Jack Your Body celebrates underground dance trends through the ages at Toronto’s Next Stage Theatre Festival
Back by popular demand to this year’s Next Stage Theatre Festival is Mix Mix Collective‘s Jack Your Body, version 2.0, having made their debut at last year’s Fringe. Jack Your Body is a diverse and innovative celebration of underground dance styles through the ages from the here and now straight through to 70s’ Soul Train.
Dance performances for me have always been a hit or miss. Though I’m far from a dance aficionado, I can appreciate a piece of beautiful movement. If well performed, choreographed and executed, you’ll have me sold. Unfortunately, Jack Your Body didn’t entirely sell me.
We were talking before the show and I was telling him that sometimes it’s hard to write a review about a show that I really like. I just want to write “I loved it. Go see it, it’s really good.”
This is one of those shows. Go see it. It’s lovely.
On the Other Side of the World is a story of Jewish refugees in Shanghai at Toronto’s Next Stage Theatre Festival.
In the years leading up to World War II as country after country closed its borders to Jewish refugees fleeing persecution from Nazi Germany, one port remained open to them; Shanghai, China. On the Other Side of the World, written and directed by Brenley Charkow and making its debut at the Next Stage Theatre Festival, is a fascinating look at this little-known piece of history.
When I first visited Shanghai what struck me most was the indelible imprint the West had left on this bustling Chinese metropolis. After China’s defeats in the Opium Wars the country was forced to concede large swaths of Shanghai to the West and open up trade. Shanghai’s iconic Bund and French Concession are still lined with European architecture today. But as much as I had read about the city’s history I had no idea that Shanghai was home to between 20,000 and 30,000 Jewish refugees during the Second World War.
The cast, set and sound sell this historic tale in Rifles at Toronto’s Next Stage Theatre Festival
The 2014 Next Stage Theatre Festival is now in full swing, and last night I attended the premier of Praxis Theatre’s Rifles. Taking place in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, Rifles is about Señora Teresa Carrar’s (Kate Hennig) refusal to choose sides between the government and the rebellion. Her husband died fighting, and she’s determined to keep her two sons alive and out of the conflict by remaining neutral.
Sam Mullins opened his new show 
In the years leading up to World War II as country after country closed its borders to Jewish refugees fleeing persecution from Nazi Germany, one port remained open to them; Shanghai, China. 
