Labour

LABOUR is a physically rigorous dance performance that centres around and celebrates the resilience and power of womxn. Five fierce performers take the stage in a performance that is raw, sweaty, hypnotic, and alive.

This performance is a creation by Canadian duo Emily Gualtieri and David Albert-Toth – a.k.a. PARTS+LABOUR – collaborators since 2011, whose bold and distinctive voice is marking a compelling arrival on the international contemporary dance scene.

LABOUR emerges from a fractured world and a long history of erasure. Womxn’s labour, care, and creative force have sustained societies even as they were sexualized, infantilized, subjugated, and controlled. It challenges traditional hierarchies and dominant models of power.

Humour and the absurd are central elements in LABOUR as the performers move with subtle synchronization – continuously facing the audience, in a direct and deliberate engagement. They look at us, while we look at them. The hypnotic rhythm draws the audiences into sustained attention on their repetitive movements that never feel static. A constant pulse between precision and chaos, mastery and mess.

LABOUR is an unapologetic statement on feminine resilience with five strong performers on stage offering a diversity of women’s perspectives that embodies the complexity of feminist work and lived experience.

What does power look like when it is created together?

Since 2011, co-choreographers Emily Gualtieri and David Albert-Toth have been creating works together. Employing a unique call-and-response approach, they have crafted a movement vocabulary that places performers at the nexus of scripted precision and spontaneous expression. Weave together the personal, the poetic, and the political.

Their physically dynamic performances challenge conventional theatrical boundaries, beckoning audiences into unexpected voyages.

Drawing inspiration from literature, mythology, and philosophy, they explore tension rather than resolution, embracing the collision of ideas to spark powerful narratives about community, solitude, and collective resilience. Their collaboration is grounded in difference, care, and a shared vision, forging a choreographic signature rooted in friction and mutual respect, propelled by an urgent need to confront the world as it is.

Emily trained at Canada’s National Ballet School until her changing body no longer fit its mold; she persisted to become a maker, performer, educator, and leader.

David, the son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, came to dance through hip-hop and rave culture before embracing contemporary practices.

Website: pldanse.com