if i should stumble
by Jenn Goodwin
Costume Design & Rehearsal Direction: Sarah Doucet
Song Credit: “Uja” Performed by Tanya Tagaq. Courtesy of Six Shooter Records Inc.
Creative Production by Briana Brown
Performed by: Anita Nittoly, Andrea Nann, Kemi Craig, Sarah Doucet, Jenn Goodwin
If I Should Stumble was originally commissioned by the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair and performed on a set of stairs in front of City Hall. Meant to be portable and responsive, I’m excited to have the opportunity to adapt the piece to a new outdoor site along the beautiful Galloping Goose Trail, as the core of the work remains more important than ever.
This raw feminist dance work digs into women’s resilience as stunt woman Anita Nittoly and dancers crash, crawl, and rise with fierce grit, aching vulnerability and relentless power.
THank you
Canada Council for the Arts, Six Shooter Records, Sierra Alexander, Toronto Outdoor Arts Fair, Emily Trepanier, Logan Swain and the rest of Theatre SKAM!
THE TEAM
Photo Credit: Anthony Gebrehiwot
JENN GooDWIN | CREATor, CHOREOGRAPHER & PERFORMER
Jenn Goodwin is a Tkaronto/Toronto based dance artist, curator, and artistic producer/programmer. A settler, feminist, learner, and mother of two, much of her art and producing practice focuses on dismantling barriers to art for both artists and publics, temporary art in public space and championing artists and communities by way of their art practices.
Her work and collaborations often explore the play, power, and politics of the body in motion, the feminization of public space, women’s presence, absence, and resilience, and the choreographic of the everyday. Over the last 25 years her dance work has been shown across Canada and internationally. Goodwin founded DoorTODoor Dances during the Covid-19 pandemic with Sarah Doucet, Kate Nankervis & Zoja Smutny to deliver dances to the doorsteps of long-term care homes.
She was the Curator of Public Programs at The Toronto Biennial of Art 2024 edition, and continues her work on Nuit Blanche Toronto with the City of Toronto.
She has written for various magazines and journals including Holding Ground, Nuit Blanche & Other Ruptures, the Journal for Curatorial Studies, Canadian Theatre Review, The Dance Current, ANANDAM and others.
Kemi craig | PERFORMER
Kemi Craig is a dance and visual artist living in the unceded lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Territories (Colonially named Victoria,BC). Through her lived experience as a woman of African descent, Kemi’s art utilizes movement, materiality and new media to center experiences for people with racialized and gendered bodies.
She is inspired by Black histories, contemporary Black experiences and their relationships to Afrofuturism and Hauntology; as well as embodied knowledge and how it is enacted everyday through social choreographies of our bodies. With a belief that audiences are active participants who close the circle of creation in any work, she strives to amplify engagement through collective making and collaboration. Her work draws complex relationships between cultural production, identity and lived experiences using methods that are site-specific, multi-sensory and immersive.
Kemi is a graduate from the Emily Carr University of Art Design with a Masters degree in Fine Art. Since graduating she has exhibited and performed through arts centers and galleries across BC and Canada. Additionally, she has worked as a programmer, artist educator, mentor and curator. For three years, Kemi was the Artist in Residence with Dance Victoria and has just completed her two year term with the City of Victoria as the Artist in Residence.
ANITA NITTOLY | PERFORMER
Fight & Intimacy Director (selected): Stratford Festival 2024/25 seasons; Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf, Hamlet, Fairview (Canstage); GroundHog Day (YES Theatre); CRAZE (Tarragon); Midsummer Night’s Dream (Perchance); The Bidding War, Wights, Bad Roads, Prodigal (Crow's); Roberto Zucco, Angels in America (Buddies in Bad Times); The Retreat (Imago); Truth (YPT), Jesus Christ Superstar (Here For Now); WildWoman (Soulpepper); Hamlet (The Rose); Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes (TIP); Fall on Your Knees (CanStage/NAC/The Grand); Counter Offence (Segal Centre)
Stunt Performer credits (selected): Copenhagen, Slasher, Twisted Metal S2, Law & Order: Toronto, SEE, Star Trek: Discovery, Handmaid's Tale, The Boys.
