Latest news with #AlexElliott
CTV News
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Dark lullabies and dance with Alex Elliott
Alex Elliott previews her haunting new show Let's not stay awake through dark nights, inspired by Icelandic love, lullabies, and lawbreakers.
Winnipeg Free Press
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Icelandic lullaby jumping-off point for debut dance work
Don't sleep on the latest work from Winnipeg dance artist Alex Elliott, even if it is based on a haunting Icelandic lullaby. Let's not stay awake through dark nights is a translation into movement of Sofðu unga ástin mín, a folkloric song of horrific sacrifice that traces back to the true story of Halla, who, while on the lam with a sheep thief named Eyvindur, is said to have serenaded her three-year-old daughter, Tota, before pushing her over the edge of a waterfall. Not exactly soothing, but during a one-month residency in Rejkjavik in 2023, Elliott, who has Icelandic heritage, was emotionally affected enough to use the lullaby as a basis for the first full-length piece of contemporary choreography in her 25-year career. Pablo Riquelme photo Alex Elliott is premièring her first full-length piece of contemporary choreography. Her research led her to Fjalla-Eyvindur, a popular theatrical adaptation by Jóhann Sigurjónsson that brought the lullaby to European audiences in 1911. Eager to use the human voice and the Icelandic language as source material, Elliott began a two-year process of project development, which included an exploratory performance during the 2023 Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival. The executive director of Young Lungs Dance Exchange and the founder of the performance series Art Holm, Elliott saw in the story the potential for a movement-based exploration of human vulnerability, courage and the difficult choices made under otherworldly pressure. Last year, Elliott brought together a group of dancers to devise, and later record for posterity, the stormy selection during a four-week residency at Théâtre Cercle Molière. In May, a group of five dancers huddled around a laptop at the Rachel Browne Theatre, trying to remember how to climb the mountain. 'I keep thinking that I'm you and you're me,' said Neilla Hawley, a feeling echoed by Justine Erickson. Pablo Riquelme photo Let's not stay awake through dark nights features five dancers. That's not a mistake: in Elliott's precise, tension-based choreography, the human bodies on stage blend into each other. At times, Elliott, Hawley, Erickson, Emma Beech and Andres Jimenez Mejia wind themselves into knots, pressing on one another in order to remain fixed in place. Dressed in identical tunics by Brenda McLean, it's easy to forget who's who. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. Then, like shifting glaciers sped up by timelapse, they break apart, leaping over one another before fighting against the elements to reconvene in some form of spiritual afterlife. The sound design, a concoction by Elliott, Adrian Berry and Dasha Plett, conveys restlessness and defies comfort. As they move through the piece, the dancers often seem propelled by gale-force winds, spread across the map of the stage like scattered seeds. Elliott's piece, which was dramaturged by Ali Robson, will run at Théâtre Cercle Molière from today to Sunday, with each performance including a companion piece by Indigenous-Icelandic artist Victoria Perrie developed in response to Let's not stay awake. Pablo Riquelme photo Neilla Hawley floats through the air. Tickets are $25 or pay-what-you-can at Ben WaldmanReporter Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University's (now Toronto Metropolitan University's) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben. Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Rhyl Journal
09-05-2025
- Sport
- Rhyl Journal
Record breeze-up buy Celestial King all set for Ascot debut
Bloodstock agent Alex Elliott, on behalf of Amo Racing supremo Kia Joorabchian, saw off Godolphin representatives in the sales ring to acquire the son of Havana Grey for a record fee for a lot sold at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale last month. Now the Amo team are preparing to do battle with the boys in blue on the racecourse, as their high-value asset faces off against Charlie Appleby's Newmarket winner Military Code in the Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% Novice Stakes. Freire said: 'He looked very impressive at the breeze-ups and he showed lots of speed there. It hasn't slowed him down coming to us and it's brought him forward. 'Surprisingly he was a lot greener than we expected, but we see that as a good thing as it leaves us plenty to work on still and he's there now and he will run on Saturday with a great chance I think. 'Obviously there are some good horses declared like the Godolphin horse that has won at Newmarket and his experience could play a part but I expect Celestial King to run really well, he has plenty of ability.' As with all two-year-olds at this stage of the season, an eventual trip to Royal Ascot is very much central to the agenda, with the Freemason Lodge handler keen to give his charge an earlier sighter of the famous Berkshire venue ahead of the summer showpiece in June. 'There is nothing better than to have had a run at Ascot just to show him the place and so he will have been around the track,' continued Freire. 'We will see what the outcome of the weekend is and work with that. We would probably like to have another run before Royal Ascot but this is definitely a nice starting point.'
Leader Live
09-05-2025
- Sport
- Leader Live
Record breeze-up buy Celestial King all set for Ascot debut
Bloodstock agent Alex Elliott, on behalf of Amo Racing supremo Kia Joorabchian, saw off Godolphin representatives in the sales ring to acquire the son of Havana Grey for a record fee for a lot sold at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale last month. Now the Amo team are preparing to do battle with the boys in blue on the racecourse, as their high-value asset faces off against Charlie Appleby's Newmarket winner Military Code in the Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% Novice Stakes. Freire said: 'He looked very impressive at the breeze-ups and he showed lots of speed there. It hasn't slowed him down coming to us and it's brought him forward. 'Surprisingly he was a lot greener than we expected, but we see that as a good thing as it leaves us plenty to work on still and he's there now and he will run on Saturday with a great chance I think. 'Obviously there are some good horses declared like the Godolphin horse that has won at Newmarket and his experience could play a part but I expect Celestial King to run really well, he has plenty of ability.' As with all two-year-olds at this stage of the season, an eventual trip to Royal Ascot is very much central to the agenda, with the Freemason Lodge handler keen to give his charge an earlier sighter of the famous Berkshire venue ahead of the summer showpiece in June. 'There is nothing better than to have had a run at Ascot just to show him the place and so he will have been around the track,' continued Freire. 'We will see what the outcome of the weekend is and work with that. We would probably like to have another run before Royal Ascot but this is definitely a nice starting point.'
North Wales Chronicle
09-05-2025
- Sport
- North Wales Chronicle
Record breeze-up buy Celestial King all set for Ascot debut
Bloodstock agent Alex Elliott, on behalf of Amo Racing supremo Kia Joorabchian, saw off Godolphin representatives in the sales ring to acquire the son of Havana Grey for a record fee for a lot sold at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale last month. Now the Amo team are preparing to do battle with the boys in blue on the racecourse, as their high-value asset faces off against Charlie Appleby's Newmarket winner Military Code in the Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% Novice Stakes. Freire said: 'He looked very impressive at the breeze-ups and he showed lots of speed there. It hasn't slowed him down coming to us and it's brought him forward. 'Surprisingly he was a lot greener than we expected, but we see that as a good thing as it leaves us plenty to work on still and he's there now and he will run on Saturday with a great chance I think. 'Obviously there are some good horses declared like the Godolphin horse that has won at Newmarket and his experience could play a part but I expect Celestial King to run really well, he has plenty of ability.' As with all two-year-olds at this stage of the season, an eventual trip to Royal Ascot is very much central to the agenda, with the Freemason Lodge handler keen to give his charge an earlier sighter of the famous Berkshire venue ahead of the summer showpiece in June. 'There is nothing better than to have had a run at Ascot just to show him the place and so he will have been around the track,' continued Freire. 'We will see what the outcome of the weekend is and work with that. We would probably like to have another run before Royal Ascot but this is definitely a nice starting point.'
