in/fuse 20: The Muted Note
Lambton Tower, Studio A – Thursday, September 18, 2014 at 1pm
in/fuse will present a talk at 1 PM and performance at 7:30 PM by visiting artists Susanna Hood and Scott Thomson.
Susanna Hood is a dancer and vocalist, while Scott Thomson is an improviser and composer. Both are accomplished artists with roots in both Montreal and Toronto, and are currently touring their collaborative work The Muted Note based on the poems of P.K. Page. A conversation with the artists about improvisation and time-based art takes place in Lambton Studio A at 1pm, with a performance of The Muted Note at 7:30 pm.
Scott composed the suite, a hybrid of jazz and artsong, and Susanna subsequently choreographed the songs with live music by Scott’s quintet, The Disguises. Susanna’s dances, like Scott’s songs, are made to be extended through improvisation, and the creative input of their superb collaborators will animate and activate Page’s beautiful verse, the core of this provocatively unconventional Poetry + Music + Dance show.
Susanna Hood is an award-winning dance artist renowned, especially, for her synthesis of dance and vocal improvisation, as well as her beautifully crafted choreography. In performance, she sings the song lyrics with tremendous poise and intention, and animates them with her singular improvisations characterized by both their focus and wild abandon. As part of their duo, Scott switches freely from accompanying Susanna to soloing in a vocal, extroverted style reminiscent of his teacher, the great American trombonist, Roswell Rudd.
Patricia Kathleen Page (1916-2010) is one of Canada’s most celebrated literary figures, and wrote some of this nation’s finest poems. She was also a visual artist, working as P.K. Irwin, whose artworks are in the collections of major museums including the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario.