  (with ASL)

WEEK 2
Monday, June 24 to Saturday, June 29 – Professional Artists

  • Michelle Man (mentor)
  • Stacie Dunlop
  • Tania Marin
  • Sara Torrie
  • Samantha Halas
  • Jessie Fraser
  • Allara Gooliaff
  • Raquel Madrid
  • Coco Framboise
  • Jessica John
  • Kiki Belle
  • Winnie (Natalie Fullerton)
  • Kook (Angola Murdoch)

Alex Bulmer, blind theater artist, writer and dramaturge, will be working with each group on creative audio description and creating with a framework of “decentralizing vision”.

Audio Description will be offered Saturday June 22nd and Saturday June 29th

ASL Interpretation will be offered Saturday June 22nd.

For information about venue accessibility, parking, TTC and more, see
http://www.tocentre.com/information-theatregoers

CIRCUS SESSIONS #4

April 23-28, 2018
MENTOR: Marie-Andree Robitaille from Stockholm, Sweden

Circus Sessions participants:
Natayu Mildenberger (Toronto), Rebecca Anne Zelewicz (Toronto), Miranda S Tempest (Toronto), Jennifer Dallas (Toronto), Aude Lavergne (Montreal), Andrei Anissimov (Montreal), Noemie Beauchamps (Montreal), Giselle Mar (Montreal), Myriam Bloom (USA), Wondercabinet Weshinskey (USA), Sarah Muehlbauer (USA), Maggie B. Karlin (USA), Inka Lilja (Finland), Ida Cramer (Germany), Tina Carter (UK)

This year we have Alex Bulmer with us to work with 3 artists, Whitney Nicole (Kelowna), Erin Ball (Kingston), and Kate Kavanagh (UK), on audio description and to lead research around increasing accessibility in circus.

CIRCUS SESSIONS #3

May 15 – 20, 2017
Produced by Femmes du Feu in partnership with Harbourfront Centre as part of NextSteps 2016/17

Circus Sessions Mentor:
Sean Gandini from the UK. Sean is co-artistic director of the fantastically avant-garde Gandini Juggling. Read more about them here: http://www.gandinijuggling.com

Circus Sessions participants:
Greg Tarlin (Toronto, ON), Mighty Mike (Toronto, ON), Louis Barbier (Toronto, ON), Christel Bartelse (Toronto, ON), Manuel Rodriguez (Toronto, ON), Britt Howlett (Toronto, ON), Dominique Rabideau (Montreal, QB), Kevin Cheng (Montreal, QB), Bekka Rose (Montreal, QB), Bailey En (Montreal, QB), Antoinette Lane (Battelboro, VT), Shayna Swanson (Chicago, IL), Courtney Propokas (Chicago, IL), Ty Ven

CIRCUS SESSIONS #2

May 16-22, 2016
Produced by Femmes du Feu in partnership with Harbourfront Centre as part of NextSteps 2016/17

 

CIRCUS TALK: A day of panel discussions – Saturday May 21 10-4pm

Mentor:
Adell Node-Langlois (Paris, France).

Circus Sessions participants:
Dana Dugan (Chicago, IL), Vanessa Furlong (Halifax, NS), Leah Samelson (Quebec, QB), Yury Ruzhyev (Toronto, ON), Katelyn McCulloch (Toronto, ON), Jamie Holmes (Toronto, ON), Rachelle Ellie (Ottawa, ON), Chriselle Tidrick (Brooklyn, NY), Erin Ball (Kingston, ON), Marie-Noel Bety (Montrel, QB), Nicki Miller (Brooklyn, NY)

Circus Sessions greatly acknowledges the generous support of the Ontario Arts Council and The Canada Council For The Arts.

CIRCUS SESSIONS #1

May 11-16, 2015
Mentor: Fred Deb (Nantes, France).

Circus Sessions participants: Lara Ebata, Angola Murdoch, Diana Lopez Soto, Emily Hughes, Molly Keczan, Diane McGrath, Greg Tarlin, Zita Nyarady, Airin Dalton, Gabrielle Martin, Jimmy Tommy, Noa Lara Meir, Leda Davies, Esther de Montflores, Lou Poirier

Circus Talk – A Day of National discussions on Contemporary Circus
Saturday, May 16 from 10am to 4pm

Panel discussions with circus artists and organizations from across the country including En Piste, Canada Council for the Arts, TOHU, Firefly Theatre & Circus, Allison Collins of the Vancouver Circus Festival, Circus Stella, and more. Free.

 

Cross Canada glance featuring

  • Yannki- Circus Stella (Moncton, NB)
  • Christine Bouchard- En Piste (Montreal, QB)
  • Samuel Tetrault- En Piste, 7 Doigts De La Main (Montreal, QB)
  • Nadia Drouin- TOHU (Montreal, QB)
  • Allison Collins- Vancouver Circus Festival (Vancouver, BC)
  • Annie Dugan- Firefly Theatre (Edmonton, AB)
  • Brandy Leary- Anaandam Dance Theatre (Toronto, ON)
  • Connections between Canada and the rest of the world: Autopiste, touring (Nadia Bouchard and Samuel Tetrault)

Past Classes & Workshops

THE BANK FAMILY DAYS

The Bank Family Days, produced by the Femmes du Feu Creations, is a series of arts & culture events engaged activities for families and people of all ages. Activities will take place digitally and at home. Registration is required, but all events are FREE! Each event will include a take home kit with supplies for the activity. Each event will include a series of online videos to watch, a craft to do at home, and an interactive Zoom meeting with the lead artist.

For more information, visit: https://thebankah.com/2020/10/15/the-ban

DIGITAL SUMMER CAMP

August 24 – August 28, 2020
Virtual Circus Digital Summer Camp will be hosted by Holly of Femmes du Feu and will take place on August 24-28 live via Zoom from 10:30-11:30am. Each virtual class will be a mashup of circus, theatre, dance, and games – free and fun for all ages.

Class will begin with a game, include stretching, some acrobatics such as somersaults, some juggling, some dance, and a craft or drawing. Participants will be welcome to use the props suggested, but we will also bring reference to household items participants can use.

AER TIME

Jun 15, 2014; Nov 1, 2015; Jan 10, 2016; Mar 3, 2016; June 5, 2016
Aer Time (founded in 2012 by Natasha Danchenko and Holly Treddenick) is a performance forum for professional and youth contemporary circus artists who are exploring, creating, and pushing the boundaries of their work. Each showcase features 5 artists and is followed by an artist/audience talk back session facilitated by a senior dance artist.