by Trevor Copp, Jeff Fox, and Lisa O’Connell
Trevor, a gay man, is getting married. His friend and Professional Ballroom dance partner Jeff is helping him devise the first dance. It is three months after gay marriage becomes legal in Canada, and they set about creating a dance for a ritual that has no history. Performing as a part of a multi-city tour, ‘First Dance’ is a TBT original Dance Theatre production.
August 18-20, 25-27, performances 8pm at the Burlington Student Theatre Centre
Performer/Co-Creator Trevor Copp completed his Master’s in Theatre at U of Guelph and studied Mime at the Marcel Marceau School in Paris. He performed as a professional actor with the Oakville Festival of the Classics and Theatre & Company, notably Ten Times Two and Metamorphosis (Canadian premiere) before creating/touring Rawad in MT Space’s The Last 15 Seconds to the IMPACT ’09 Festival, the Magnetic North Festival, a National tour including Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille and through the Middle East.
Trevor teaches physical Theatre at the Universities of Guelph/Waterloo and Ballroom dance extensively; he is a 3-time regional Latin dance Champion. He is also the founding Artistic Director of Burlington’s Tottering Biped Theatre, with whom he has performed in Thom Pain, Home Free, and The Ends of the Earth – www.totteringbiped.ca.
Performer Co-Creator Jeff Fox is a professional dancer, choreographer, and ballroom instructor living in the Kitchener/Waterloo area. He has won Canadian Fred Astaire titles in Ballroom (undefeated), Latin, Theatre Arts, and Showdance (current reigning champion). Jeff is also a graduate of Brock University with an honors degree in psychology as well as a double black belt martial artist.
Audio Visual Designer Mark Walton is a photographer and multi-media artist. His multi-media performance work has appeared at IMPACT’09, CAFKA, University of Waterloo and with Tottering Biped Theatre, Burlington. He is the videographer for Dissocia, which will appear at the University of Waterloo February 2011 and the Open Ears Festival in Kitchener, April 2011. Walton is a member of Art Allies and a Box 10 artist. His photography was featured at the Box 10 group show in Kitchener in November 2010. Shift: Time Collisions + Disappearing Landscapes, his first solo show, runs at The Button Factory, Waterloo, ON February 1- March 29, 2011.
Writer/Co-Creator Lisa O’Connell is the founder and Artistic Director of Pat the Dog Playwright Centre, which was awarded the KW Arts Award in 2010. In 2008, Pat the Dog Playwright Centre became the tenth member of the Playwrights’ Development Centres of Canada and is the only Ontario playwright Centre open to both emerging and established playwrights. Recent dramaturgical credits include: Aftershock by Evan Tsitsias, Bungalow by Vern Thiessen, Dissocia by Adam Cowart, Receiver of Wreck by Matthew Heiti, Wildest Dreams by Don Druick, Differend: Caledonia by Gil Garratt, Edna’s Archive, IMPACT/CAFKA ’09.
