Jacob Zimmer is the ideal keynote speaker for this weekend’s Performance Creation Canada meeting. Organized by local artists through the SuperNova Theatre Festival and the Khyber ICA, PCC Halifax brings 100 artists, educators, critics, presenters and funders together (watch out hockey dudes) to “explore issues inspired by our theme—‘Bridge Walking: Reconciling the gap between avant-garde art and popular culture.'”Zimmer grew up in Halifax and was active in the theatre community, organizing opportunities for performers to connect and discuss their work. Now living in Toronto, he’s the artistic director of Small Wooden Shoe and works as a dramaturge for dance and theatre-makers such as former Haligonian Sally Morgan, Dustin Harvey and Ame Henderson. If you saw Henderson’s rocked-out /Dance/Songs/ here in April, then you’re already familiar with Zimmer’s touch. As a dramaturge, Zimmer says he helps creators by offering feedback as “another person in the room. I work with the artist or choreographer very early in their process and find out what their desires are for a piece and then I’m often there through the rehearsal process. It gives them some distance.”With more crossover between creative disciplines, it becomes more difficult to define performance. Zimmer says, “Someone asked me what I do and I said, ‘I make things for people to come to.’ That’s basically it. There’s one group of people who more or less have a plan of what they’re going to do, the other group of people who don’t. One group is the audience, the other is the performers. The live event is what’s crucial to me, and that meeting that happens with the audience and someone who has set up that situation, which could be as tightly set up as a theatre play or as loosely set up as happenings or structured games. There are people who do games nights who I think of as performances.”The PCC weekend is packed with parties, round-table and speed discussions (there’s one that promises talk of Britney Spears and karaoke—count me in), hosted by professionals from around the country, and of course, plenty of time to socialize because we all get more creative after a few pints at Celtic Corner in Dartmouth, which is hosting the May 8 opening. SAGSRI Forum exhibition and lectures at the Khyber ICA on Saturday at 3:30pm also promises to be informative, thanks to Amos Latteier‘s talk on architecture and ants; Justin Tyler Tate‘s doctorate thesis and enlightening talks by Dustin Wilson and Ryan Suter on New Brunswick’s future and Sackville, NB, as outer space. Everyone’s invited and the full weekend’s registration is the best deal going at only $10. For a full schedule, visit pcchalifax.wordpress.com.
This article appears in May 8-14, 2008.