Upcoming Theatre Projects: Slave Play (CanStage), Robin Hood (CanStage), Powers & Gloria (Blyth Festival), The Welkin (Soulpepper), Goodnight Desdemona, Good morning Juliet (Perchance)
Upcoming Film/TV Projects: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy S2, Interview with the Vampire (stunt double), Emerald Inn (stunt coordinator)
Sarah Doucet | rehearsal director, costume designer & PERFORMER
Sarah’s vast and varied career includes professional dancer, choreographer, rehearsal director and for the past several years, costume designer and stylist.
Career Highlights include:
~ Company member, collaborator and costume designer with Dana Gingras, Animals of Distinction and The Holy Body Tattoo;
~ Decades long and ongoing collaboration with Jenn Goodwin, with works including If I Should Stumble, Closer, Still Life With Sand, Wood, Grass and Movement, to name a few recent favourites;
~ Costume designer for 6 full length shows with DJD in Calgary, with shows including FAMILY OF JAZZ, JULIET AND ROMEO and SUSPENDING DISBELIEF;
~ Rehearsal director and costume designer for ONE HUNDRED MORE,a collaboration between Justine Chambers and Laurie Young, premiered in 2019 in Berlin, upcoming Canadian tour in Fall of 2022);
~ Costume design highlights include ‘NEW TRICKS’(Christopher House, TO), ‘RING’ (Ame Henderson, Toronto Dance Theatre),‘ ‘IMAGO DEI’ (Moni Hoffman, Propeller Dance, Ottawa)
FLESH&SPOKE (Renata Seuter, Propeller Dance); SPASTICUS (Elizabeth Winkelaar, Propeller Dance, Ottawa); MULTIFORMS, NO PLACE (Amanda Acorn, TO); FLOOR’D (Holla Jazz,TO); LULU V.7 // ASPECTS OF A FEMME FATALE (The Red Light District, TO); THE WOLVES (The Howland Company&Crowe’s Theatre, Dora Nomination for Outstanding Costume Design 2019 ,TO).
andrea nann | PERFORMER
Andrea Nann/Dreamwalker (she/her) dances to reach across distance and to experience herself and others in celebration of possibility, plurality, imagination, originality, and belonging. She is a contemporary dance artist, deep listener, founding artist of Dreamwalker Dance Company, and founder/co-creator of Conscious Bodies, an embodied community practice. Andrea is graduate of York University’s Department of Fine Arts and has contributed to the creation of new works by over 70 dance and theatre creators from across Turtle Island. She danced with Danny Grossman Dance Company for 15 years and has been recognized for outstanding choreography, performance, contributions to the performing arts sector and for her work in community actioning. For Andrea, dance and embodiment can shift attitudes and ways of being, tuning us into what makes each of us distinct, to what we share, and ultimately how we can live together in wonderment and peace.
BRIANA BROWN | CREATIVE PRODUCER
Briana has worked with a breadth of arts organizations, from grassroots collectives to large-scale institutions including the Canadian Stage Company (Metcalf Artistic and Producing Intern), Seventh Stage Productions (Associate Producer), Paprika Festival (Artistic Programs Manager), Brave New Play Rites Festival in Vancouver (Artistic Producer), Nova Dance (Administrative Producer) and was the Artistic Producer of ĀNANDAṀ Dancetheatre. In the winter of 2021, she co-created and produced Digital Now! a festival for weary hearts, which resourced over 50 theatre artists who were able to expand their craft by exploring modes of storytelling in a digital space. She is a graduate of UBC's Creative Writing program (MFA), a Jessie-nominated playwright and arts educator. @that.artsworker.life