A queer-run artist collective will stage its first major event this week with the goal of bringing performance art back to NSCAD University.
The Dawn; Flesh and Desire, on Saturday, December 6 at the Port Campus, will feature nine original performance pieces by nine students who comprise the Ephemera Collective. Led by Expanded Media student Kylie Mayra Richardson and Film student Calum Cain, this is Ephemera’s first major public event since forming last year.
‘I sometimes communicate better when I move than when I speak’
The collective emerged from the desire to see more performance in the NSCAD community. Richardson and Cain, high school friends in their native Ottawa, reconnected in a movement course taught by Veronique Mackenzie, then discovered a room in the Academy building that boasts a large wooden floor.
“Me and Kylie had been dancing a little bit after class,” says Cain. “We’d leave and I remember feeling this kind of buzz—and she could relate to that—of an underlying knowing that if this was something we were to share, we could only benefit people.”
“We started booking it out one day a week, and bringing our friends from the movement course,” says Richardson. “I’d bring my big speaker, Calum would bring his playlists, and we would move together.”
“We’re very specific about the things we do—there’s no pushing down, there’s no one way to move. Moving together is what matters,” says Cain. “We all benefit from that energy, it’s very therapeutic. I sometimes communicate better when I move than when I speak.”
‘Our goal is to bring people into the present moment’
Last spring the collective presented a small, friends-and-family showcase called Cold Sweat, whose reception only encouraged them to pursue the larger event of The Dawn.
“Our goal is to bring people into the present moment—we focus on one-night-only shows,” says Richardson. “We invite people to contemplate the fleeting nature of our lives. To not use our bodies now, when they’re in mint condition, would be unsatisfying for us. A lot of people have forgotten to explore their bodies and identities with curiosity.”
“For me it’s about expression. I can’t really stop myself from moving, it surrounds me,” says Cain. “There’s nothing that consumes my mind, there’s nothing that can break in, it’s just freedom.”
The Dawn features a varied format of performance from solos to duets to large groups, some hewing closer to traditional dance and “other pieces that are way more on the conceptual side,” says Cain. “The Dawn is a physical embodiment of how we want to let go of things such as shame and fears, things that don’t serve us to our full potential,” says Richardson. “Things we feel as though they hold us back. We explore a lot of freeing concepts in the show.”
The pair is expecting up to 100 people to attend The Dawn, up from their first crowd of 30, which reflects their intent to grow the performance community on campus while relating to the audience in intentional, meaningful ways.
“Part of performance that’s so important to me is connection. As I’ve grown up in this digital age, we’re kind of losing that,” says Richardson. “You may see something online, see something on TV, but being there in person and watching something coming to life right before your eyes—that’s something you can’t get anywhere else.”
Tickets are now available for The Dawn; Flesh and Desire, Saturday, December 6, 6:30 p.m. in Room 207 at NSCAD Port Campus, 1107 Marginal Road.