Students explore artistic practice
Every few weeks, the MB Building’s seventh floor becomes the site of an experimental, occasionally spontaneous, interdisciplinary spectacle.
The MB Building has been home to Concordia's John Molson School of Business for over a year. However, the seventh and eighth floors offer studios, rehearsal space and recording facilities for students in the Departments of Music and Contemporary Dance.
The seventh-floor black-box performance space has become the venue for Studio 7, where Fine Arts students can showcase, elaborate and redefine their work in regular performances.
Stéphanie Morin-Robert, a third-year dance student, has been coordinating the events and earning credit for it as an independent study course. Morin-Robert is also President of the Dance Student Association and works with a team of five to ten people to mount each show, ensuring that logistics run smoothly. Morin-Robert began helping out with the event when she started at Concordia three years ago. The event was called Cabaret then, and held in Loyola’s TJ Annex, the former home of the Dance and Theatre Departments.
Morin-Robert says the Cabaret designation was misleading. “It’s actually a laboratory, to experiment and experience new things in contemporary art,” she says, describing the alchemy of the evenings. “A lot of people think it’s just dance, but people come and do readings, or play music.”
Students can email descriptions of or ideas for works they would like to perform at Studio 7 to dsa.conu@gmail.com in advance. The evenings are usually attended by between 60 and 90 people, who may find themselves recruited into a performance, or asked to lend a hand with lighting. Others may be seeking students in other disciplines to participate in a project and some “are just looking to get inspired,” says Morin-Robert.
Morin-Robert is pleased by the collaboration so far, and excited by the evenings’ potential. “In university, it’s really easy to get caught up in your own bubble,” she explains. “This allows you to open up and exchange.”
The performances start at 8 p.m. in the black box on the 7th floor of the MB Building, 1450 De Maisonneuve West. Beer and other refreshments are available for purchase. The next show is on January 21 with performances on March 4 and April 1.
Related link:
• Concordia’s Department of Contemporary Dance
• Watch a live stream of the next performance
• Watch past performances on USTREAM