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NEWS & UPCOMING

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New Fulcrum Program Opportunity:
Calling T:karonto based dance & interarts artists!

With support from the Metcalf Foundation, pounds is launching a paid research opportunity for early and mid-career participating artists exploring the balance of artistry and administrative challenges in living a creative life, as well as the opportunities and challenges of collaboration and sharing in the arts industry.
This project will run from April-August, with the majority of activity taking place between April-June. Deadline to apply: March 21, 2025

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ABOUT TO... BEING 
Writing workshop with Gerry Trentham 
Tuesday, April 22 through Saturday, April 26 2025 (Online and Hybrid)

Embark on a transformative autobiographically inspired journey of self-expression and creativity. Through a full-body explorative method conceived and led by acclaimed teacher, performer and choreographer/writer Gerry Trentham, participants will transform authentic and autobiographical material into distinctive performance and literary possibilities.

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Dates:

  • Tuesday April 22, 6:00 - 9:00 pm EST online

  • Friday April 25, 6:00 - 9:00 pm EST online

  • Saturday April, 26, 1:00 - 5:00 pm EST online or in person

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ARMANDO CENTRE Argentina & LBS/SQ” PERFORMANCE Canada PRESENT:
 

THE ARMANDO CENTRE 
VOICE INTENSIVE 

SAVE THE DATES: January 12th to 24th 2026
Buenos Aires, Argentina
 

This truly intensive two week performance training program offers you, the participant, a journey into the foundations of performance- your voice - your body -as a site for revelation and authenticity.

30th Anniversary Launch

Enjoy a sneak peak of new work developed in our annual residency at the Armando Centre in Buenos Aires, launching our 30th anniversary season!
Livestream Recording:

​Save the date for in-person 30th Anniversary gatherings:​

  • June 21 - Summer Solstice - New Fulcrum Artist Event

    • ​Dance with us on this longest day

  • December 21 - Premiere of BUOYANCY of LIGHT

    • ​CCDT - 509 Parliament, Toronto

    • Join us for the world premiere of the live performance featuring Tia Kushnirek, Aria Evans, Michael Mortley and Calder White.

Buoyancy of Light
& Launching Our 30th Anniversary Season!

We will premiere our new live quartet BUOYANCY of LIGHT at home in Toronto December 21, 2025 following residencies in Buenos Aires and the Catskill mountains of Upstate NY!

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Resonating with Age
Voice Workshops with Gerry Trentham 
Live in Toronto or Virtual

Resonating with Age is a workshop dedicated to reclaiming your moving voice as you grow older. With enjoyable and healthy voice/body practices you can begin to move and resonate more freely, once again creating sustained vocal/physical presence through your elder years.

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Open Body

Garden Party 

Saturday, July 6, 2024 at 7:30pm & Sunday, July 7, 2024 at 3pm in Williamsville, NY

THANK YOU ALL ARTISTS AND ART LOVERS for spending some time in the garden with us for food, drinks, festive outdoor flair, and the premiere of Open Body featuring immersive performances by Megan Rakeepile and Marisa Caruso with music by Moya Rakeepile and Drew Azzinaro, choreographed and directed by Gerry Trentham of lbs/sq” performance. What a wonderful gathering and such great support.  We hope to see you again soon!

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Photo by William Yong of Sylvie Bouchard & Learie McNicolls

Under Pressure: Where Roots Take Hold

Celebration & Fundraiser

Wednesday, June 12 at the CCDT (509 Parliament, Toronto, ON), 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm

THANK YOU ALL FOR JOINING US --- what a glorious sharing of art and its care.   We hope to see you all again soon.   Keep dancing!

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We invited you to celebrate with us for a last evening at 509 Parliament, as our host CCDT’s time comes to an end. Thanks to all who attended! 

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Arrivals Legacy Voice
In collaboration with Arrivals Legacy Project & Open Heart Arts Theatre
Thursday, May 23 to Monday, May 27, 2024 at McMaster University
 

Thanks for all gathering --- we hope to see you soon with a next opportunity for performers, writers, singers, educators, change leaders, and artists of all disciplines to come together in a collaborative space for cross-cultural exchange and performative story-making, exploring where their ancestral histories meet.

