Press

Miranda Abbott can chat about mathematical equations and scientific theories with the grace of a dancer. When she talks about numbers, her hands are in constant motion; her body moves this way and that.

Listening to the animated way she discusses the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio, you might think she’s a math teacher or a university science student.

But Abbott is a dancer. She has danced since she was three years old. At 11, she left her home in Kitchener to study with the National Ballet School in Toronto, living in a residence with other students and peeking at the older dancers while they practiced.

Now, at 29, she’s a performer, choreographer, dance educator and the artistic director and founder of her own dance company, Event Horizon Dance, which is made up of dynamic independent modern and break dancers. Abbott is no longer dancing ballet, but has turned on to modern dance, hip-hop, break dancing ― as well as politics, social justice, math, science, history, literature, philosophy, and oh, so many other things.

On Friday, Jan. 22 in Kitchener, she is premiering an original half-hour piece called Dust that she choreographed. There will be additional dance pieces, including one in which Abbott will perform with Toronto hip-hop artist Libydo, who is a guest choreographer. Another guest choreographer, Nicole Nigro, is featuring eight local dancers, ages five to 11, in her piece.

Using dance, electronic and symphonic music (the latter performed by members of Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony), as well as video illustrations/animations and text, Dust looks at the equations of Newtonian mechanics; the recurrence of the Fibonacci sequence; and the golden ratio.

(In mathematical terms, the golden ratio is known as 1.61803399. The ratio is recognized by architects, artists and mathematicians as the underlying design principle for many of the world’s structures. In dance terms, you’ll just have to see it.)

Dust explores whether a person’s mind is similar to the workings of a computer. Finally, the performance “breaks away from the mathematical theorems to reveal the joy of just being.”

Abbott first experimented with math and dance when she was 23, a professional dancer, working with a Royal Conservatory of Music program in Toronto called Learning Through the Arts. The program placed artists and classroom teachers together to create new ways of teaching, math, science and other subjects.

She helped develop classroom lessons in which numbers were symbolized by dance steps. From there, her lessons leaped around the room.

“I looked at angles and shapes and geometry and calculus. It led me to become involved with math,” said Abbott said in an interview at the Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts at 36 King St. W., Kitchener (opposite the Walper Terrace Hotel) where Dust will be performed Friday for students and the public.

Dance is a good way for students, especially “kinesthetic learners,” to experience the school curriculum, she believes. Kinesthetic learners, as opposed to visual or auditory learners, learn best by moving their bodies.

Abbott studied ballet with the National Ballet School until she was 13. Later, at L’Ecole Superieure de Danse du Quebec in Montreal, where she studied from 14 to 16 years of age, she discovered her passion for modern dance. It suited her better than ballet. “There’s more freedom. It’s about what I can relate to,” she said.

She left Montreal to spread her wings in Toronto where she attended SEED alternative high school and auditioned for the internationally known Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre.

There, she was able to let her hair down. “I didn’t feel like a number,” she said. The busy teen became a company member and worked part-time as a nanny while attending the alternative high school. She met Libydo, whose hip-hop and break dancing abilities were legendary.

“I was a timid and shy ballerina struggling a bit with an eating disorder, coming to a strong program with dancers who looked like they could eat up space,” she said.

Meanwhile, her passion for social justice and community activism was being ignited by a talented teacher in her alternative high school.

Teacher Craig Morrison, who taught “street art for social change” made his students “question everything.” He showed his students a sculpture of needles and thread that celebrated Toronto’s factory district. Think beyond the celebration, he urged them. Consider the textile industry’s history, in which sweatshops and low wages play a part.

Her awakening political sensibilities led her to take part in a 1997 protest at University of Toronto for its decision to award an honorary degree to former U.S. president George Bush. Her theatre group dressed as Uncle Sam and performed on stilts. On another occasion, she wrote a strong letter defending a homeless woman who was being threatened with eviction from a trendy Toronto neighbourhood.

At high school graduation ceremonies, Morrison introduced her as a “Renaissance woman.

“I was painting, doing theatre, dancing. I wanted to do so many things. I burst out.”

At 20, she spent three years with School of Toronto Dance Theatre, a professional training program, then joined the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Learning Through the Arts program, where she continues to work with teachers and students.

Abbott is thankful that her former Kitchener dance teacher, Elsie Ewald, deceased, and her mother, Shari Simpson, who today is in charge of Event Horizon’s marketing and publicity, supported her when she was a child wavering between a desire to dance and a wish to play with friends.

That part wasn’t easy for Simpson, who remembers the tearful phone calls she would receive from her daughter in Toronto in the early days.

“Her father and I struggled with the decision to allow her to leave home at such a young age,” Simpson said. “Ultimately it was Miranda’s decision.

Today, Abbott is a teacher and workshop leader at Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre. She tours with the company and teaches programs across Ontario. She also teaches in Toronto at The York School and Harbourfront Centre.

She choreographs for her own dance company and for others including Fallen Rock Productions, which raises funds for charitable causes.

Her dream is to locate Event Horizon Dance in Kitchener, where her mother, stepfather, father and brother still live. The dance company is currently based in both Kitchener and in Toronto, which is where Abbott lives with her husband and stepson. She’s expecting a baby in June.

She wants to offer dance training and workshops in Kitchener-area for those children and young people who don’t want to go to Toronto, as she did.

Abbott said she’s encouraged by the reception that local schools are giving Dust. School matinees are sold out; in fact there will be an additional performance on Friday because of the demand. A Cambridge school is bringing its entire student population to see Dust.

“Most schools love the idea of math and dance,” she said. “They’re intrigued. They all seem very excited.”

In keeping with her social conscience, Abbott is donating $5 of every ticket sold for the evening performance to Anselma House’s rebuild project.

(Tickets for Friday’s 8 p.m. dance production of Dust at Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts are $25 for adults; $20 for students and seniors; or $15 each for people in a group of 10 or more. Phone 1-888-745-4717, ext.1.)