Media Features & Awards
Irina Lerman Finalist for TAF Newcomer Award
May. 20, 2022
The Toronto Arts Foundation has announced the finalists of our Newcomer Arts Award, including Dance Ontario member Irina Lerman
"Wonderful World Of Dance" Magazine - UK, London
“The situation in which we all found ourselves served me as a personal challenge, a test for me as a choreographer, to overcome and find a way to continue working in the art form, to create art for people and bring it to people.”
With the help of her body, its plastique, flexibility, energy coming from inside, Irina tells a story. It explains how difficult and how important it is to survive the trials that life presents us. Dance is an emotion, a dance is a sensation, it ends, symbolizing the eternal movement that puts everything in its place and, at the same time, does not allow things to stop.
The choreographer herself laconically described her act as a performance "about what we are all going through now." Perhaps everyone who watches this work will find in it something of their own, responding with a sensation or memory. No matter how difficult the world situation may be, we have the opportunity to see how everyone is looking for their own answers to questions posed to the whole world.
Text available for reading on a website of Magazine on 2 languages - Rus and Eng.
What was the choreographic and creative process like?
The process of creation is always a time to be treasured. During my first choreographic work at Mariinsky Theatre, the process of making costumes, lighting design, and everything else were led by great professionals who worked at the Theatre. I learned from them keenly, and now the creative process has become an incredible adventure for me.
You never know exactly how the journey of creating will guide you because after all, you are asking a group of people to bring to life what is essentially one person’s vision. But I was fortunate enough to have found a team in Canada I could trust wholeheartedly, who shared my ideas wholly and helped bring my choreography to life by perfecting all the little details.
