title. MOVEMENT '45 (Part of The Quiet Immigrant Project)
director. Donna Marie Baratta
composer/musician. Daniela Gassi
choreographers. Donna Marie Baratta & Miranda Gallo
theatre. Joseph D. Carrier Art Gallery
producer. The Quiet Immigrant Project
city. Toronto, ON
creative. Emily Martinez, Soliana Lijiam, Aurora Pagano (design team), Irwin Arzaga, Roberto Zapata (technical team), Molly MacCallum (media & alternate cast member)
cast. Miranda Gallo, Rebeca Lopez Ordonez, Sheniyah Marshall-Lewis, Katia Messina & Erika Ozols
Below is a short video that encapsulates our final rehearsal in the gallery before Opening Night.
Movement’45 - a devised piece created for The Quiet Immigrant Project
Created, Directed and Choreographed by Donna Marie Baratta (April 2022, performed at the Joseph D. Carrier Art Gallery).
This devised work celebrates female Italian immigrants that came to Canada post WWII. The whole project is a part of The Quiet Immigrant Project which recorded interviews with brave Italian women who made the journey to Canada to create a home in a new country with a new language. The recorded interviews were mined in both English and Italian to create this work that had 5 different movements: The departure, The arrival/transition to Canada, New Home, Letters from back home, Building Community. Donna Marie worked with a composer (Daniela Gassi) to create an original musical score and she also played acoustic and electric violin/viola live for the piece which culminated with the actor/dancers making pasta and dancing the tarantella. Italian and English were spoken during this production.
"I titled it Movement'45 as an ode to the beginning of the 2nd wave of immigration to Canada which was mostly from 1950 but it was in response to the end of the war, so that's why it's called '45. Just like in a musical movement each section can be performed separately but a performance of the whole work requires all the movements to be performed in succession. To me, they only carry the right meaning in succession. Also, a movement can have a variety of styles/tempos within a long classical piece. I feel like these women had a variety of movements in their lives and I want to honour that change and growth." - Donna Marie Baratta