GHOSTS OF VIOLENCE ATLANTIC BALLET THEATRE OF CANADA - Help us build a legacy of hope
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ATLANTIC BALLET THEATRE OF CANADA
GHOSTS OF VIOLENCE
Help us build a legacy of hope
It’s hard to look for the
light when you’re lost
in darkness.
– domestic violence victim
Every once in a while, one hears a story about how
attending a performance changed someone’s life. These
stories echo through families and communities…
“Assessing the Intrinsic Impacts of Live Performance”, Allan Brown, Jennifer Novak,
Wolf Brown, January 2007
MOVING STORIES OF
HEARTBREAK AND COURAGE
Igor was asked to create the ballet by the
New Brunswick Silent Witness Committee.
GHOSTS OF VIOLENCE is a
This organization is a member of the North
groundbreaking multi-media initiative which
American movement that pays tribute to
brings the issue of domestic violence against
women who have lost their lives through
women into the spotlight. It is an innovative
acts of domestic violence.
and inspirational call for awareness,
understanding and action. Dance is a powerful way to educate and
advocate for these silent and invisible
This original ballet brings to life stories victims. By creating the human drama
inspired by women who have died at the onstage, we are able to look at domestic
• A project over two years in the
making hands of a partner. Through movement, violence in a new way and inspire new
theatre, music and videography, this ballet dialogue and energized action.
• Special presentation at the
captures their memory – their struggles, their
Governor General’s Women’s
hopes, their joys and our loss. Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada is
Conference, September 9, 2010
pleased to bring this seminal work to life,
• World Premiere, February 15, 2011
The full-length work will be conceived and pioneering a new approach to building a
National Arts Centre, Ottawa
choreographed by Atlantic Ballet Theatre of broad based public awareness about this
• Cross-Canada Tour, 2011-2012 Canada Founding Artistic Director and issue that reaches out to communities large
• Partnerships with women’s Choreographer Igor Dobrovolskiy. and small across the country.
organizations in every province
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Domestic violence against women occurs across all ethnic, racial,
religious, age, social and economic groups.
• Half of Canadian women (51%) have experienced at least one incident of physical or
sexual violence since the age of 161
• Females under the age of 25 years suffer the highest rate of spousal homicide – 4 times
the national average2
• One to two women are murdered by a current or former partner each week in Canada3
1. Statistics Canada, The Violence Against Women Survey, The Daily, November 18, 1993
2. Fitzgerald, R. (1999) Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada,
3. Dauvergne, M., (2002), Homicide in Canada - 2001, Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada.
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I can't sleep – haunted by their faces / The sadness in their eyes
It hurts so much to see them helpless / It makes me want to cry
But still there is so much left unanswered / For so many innocent lives
They close the door and are letting nobody in / And only the strong will survive
“Shelter”, Sarah McLauchlan, June 1991
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OUR GOALS
• To create a living legacy (the
ballet) that will honour women
killed through acts of domestic
violence
• To generate new insight and
instigate new forms of thought
and action on domestic
violence and homicide, by using
art as a catalyst for community
dialogue and action
• To build broad based public
awareness of the social and
economic effects of domestic
violence and homicide on
Canadian women, families and
communities
• To reach communities small and
large in every province of
Canada
Change begins with awareness.
Last night touched me in a way that I
haven’t been touched in a long time –
artistically and personally.
– audience member, North Carolina
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Impact of the Arts
The Arts can captivate.
Reaction to a work of art can connect us more deeply to the world and
open us to new ways of seeing and experiencing the world.
The Arts can be a life-changing experience.
Artists provide us with an imaginative experience that is often a more
intense, revealing, and meaningful version of actual experience. We
gain a sense of deep fulfillment – a sense of awareness that includes the
satisfaction associated with works of art that we might find deeply
unsettling, disorienting, or tragic.
The Arts can expand our capacity for empathy.
A work of art, whether on canvas or on stage, can increase our
compassion and our responsiveness – drawing us into the experiences of
people from vastly different demographics and cultures and giving us a
new understanding of their situations.
The Arts enhance our cognitive growth.
When we focus our attention on a work of art, we are “invited” to make
sense of what is before us. We can gain an entirely new perspective on
the world and our place in it.
The Arts create social connections
When people share the experience of works of art, either by discussing
them or by collectively experiencing them, one of the intrinsic benefits
is the communal bond that is created.
The Arts can express communal issues and concerns
When works of art convey what whole communities of people yearn to
express they can become a voice for groups that culture at large has
largely ignored and become a way to change people’s views and
perceptions.
Source: “Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate”, McCarthy K., 2004.
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“This project is an innovative “The goals of this project match “Atlantic Ballet Theatre of “Our organization
means for raising awareness about to a great extent our Canada’s production “Ghosts of believes so strongly
domestic homicide in our organizational goals to raise Violence” is an initiative that in the power of the
communities. Silent Witness Nova public awareness on domestic would raise awareness of family arts to
Scotia looks forward to promoting violence and to reach a broader violence in each of the communicate
this event in Nova Scotia and to public through art. We will communities where it is messages of social
plan events around the local welcome the ballet in Manitoba performed. SGEU supports this justice.”
performances.” and provide any organizational project and looks forward to
support needed.” having the ballet brought to Alberta Council of
Silent Witness Nova Scotia Women’s Shelters
Saskatchewan cities.”
North End Women’s Centre,
Winnipeg Saskatchewan Government and
General!Employees Union.!
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GHOSTS OF VIOLENCE
World Premiere – February 15, 2011
Ottawa, Canada
68 Highfield Street, 2nd Floor
Moncton NB E1C 5N3
Canada
Tel: 506-383-5951
E-mail: operations@atlanticballet.ca
Igor Dobrovolskiy, Artistic Director Web: atlanticballet.ca
Photos by: Aleksandr Onyshchenko
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