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ABOUT TO... BEING 
Solo writing workshops with Gerry Trentham 
Monday, March 18th through Saturday, March 23rd, 2024 (Online)

STAY TUNED FOR OUR FALL offering of the next week-long writing intensives, participants are invited to embark on a transformative autobiographically inspired journey of self-expression and creativity. Through a full-body explorative method conceived and led by acclaimed teacher, performer and choreographer/writer Gerry Trentham, participants will transform authentic and autobiographical material into distinctive performance and literary possibilities. Register now!

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THE GARDENER AND THE HORSE
Premiers FEBRUARY 22 - 24, 2024

The Gardener and the Horse, a raw exploratory duet created and performed by Michael Caldwell and Gerry Trentham, is off to Buenos Aries. In residence at the Armando Centre, their exploration with be with the local community between Thurs. Feb 22 and Sat. Feb 24 and open to an international audience on Feb 24.

 

Stay tuned for the live streamed public experiment on Feb 24 as virtual and live join into the intimacy of Michael and Gerry's queer sanctuary. As they move through transitions of aging with humour and blunt presence they question each’s perspectives on life, love, art and dance. They find the edge of where their queerness has been contained, subdued or sabotaged and challenge each other to jump.

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lbs/sq" 2022/2023 Season Report

Our busy 2022/2023 season was a success!  

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WORLD PREMIERE OF ENCOUNTERS
Premiered MAY 10 - 13, 2023 
Produced by BoucharDanse and Presented by Citadel + Compagnie

This double-bill featured two new works by acclaimed Canadian choreographers, commissioned by BoucharDanse.

Bob’s Last Request!
Choreographed by the late Tedd Robinson
Performed by Sylvie Bouchard and Gerry Trentham
With support and consultation by Angie Cheng​

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… but water is like a mirror

Choreographed by Sashar Zarif

Performed by Sylvie Bouchard

With live music by Sashar Zarif

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Thank you all for attending and making the event such a success!

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RAY - Wins Best Experimental Film at Venice Shorts

Congratulations to Writer/Choreographer/Performer Gerry Trentham, Filmmaker Cinematography & Editor Director Jesse Deganis-Librera,
Composer John Mark Sherlock, Sound Recording KanchaleeWijakpaisarn, Costume Designer Ann Emo, and Set and Location Designer Jeffrey Livingston!

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lbs/sq" 2021/2022 Season Report

Our 2021/2022 season was a huge success!  

lbs/sq” envisions cooperation as the essential ecological structure that counters entropy.

 

*Entropy: the gradual decline into disorder, the degree of disorder of uncertainty in a system. 

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Cooperation focuses energy efficiently, nurtures divergent outcomes, encourages adaptability, and accesses broader support. Elsewhere in nature and in the co-conscious creative collaboration of our lbs/sq” art, we see joint landscapes that embrace and value ecotones where difference meets. 

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*Ecotones: Where diverse landscapes meet to create an artistic - shore- between ocean and land; a rich creative environment for new ideas to arise. 

 

Can cultivating these same ecotones in our community enhance innovation and adaptability through cooperation, creating a more resilient and dynamic arts ecosystem? 

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What happens if we re-orient our artistic practice toward bonding artists and rebalancing cooperative and competitive intents? 

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The New Fulcrum Project, or NFP, is a research project aimed at examining how solo-driven artists/art companies can create networks of connection that can be sustained through the creation of artistic work. Throughout this research, the NFP will facilitate a personal and psychological journey for participants to engage in cooperative creation. Participants will divide themselves into two pods, each with the freedom to create an artistic offering. The NFP will track the creation of each project and will engage with participants to understand why solo art entities tend to avoid artistic cooperation. 

 

We are searching for 8 individuals willing to participate in this research project over the course of several months. Participants should be at a point in their career where their art creations are established to some degree, and are looking to expand their administrative capacity in order to advance the scope and impact of their art.

 

This project will require: 

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  • Artists who are able to dedicate themselves to the timeline of this project, and who are able to invest their energy into their cohort, making this project a priority

  • Artists who are willing to self-report their experiences in this project to the research team. The research team commits to honoring the artist’s privacy and confidentiality

  • Artists who have the time and the capacity to create with others 

  • Artists whose body of work is established to the extent that they understand their creative practices are able to articulate them 

  • Artists who are available for co-creation from May - June 2025. The research period consists of a mandatory gathering in May (May 2-3 and May 9-10), time to collaborate with the research cohort in May and June (scheduled collaboratively by the research cohort), with two weeks of intense, full-time work in June that culminates in an audience engagement event titled Artistic Encounters on June 21st, 2025. Please reserve June 22nd, 2025 in case of inclement weather or other circumstances..

