Collaboration
A selection of Ben's recent collaborative creative work: Directing, Acting, Dancing.
For a complete artist CV/Resume please download here.
Pinch - Direction + Curation
Pinch is an organization led by Ben, celebrating the performing arts in Kitchener-Waterloo. Pinch Cabaret is a monthly variety show that brings together artists from across diverse scenes and disciplines. Pinch Workshops explore improvisation, storytelling, physicality, and creativity in accessible settings for both adults and kids. Pinch also presents Together We’re Boisterous with TWB Brewing Co-Op, a monthly alternative comedy show celebrating, standup, improv, sketch, physical, and musical comedy!
“a show that challenges, and somewhat blurs, the lines of what performance can be”
Learn about the myriad things Ben is doing with Pinch at www.pinchpinchpinch.com
Cast of Pinch Cabaret #6 by Sacha Columbia
Photo by Marc Reinhart
The Liminal - Improvisation + Performance
The Liminal by The Brian Webb Dance Company was an interdisciplinary performance that explored movement, storytelling, singing, and live electronics in an intergenerational ensemble of improvising artists. Together with legendary Canadian dancers Brian Webb, Lin Snelling, experimental performer Nancy Sandercock, electronic musician Gary James Joynes, and theatre artist Brennan Campbell, Ben was involved in the research, development and performance for this mysterious mediation on in-betweenness and states of transformation. The Edmonton Journal called it:
"a unique spiritual rite in dance and music"
Photo by Ian Jackson Epic Photography
Anxiety - Acting + Co-Creation
Anxiety by Theatre Yes and Curtain Razors was an immersive theatrical experience navigating perspectives on the titular feeling of anxiety. Ben collaborated as an actor and co-creator on the Curtain Razors portion of the performance, executing a semi-improvised solo performance as a terminally ill patient in a hospital bed. The performance featured direct audience interaction, emotional vulnerability, and many of the social discomforts around in illness and death. The Edmonton Journal reviewed it, saying:
"...anxiety is by definition contagious. Being with nervous people, especially in enclosed spaces, makes you nervous. It’s the pink eye of communal feeling.... you’ll experience Anxiety from a variety of angles that always involve your own reluctance to be involved: the terror of up-close mortality..."
Photo by Levi Manchak
Anything Goes: GWG Dance in 17 Parts - Dancing
Anything Goes: GWG Dance in 17 Parts by Mile Zero Dance was a durational installation piece and dance. Exploring the rich history of the Edmonton-born Great Western Garment Company through live visual and sound installations, this work featured Ben as a performer working with one tonne of denim jeans, interactive audio media, and a dance score developed by Gerry Morita and Lin Snelling. In their positive review The Dance Current noted:
"The speed and intent of the workers casting the [jeans] against the wall grows to a frantic rhythm – an insane orchestra of melodic drones and denim-smacking beats. This fevered pitch is one of the show’s most satisfying moments: the catharsis is visceral as the workers cast off their burdens with the zeal and furor of an angry lover throwing their ex’s clothing out the window."