ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Hillar Liitoja

In 1977, Liitoja graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Music in Performance. Five years later he switched careers, abandoning the life of a concert pianist to become the most radical theatre creator in English Canada.

Liitoja’s direction is all-encompassing. He co-designs the space, the sound and the lights. He has evolved a DNA aesthetic – one committed to environmental staging – that is recognizable throughout his work, whether it’s HAMLET (an eight-hour interpretation), a piece tackling AIDS issues (SICK), or sensory journeys inspired by the poetry of Ezra Pound.

In the mid 1990s, DNA spent five years creating a major new cycle inspired by the great theatrical visionary Antonin Artaud. The effects of that research still inform the work, challenging Liitoja to push his own artistic boundaries and to find new avenues of creative expression. In 1995, he premiered his first proscenium show in Estonia – a hybrid of ballet and poetry, an exploration of the soul.

Over the past decade the arts community has begun to notice Liitoja's innovative choreography. In 1994, Patricia Rozema requested the “Iron Dance” from POUNDEMONIUM for her award-winning film, “When Night Is Falling”; and REMNANTS (for solo ballerina) toured to Calgary and appeared in the High Performance Rodeo in January 2000.

Liitoja’s work as playwright (THE LAST SUPPER and THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS IN ORANGEVILLE) has been recognized with a Chalmers Award in 1994 and a jury prize for Innovation in Theatrical Writing at the Festival de Théâtre des Amériques in 1987. His most controversial play, PAULA AND KARL, premiered at the international Six Stages Festival in 2001.

Liitoja’s first installation opened in August 2002 – the final event of DNA’s twentieth anniversary season. THE OBSERVATION was then invited to be in the Free Fall festival, a national festival of experimental theatre.

Subsequently, Liitoja has focused on ballet, apprenticing under James Kudelka (former Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Canada) through the 2003-2004 season.  In 2004, using dancers from the National Ballet’s corps de ballet, Liitoja created his first full-length ballet, I KNOW AND FEEL THAT FATE IS HARSH BUT I AM SO LOATH TO ACCEPT THIS to acclaim and standing ovations.  His second ballet, I OF THE BEHOLDER (ballet bagatelle), was considered "so dark and original and witty" as well as "rigorous, disciplined and surprisingly refreshing for something so harsh."

SHE ALONE (2007), was a haunting portrait of a woman in distress. A solo performance by Magdalena Vasko, performed for a small audience that sat outside a room with cut-outs in the walls and door, this text-free intimate work had an element of voyeurism and was truly site specific.

His latest work was WIT IN LOVE (2009), a performance installation concerning Ludwig Wittgenstein, based on a text by Sky Gilbert. WIT will be remounted in March 2010, as part of the Theatre Centre's Free Fall '10.

 

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ARTISTIC ASSOCIATE

Magdalena Vasko

Magdalena Vasko was born in Radom, Poland.  From 1991 to 1998 she trained in the National Ballet School in Gdansk, Poland.  Magda was awarded at the National Ballet Competition in both 1995 and 1997 and also received the Ministry of Art Scholarship in 1997 and 1998.

At the Prix de Lausanne Competition (1997) she was invited by Mavis Staines (Director of the National Ballet School) to come to Toronto and be a student at the NBS.  Magda accepted this offer and graduated in 2000, winning the Peter Dwyer Scholarship.

Magda joined the corps de ballet of the National Ballet of Canada that same year and danced with the company until 2004.  During this time she performed in a wide range of ballets, from the classical SWAN LAKE to Balanchine’s JEWELS.  She also created roles in Kudelka’s THE CONTRACT and Matjash Mrozewski’s MONUMENT.

Upon leaving the company in 2004, she has freelanced with various companies including Opera Atelier, Ontario Ballet Theatre and OMO Dance.

Vasko's first appearance with DNA was in the FATE Ballet (2004); she also performed in THE LARGE GLASS (2005) and I OF THE BEHOLDER - ballet bagatelle (2006). In 2007, Magda co-created and performed in the critically acclaimed SHE ALONE, her first solo performance. Most recently she co-created and co-directed WIT IN LOVE (2009).

She was appointed as DNA’s Associate Artist in May 2008.

 

DRAMATURG

John Delacourt

John Delacourt started working in theatre as a playwright in 1992 and working with DNA in 1995 as a dramaturg and translator on the Artaud Project.

In 1997, he co-founded his own company, Theatre Viscera, which went on to be one of the most innovative independent theatre companies in Toronto for half a decade.

During this period he either wrote or directed or collaborated on a wide variety of work with a diverse range of established and emerging theatre and dance artists.

Yet throughout this time, his commitment to the work of DNA and to the vision of Hillar Liitoja only deepened, through such work as BLOODSPURT, THE OBSERVATION and the FATE BALLET.

John’s sole commitment to the possibilities of live performance remains with DNA today.

 

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