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*All artists will be compensated for their time spent on the project. Participation fees will be $35/hours to a maximum of 70 hours. 8 artists will be chosen to participate in this research project. 

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Timeline of The New Fulcrum Project 

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March 2025 

 

A cohort of 8 artists will be selected to participate in this project as Fulcrum Artists (FA). 

 

The lbs/sq” Selection Committee consists of Senior Fulcrum Associates: dance artist Michael Caldwell, theatre director and cultural animator Diane Roberts, and visual artist Kearsten Covin Woodruff. These artists have been artistic associates of lbs/sq" for over 15 years and compromised the original Fulcrum Project initiated to help share knowledge between generations. 

 

The selection committee will consider applications from this open call that encourages diversity across a broad spectrum of experiences. 

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Applications are due March 21st.

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Applicants will be informed about their participation by April 7th. 

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May 2025 

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Participants must be available for the following dates: May 2nd-3rd, and May 9th-10th.

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The cohort will gather over the course of a two-day sharing circle, and Gerry Trentham, founder and artistic director of lbs/sq" , in collaboration with associates, will provide a space for the FA team to equitably share their artistic and career/life journeys. 

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Through facilitated writing, voice/body practice and preparatory co-conscious collaboration, the team will be led to a place where they can share visions and test connections of care.

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By the end of the weekend, the FA team will decide who will sit on two pods of four members. 

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May 10th - June 16th 2025 

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From May 10th till June 16th, the two pods will arrange to work on their co-creation and each pod will plan these times internally. Artists must have reasonable availability to participate (approximately 30-40 hours to dedicate from mid-May until June). 

 

The self-directed pods will meet online or in person to identify their current artistic visions, and to cooperatively develop strategies to co-create a shared, implementable project. 

 

FAs will be asked to carve out time to work within their pods to create a tangible practice of cooperation. The final project will be an artistic offering that reflects the Pod’s shared values and unique vision. 

 

Each Pod negotiates processes and protocols to create together a final project that takes on the form of a public encounter. 

 

Each Pod will document their experience, noting challenges and successes in the cooperative environment. The FAs will also document their own personal experiences interacting with the group, to be shared only with the Production Team. 

 

There will also be 2 meetings with the entire cohort, facilitated by Gerry Trentham, over this 2 month period. 

 

June 16th - June 22nd 2025 

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FAs will be in creation full-time from June 16th to June 21st, 2025 (show date), and will reserve June 22nd, 2025 in the case of inclement weather or other circumstances. 

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September 2025 

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After the final project is completed, the FAs will be given a survey to evaluate their sustained participation in the Pod. Do artists continue to build that network, or return to their individual artistic practices, and why (or why not)? This is the essential question that we hope to answer throughout this research project.

 

Selection Criteria: 

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You will be asked to provide: 

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  • Name 

  • Preferred pronouns 

  • Email 

  • Website 

  • Selection of dates: May 2nd-3rd, and May 9th-10th. Ideally, you will be available for all dates. 

 

Application Questions: 

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*We encourage you to explore new language to describe your artistic interests at this time. 

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You may find that your answers fall somewhere between 100-300 words, or a video of 2-3 minutes. Let it discover you. 

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  1. In the world of art-making, where do you fit? 

  2. What of yourself do you wish to bring into this project? 

  3. What is the crux of the difficulty in making your art at this time? 

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Artistic Materials 

 

Please send your Bio, CV/Resume, Headshot, and a link to your artistic work and/or your video application (if you choose to apply with video/audio) via email to Shivani Joshi, the lbs/sq" Producer and Lead Researcher at shivanijoshi113@gmail.com. 

 

If you have any questions regarding the application process, please contact Shivani Joshi, the lbs/sq" Producer and Lead Researcher at shivanijoshi113@gmail.com. 

 

Applications are due on March 21st!

 

Applicants will hear back regarding their application on April 7th.

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Thank you for your application!

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