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Video still of Aisha Sasha John in DIANA ROSS DREAM. Design by Driftnote.

The Pool

Premiere Performance on March 1, 2025
March 6-8, 2025
at 7:30 PM ET at the Winchester Street Theatre
Deaf/ASL Interpretation at March 6 performance Winchester Street Theatre , 80 Winchester Street (VIEW MAP)

Accessibility Info: Unfortunately the Winchester Street Theatre where TDT is based is not currently wheelchair accessible. There are three steps outside of the front entrance, a small platform, and then three more steps to the lobby (a straight hallway that then leads you to the theatre). To access the private gender-neutral restrooms, there are five additional steps at the end of the lobby. The seats in the theatre are on risers with stairs; please contact info@tdt.org if it is more comfortable to have a seat near the front to reduce the number of steps.

BUY TICKETS

TDT presents a new performance project led by Affiliate Artist Aisha Sasha John (2023-25) featuring the company ensemble. The spine of The Pool might be found in the following instructions: 

“Don’t hide. Don’t lie.”
What might dancing have to do with telling the truth? What kinds of freedoms are available to us in community? And what kinds of pleasures?

The Pool, fundamentally, is a work about the power, patterns and poetry of being together. And though being-together may be the material of any group dance work, The Pool takes very seriously what those terms of togetherness are and could be. 

The Pool documents a commitment not to betray our hearts, with the understanding that the heart is both collective field and personal compass. 

Ticket Options

TDT believes that cost should not be a barrier to experiencing live performance and is offering tickets on a sliding scale model for this season’s productions. Ranging from $10 to $45, audiences are invited to select whichever ticket price option that works best for them.

Advisory: Parts of this performance are improvised which may lead to nudity or contain mature language. If you have any questions or need further details, please contact info@tdt.org.

About the Choreographer

Aisha Sasha John

Aisha Sasha John

Aisha Sasha John is interested in the power of reception as creative methodology and in choreographing performances that occasion real love. John is the 2023-2025 Toronto Dance Theatre Affiliate Artist.

Her duet with Devon Snell, DIANA ROSS DREAM, was developed during a 2019-2022 Dancemakers choreographic residency and premiered at La Chapelle (Danse-cité, Montreal) in September 2022. The work recently toured in March 2024, presented in collaboration with Plastic Orchid Factory at Left of Main in Vancouver’s Historic Chinatown.

From 2015-2017, John choreographed, performed and curated as a member of the collective WIVES, presenting ACTION MOVIE at La Chapelle (2017). Her first full-length solo work debuted as the aisha of oz at the Whitney Museum in 2017, and in 2018, iterations of the aisha of oz were presented at MAI and Toronto’s SummerWorks Festival. John’s video work and text art have been exhibited in galleries (Doris McCarthy, Oakville Galleries). A celebrated poet, John is the author of the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize nominated collection, I have to live. (McClelland & Stewart 2017), THOU (Book*hug 2014), and TO STAND AT A PRECIPICE ALONE AND REPEAT WHAT IS WHISPERED (UDP 2021). Her fourth collection, total, will be published by McClelland & Stewart in March 2025.

Production Credits

Artistic Director: Andrew Tay
Rehearsal Director: Rosemary James
Lighting Designer: Tanya Bregstein
Production Manger: Aden C. Altamirano
Stage Manager: ciaran brenneman*
The participation of this Artist is arranged by permission of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association under the provisions of the Dance Opera Theatre Policy (DOT).
Technical Director: Tanya Bregstein

Running Show Time: 75 minutes

Choreographer: Aisha Sasha John
Performers: Camil Bellefleur, Brayden Cairns, Millina Fletch Fletcher, Megumi Kokuba, Ryan Kostyniuk, Roberto Soria, Elizabeth Yip
Percussionist: Teniola Abimbola
Original Music Composition: New Chance (Victoria Cheong)
Costume Stylist: Summer Shepherd
Makeup Artist: Steph George
Outside Eye: lo bil, Devon Snell

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