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Ep. #69: Katie Ewald

Katie Ewald is a powerful contemporary dancer based in Guelph, Ontario. She’s performing at Hillside Inside’s Fab 5 Cabaret on Friday Feb. 7 as part of the Portal Dance Project. Here, Katie and I discuss cat years, how and why people interact with contemporary dance the way they do, why she relates more to a basketball team than the dance pack that performs between plays, how Carl Wilson’s book Celine Dion’s Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste profoundly impacted the way she processes all art, showmanship within improvisation and the importance of the audience within one’s practice, how to gauge the popularity of a niche art-form, how she ended up living in Guelph and her fondness for dancer Janet Johnson, how she got into dance as a child and became a “bunhead,” the willful strength of dancers and their snob rights, how the general public receives dance, mentors in Montreal and Brussels, being a “master of illusion,’ working with Tim Etchells, Forced Entertainment, and watching a six-hour durational piece, balancing work with family life, how the Canadian government is anti-art, the Portal Dance Project presentation at Hillside Inside, how improvisation is part of one’s artistic practice, her future plans, and more.

Related links: guelphdance.ca hillsidefestival.ca vishkhanna.com

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Ep. #68: Bear Witness from A Tribe Called Red

Bear Witness is a co-founder of the inventive Ottawa-based trio A Tribe Called Red. Renowned for making a sophisticated kind of dance music dubbed “Electric Pow Wow,” A Tribe Called Red’s live show is a sensory overload, mixing powerful music with stunning visual imagery drawing from underground and aboriginal culture. Their infectious energy has translated well onto record too; their 2013 album Nation II Nation made the shortlist for the Polaris Music Prize, earning the group the high profile and platform they so richly deserve. A Tribe Called Red are touring across Canada with select U.S. dates in February, including a stop at Guelph’s Hillside Inside festival on Friday Feb. 7. Here, Bear and I discuss remembering Vish, the Polaris Music Prize gala, having to follow METZ, feeling like you belong, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s victory, the biggest challenges in gaining a broader audience, the level with which fans engage with what A Tribe Called Red addresses in their work, the surprising influx of conscientious, knowledgeable music fans, making music as a political act, #idlenomore and the significance of ‘the moment,’ the intersection between traditional rhythms and beat culture, the band’s plans for their new album, the song “Sisters,” and more.

Related links: atribecalledred.com hillsidefestival.ca vishkhanna.com

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Ep. #67: Lido Pimienta

Lido Pimienta is a remarkable musician who hails from Barranquilla, Colombia but currently resides in Toronto. Known for making challenging electronic music with outspoken Spanish lyrics, Pimienta is putting the finishing touches on her new album La Papessa and she appears at Guelph’s Mitchell Hall for Hillside Inside on Feb. 7 with A Tribe Called Red. Here, Pimienta discusses how she eschews heteronormativity by asking males in her band to wear dresses, her time spent living in London and Toronto Ontario and her upbringing in Colombia, her fierce denial of tokenism, why she thinks love songs might not be what the world really needs now, her love of satire and confrontation, media manipulation, the explosion of music in Colombia, the latest on her next album, the song “Agua,” and more.

Related links: lidopepper.tumblr.com hillsidefestival.ca vishkhanna.com

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