Thanks to the men that participated in Small Acts of Great Significance. The final work, created by Teresa Dillon with Roy Mitchell, Andrew J. Paterson, Ken Fraser and Joe Borowiec, was presented at XPACE on October 30, 2010.

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Daniel Baird (festival blogger) wrote this about Small Acts of Great Significance:

Irish artist Teresa Dillon’s piece, by contrast, was both improvisatory, in the moment, and trace-like. Having invited men over fifty to collaborate with her on a work that combined visuals and music, Dillon and her small entourage had created the performance earlier that morning. Lights dimmed, patterns pulsed on the screen on the back wall. Andrew Paterson appeared with an electric guitar and began playing a low, repetitive refrain, the other men following with microphones singing ditties reaffirming their desires and life. Dillon meanwhile literally hissed into the microphone, her voice seeming to come from a megaphone in some old revolution. In the end, Dillon’s piece had a slow, beautiful violence to it that got under one’s skin and is ultimately difficult to describe.

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Sponsored by Images Festival

Small Acts of Great Significance is a three-part performance created in collaboration with 20 Toronto men over the age of 60 through rehearsals over three days leading up to the performance. As each element of the live performance is delivered, aspects will be captured and replayed into the gallery space, creating a layered sound and dance composition.

Teresa Dillon’s body of work includes locative-based performance, site-specific installation, sound art, and academic and applied research. She is the Director of Polar Produce, producing events and collaborations including N.I.P. research and touring network; UM: International Festival of Experimental Media (Portugal) and OFFLOAD programme. Her work has been shown and published internationally and she holds a PhD in creative collaborative processes using music technologies from The Open University, UK.

Teresa will also be doing an artist talk on Thursday October 28, from 12-2pm, part of the Performance Art Daily program at the 7a*11d festival, taking place at Toronto Free Gallery (1277 Bloor Street West, Toronto). FREE and open to all.

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CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS

Teresa Dillon needs your help.

Are you a dancer (any style), male and over 60? Would you like to take part in a short dance piece? Or maybe you have never danced before but would like to try? If you answer 'yes' to any of the above questions, I would like to invite you, to create a simple dance piece together for a performance during the 7a*11d festival.

What will you need to do? Simply to turn up and be interested in learning some a simple dance and movement based routine. Be available for 1 hour rehearsals sessions on October 21,22, and 23 from 7-8pm. No previous performance experience is required, however you must be open and comfortable to participate in a public performance (created in collaboration with Teresa Dillon and the other participants). The performance will take place during the 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art on the final night of events, October 30, 2010 at 8pm at XPACE Cultural Centre (58 Ossington Avenue, Toronto).

In the artist's words: "Small Acts of Great Significance" is a three-part, collective sound and dance performance, created in collaboration with 20 men from the city of Toronto who are over the age of 60 years. Over the course of the festival, I will work with the men to create a sound and dance piece, comprised of three parts which we will perform together for a live audience. As each element of the performance is delivered aspects will be captured and replayed into the gallery space, creating a layered sound and dance composition."

For information about the festival: www.7a-11d.ca
To sign up to participate, please email Shannon at: info@performanceart.ca
For information about the project, please contact the artist at: teresa.dillon@polarproduce.org