Choreographer Alyssa Martin, founder and artistic director of Rock Bottom Movement, is Fall for Dance North's 2026 artist-in-residence. Her company presents SPRINGERS during the festival's closing Landslide programme.
Photo credit: Drew Berry
Toronto choreographer Alyssa Martin and her company Rock Bottom Movement are closing Fall for Dance North with a world-premiere dance-theatre work about parenthood. The festival has titled its final signature programme Landslide, while its detailed programme lists the company's new full-length commission as SPRINGERS. Performances are scheduled for Saturday, October 24, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, October 25, at 2 p.m. at the Bluma Appel Theatre in Toronto.
SPRINGERS considers conflicting feelings about having children, including biological desire, social expectations and doubt. Martin's company brings its characteristic combination of contemporary dance, theatrical performance and surreal humour to the subject, accompanied by an original score from Jacobi Vanderham and Britta Johnson. The 60-minute production is co-produced by NAC Dance.
Martin founded the Toronto-based Rock Bottom Movement, whose earlier productions include Big Time Miss and Sex Dalmatian. She has also made work for The National Ballet of Canada and Alberta Ballet. As Fall for Dance North's 2026 artist-in-residence, Martin has contributed to both ends of this year's festival: the opening Legends programme featured her new solo The Unruly Heart for Olympic ice dancer Tessa Virtue, marking Virtue's first performance onstage away from the ice.
The closing commission follows a week of other Canadian premieres and collaborations. In Hear the Dance, which concluded its run Saturday afternoon, Toronto flamenco choreographer and performer Carmen Romero presented Divine Retribution, another festival world-premiere commission. Romero built the piece around Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, performed live by pianist Frederick Zi Tian Huang, a student at the Royal Conservatory's Glenn Gould School.
The same programme included the North American premiere of Newborn Giants, developed by Fall for Dance North artistic director Robert Binet with Toronto-based blind theatre artist and disability scholar Dr. Devon Healey. The ballet was originally commissioned by Queensland Ballet in Australia. Healey's immersive descriptive audio, voiced by the artist and integrated with music by Max Richter, gives the performance an additional way of experiencing choreography through language and sound. Dancers from Queensland Ballet appeared alongside artists associated with Canadian and international companies.
Hear the Dance also presented the Canadian premiere of Partita by American choreographer Justin Peck, performed by emerging dancers from Canada's National Ballet School and recent Toronto Metropolitan University graduates. Those visiting and international works formed part of the programme alongside the new Canadian commissions.
Elsewhere in the final weekend, British dancer and choreographer Liam Francis is presenting the Toronto premiere of Lyre Liar, a 45-minute solo that draws on his experience learning and performing work by the choreographers who influenced him. The show is scheduled for Saturday at 9 p.m. and Sunday at 3:30 p.m. at the Jane Mallett Theatre.
Martin's choreography also appears outdoors in the free Berczy Park in Motion programme, performed by emerging artists from Toronto Metropolitan University's dance programme. Its remaining scheduled presentations are Saturday, October 24, at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday, October 25, at 1 p.m., at Berczy Park, 35 Wellington Street East.
Tickets for Landslide and Lyre Liar are advertised at a $25 base fare, plus applicable fees, with availability subject to the ticketing service. The Bluma Appel and Jane Mallett theatres are both at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front Street East. Sunday's 1 p.m. Landslide artist talk precedes the 2 p.m. matinee. The festival is offering childcare during the talk and performance, but registration has closed; the childcare area is in an upper lobby accessible only by stairs. The St. Lawrence Centre has no elevator, although designated accessible seating and an attendant-operated lift are available for portions of the theatres. Patrons who need accommodations can consult the festival's venue accessibility guidance or contact the TO Live box office at 416-366-7723.
