Springboard Performance

Masterclasses

w/ Alexandra `Spicey’ Landé & Ebnfloh Dancers

Tuesday Oct 29, 2024 12:00 pm - 1:40 pm

Tickets starting at $15

Location

Aux Studio (KNA 117), University of Calgary

Ebnflōh offers a unique choreographic language and artistic vision. The company promotes creative exploration by broadening the field of research for street dance. It imagines new creative processes and new ways to share its ideas about social, political and artistic issues. It is fundamentally committed to creating dynamic, and uncompromised original work.

Featured Artists

  • Alexandra ‘Spicey’ Landé ·

    Alexandra ‘Spicey’ Landé began her career as a performer and teacher. Eager to further expand her artistic aspirations and to actively promote street dance and its performers, ‘Spicey’ founded the dance company Ebnflōh in 2015. With the support of collaborators and peers, her approach to hip-hop as choreography evolved, becoming more exploratory, radical and authentic. Faithful to intention and form, she continued to pursue research and experimentation. Music, theatre, cinema and visual arts have been sources of inspiration for her choreography, as has her degree in psychology. Her works powerfully probe our social and intimate relationships. In recent years, she has trained in filmmaking for dance.


    During the pandemic she created two works for webcasting: Hanging by a Thread (8 dancers) presented by DanceWorks in Toronto, and the duo Ever Endeavor – a piece commissioned by the National Arts Centre (#DansEnvol). In 2021 ‘Spicey’ was captured in a moment of freestyling in Esie Mensah film TESSEL, which featured the stories of 14 black artists from across Canada. Danse Danse presented her most recent work, La Probabilité du Néant (8 dancers), in October 2021 at Place des Arts in Montreal. It will be presented in Vancouver at the end of 2023. She is currently working on a new piece that will be featured at Théâtre La Chapelle in spring 2024, in a co-production with Danse-Cité. She is also directing and choreographing her first dance film entitled Le Néant.


    A performer and teacher of hip-hop for the past twenty years, ‘Spicey’ is regularly asked to teach classes (TransFormation Danse, Concordia University’s Focus on Dance Research, École nationale de cirque de Montréal, Circuit-Est, Studio 303, RQD, etc.), and to judge street dance competitions both here and abroad.

    • The Ebnflōh Dance Company ·

      The Ebnflōh Dance Company, founded in 2015 by Alexandra ‘Spicey’ Landé, offers a unique choreographic language and artistic vision. She promotes creative exploration by broadening the field of research for street dance in Canada while remaining true and faithful to the base of Hip-Hop’s origins. Her artistic signature, her community involvement, and her contribution to the growth and development of dancers and the discipline itself, make the company an acclaimed actor in the dance milieu in Quebec. Inclusive at the core, it equally values the practices of emerging talent along with those of the culturally diverse. The company hopes to make street dance more accessible - its diversified public is a testament to the company’s success.

      Ebnflōh (pronounced Ebenflo) comes from the English expression “to ebb and flow” denoting action and reaction, rising and falling, the constant and everchanging movement of the tides. As with waves lapping up and receding, the company’s choreographic language is steeped in its fluidity of movement. With meticulous precision and laying bare the multifarious details and nuances found in its choreography since 2008, these densely layered works possess an informed commentary. Spicey’s singularly insightful outlook sharply contrasts with what most of us usually dismiss as being trite, and superficial. With theatre and cinema as influences, among other intersecting disciplines in the arts, music holds a special place for her.

      Ebnflōh’s chief goal is to spread its artistic endeavors through the Montreal contemporary dance scene but, also promote street dancers in other Canadian cities, and beyond. Inclusive at the core, it equally values the practices of emerging talent along with those of the culturally diverse. The company hopes to make street dance more accessible, and to generate greater interest from a growing audience. Its diversified public is a testament to the company’s success. Lastly, although street dance is not seriously taught in academia, the transmission of Hip-Hop language to future generations of dancers remains a focal point and a total commitment to the form. Although the proliferation of contemporary street dance companies is a recent phenomenon in Canada, Ebnflōh remains fundamentally committed to creating dynamic, and uncompromised original work.