UNBREAKABLE
Amplify Collective

Amplify Collective loudly and proudly presents the performance experience
UNBREAKABLE.

People in positions of power and their systems of oppression exert intense pressure on historically oppressed individuals and communities. Still we rise! We will not crumble in the face of this Intergenerational Trauma. Instead we continuously challenge racism, sexism, poverty and injustice. United we push back against these oppressive systems, the patriarchy and inequity. The strength that exists within our communities and the weight of injustice is woven within this performance through the use of symbols, body movement, music, distressed textiles and elaborate, wearable sculptures. Individually we endure, but collectively we are UNBREAKABLE.

Together we continue to heal!

Performances by Kayla Ross-Jackson, Caitlin Marzali, KJ McKnight, Matt Eldracher, Sebastian Marzali, Chy Ryan Spain, Scarlet Black, Sze-Yang Ade-Lam, Aryana Malekzadeh, Jaz Fairy J & more!

CREDITS
Curation & Costuming: Allie Amplify
Lighting Designer: Sebastian Marzali
Set Assistant: Jack Comerford
Makeup: Elene Seepe
Hair: Dmitry Komendant

Amplify Collective is a Toronto-based wearable art, performance and advocacy company. They create one-of-a-kind wearable art pieces, as well as host community classes and live experiences. Founder Allie Amplify has an extensive background in fashion, marketing and events. Her designs have lit up the stages of Fashion Art Toronto, the MMVA’s, PRIDE, the ROM and more!

Amplify Collective is a community of individuals with lived mental health and addiction experiences. Despite these challenges they have prevailed and hope to share a message of resilience and growth.

Turn up the volume with Amplify!

Keywords: 2SLGBTQIA+ | Activism | BIPOC Experience | Community

A Virtual Exhibition
In-Site, Incite, & Insight

Rather than experience the festival’s exhibition on-site, this year we experience it “in-site” — in a website, in the digital world, in the virtual. The works in the festival this year have been selected with the intention of being experienced virtually.

The artists bring insight to their experiences of the world having changed, how it continues to change and what this change can offer. This includes our growing awareness around mental health, our relationships with both the physical and digital worlds, and how the works can incite us into action. The exhibiting works investigate these themes and more, providing room to engage with the arts in a time when interacting and experiencing work has been significantly impacted. Through these works, we recognize that we are in the moment, in the current, in the site.

Visit the virtual exhibition here:

insite.workmanarts.com

This event is FREE and everyone is welcome. We hope you can join us to enjoy this showcase from home – wherever that may be! In case the Zoom event reaches capacity, we will also live stream this event on the Workman Arts Facebook page.

We also have a virtual Gallery on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/193283975@N06/galleries/72157719479293760/

Breathe expresses a journey from spark to growth to breakdown to acceptance. The piece includes a mix of Breakin’, Popping and House dance styles with a focus on Breakin’. This piece is inspired by Breakin’ culture, the artist’s power-infused dance style and his experience battling with anxiety. Breathe is a journey into the height of success and the depth of anxiety. We live in a world filled with high expectations from self and others. Breathe lets audiences know that it’s okay not to feel okay. Breathe highlights Breakin’ as an art form with depth, character and history stemming from the roots of lived experience. Accepting who we are. One day at a time. One breath after another. BREATHE.

Michael ‘Piecez’ Prosserman has been Breakin’ since 1999. Piecez has taught, competed, judged and performed for hundreds of audiences from Asia to Europe to the Canadian Arctic. By high school, he was accepted into Cirque Du Soleil and featured in the motion picture Honey. Piecez is the founder of a grassroots movement that uses hip hop to improve youth mental health called Unity Charity. Piecez is a best-selling author of the new book Building Unity, a university instructor and a mental health advocate. In his solo Breathe, Piecez shares his experiences with mental illness in a leadership role.

CONTENT WARNINGS

Strobe Light

Michael ‘Piecez’ Prosserman and guests will be participating in two virtual Q&A’s:

Saturday, October 17, 8 PM
“Breathe: a dance production + conversation on Mental Health + Community” 

Wednesday, October 21, 6 PM
“Breathe: a dance production + conversation on Mental Health + Work” 

Mountain Duets is a ceremony illustrated through dance, music and multimedia. We follow an individual that falls into a chaotic haze, losing sight of balance and stillness. This solo mover is a symbol of both our independent and collective consciousness. They are a representation of all we go through on micro and macro scales; a testament to the cycles of the building, tearing down and rebuilding of humanity. From the dark place, the soloist calls upon the ancestors and wisdom of Turtle Island to journey together through traditional teachings, reminding us of our deeply rooted strength, resilience and reciprocity to each other and to Mother Earth.

Winnipeg-born Sophie Dow is an emerging dance and music artist, inspired by interdisciplinary collaboration and her Métis-Assiniboine and settler roots. An avid adventurer, Sophie has a passion for busking, yoga and traveling on top of holding a specialized honours degree in Dance Performance and Choreography from York University. Currently Sophie is part of the Paprika Festival’s Indigenous Arts Program, preparing for adelheid’s re:research and is an Artistic Associate of Chimera Dance Theatre. She writes music, performs and busks regularly throughout Ontario with her band The Honeycomb Flyers and is a practicing licensed Holistic Practitioner of Traditional Thai Massage.

CONTENT WARNING

Fog/Haze, Loud Sound

Images of the Mountain Duets performance in Re:Building Resilience:

Photos by Henry Chang

Re:Building Resilience features 25 installations that examine all facets of mental health issues. This will be our last festival at 651 Dufferin Street before moving to a brand new facility at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. What better way to say “good-bye” than to animate all 11,000 square feet with performance art, installations, theatre, dance, film and media art?

Tickets and Viewing Options

Tickets for virtual viewing are pay what you wish. Virtual viewing is available throughout the festival. With your ticket, you will have access to a virtual tour that includes a virtual swag bag with extra features from the 25 projects on offer. All ticket holders will also be invited to receive physical RWM swag bags available for free curbside pickup during festival hours.