Ease + Agita (soft place to land)
2021/22 - 2022/23 Seasons
Leelee Oluwatoyosi Eko Davis completed their 2-year expressive residency with TDT in the 2022/23 season for their project, Ease + Agita (soft place to land), and now is curating a performance event to kick off TDT’s 2023/24 season, refracting giants, as a culmination of the research accomplished during their residency. On stage October 5 to 7, visit the refracting giants event listing to learn more and book tickets.
During the 2021/22 Season, Leelee initiated thoughtful activations, including The Praxis of Possibility –a micro-residency with 12 community members, –and a choreographic residency with TDT ensemble members to explore themes of rigour and care, while addressing the past, present and future context of dance theatre. Throughout the 2022/23 Season, Leelee spent dedicated research weeks collaborating with the TDT company and selected guest artists, as they worked towards a development of this co-devised dance theatre performance happening fall.
As the inaugural project supported by the House Legacy Fund at TDT, the aim for Ease + Agita is to imagine new futures that cultivate collaborative creative practices, and engages the community, practicing artists, and intergenerational individuals who share intersecting identities. Through reciprocal exchange for artists and makers alike, we continue to find ways to contribute to one another.
Leelee Oluwatoyosi Eko Davis during Banff Center Performing Arts Residency (2019). Photo by Jessica Whittman.
About the Artist
Leelee Oluwatoyosi Eko Davis’ practice is rooted in the foundations of contemporary dance and intermedia creation methodologies. As a disabled, transgenderqueer artist of Nigerian/French/Algonquin descent, working in decolonial frameworks is central to their research and creations. Being from Treaty 1 Territory, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Leelee has had the opportunity to train and work professionally across Turtle Island. Their artistic goals are to merge performance and life, stage and experience, building a bridge to revealing the human condition. They can most commonly be found, producing their own work as a solo artist, however often collaborate across milieus. Leelee has had the profound pleasure of collaborating with artists and interpreting for choreographers such as Jolene Bailie, Dayna Danger, Raven Davis, Jesse Dell, Yannick Desranleau, Vanessa Dunn, Audrey Dwyer, Reginald Edmund, Johnny Forever, Gambletron, Chloe Lum, Ryan MacNamara, Kate Nankervis, Alexandra Tigchelaar on works for theatre, film, and stage. Eko Davis also works as a program designer, facilitator, and consultant in the field of Social Innovation and Adaptive Change and is a Co-Artistic Director at the Toronto Dance Community Love-In.
www.leeleedavis.com
Instagram: @leeleeoluwatoyosi
Design by Johnny Nawracaj
The Praxis of Possibility: Community Practice and Engagement
January 2022
As part of Leelee’s research throughout the 2021/22 Season, The Praxis of Possibility was a two-week micro-residency with 12 invited community members who consider themselves to have an artistic practice in theatre, performance art, or dance. This is a cross-disciplinary opportunity for intergenerational community members to engage in a creative practice with Leelee, their research, and creative methodologies. The aim of this engagement is to nourish the participants and provide them with a professional stream experience that they would have otherwise not had access to. It involves group discussion, personal reflection, physical practice, improvisation, creative process, and community building.
P.O.P. Residency Curator & Facilitator: Leelee Oluwatoyosi Eko Davis
Artistic and Technical Support: Johnny Nawracaj
Program Interpreters: Latasha, Kimberly, Ayoka, Jo-Ann
Participants: Anna Malla, Brawk Hessel, Courage Bacchus, Emily Mittelstaedt, Jordan Campbell, Juan Jaramillo, Miggy Esteban, Nyda Kwasowsky, Riley Kelk, Robin Akimbo, Rochelle Miller, and Shadrack Shadé Jackman.
Special thank you to Arts Nova Scotia for supporting The Praxis of Possibility.