Cuppa Jo Articles

TAKING a show on the Canadian fringe circuit is no piece of cake. It's not even a cheap cup o' joe.

It's a gruelling feat of low-budget travel, unpredictable lodgings, financial risk, loneliness and punishingly hard work, says acclaimed Winnipeg modern dancer Jolene Bailie, whose one-woman company is called Cuppa Jo. Fringe veteran Bailie, 29, is doing her fifth festival tour, this year starting here and hitting Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria and Vancouver before wrapping up Sept. 16.

"The lifestyle can be really uncomfortable," she says. "It's the ultimate test of dedication. I have done many fringes alone and it is really, really, really, really hard."

The Fort Garry-bred graduate of the School of Contemporary Dancers looks as delicate as your average ballerina. But she is a shrewd and gutsy self-marketer who has forged an unusual career path. Rather than joining a company or attempting to get roles as a freelancer, she commissions choreographers to create solo works for her (and creates some herself).

This year's piece, Private i, is the work of Calgary's Denise Clarke. It opens with video footage of Bailie that is projected on two life-sized black cutouts of her, creating the illusion of multiple Jolenes. Bailie spent on two small video projectors to create the hologram-like effect. And of course, she has to invest the up-front entrance fee, usually , for each fringe. "Many artists lose a lot of money touring the circuit -- thousands and thousands," she says. "It's a big risk, and artists generally are broke.

"I know someone who went off to teach English in Korea to pay off his fringe debt."

The fringes' varying showtimes, designed so that no one monopolizes the good timeslots, can play havoc with one's body, says Bailie. "It's comparable to doing shift work. You can have a late-night show, followed by a noon show the next day."

And the festivals' timing -- this year Calgary ends on Aug. 18 and Edmonton starts Aug. 19 -- can create pressure and stress. "At times you need to practically jump offstage and get to the airport to get to your technical rehearsal in the next city."

It's financially unwise, Bailie has learned, to tour anything but a bare-bones set. "It could cost you over $1,000 to ship a big fake rock around the country, which I did in 2003." Over the years, she has been billeted in homes ranging from an oceanside condo to a camper in a back lane.

"One of the most shocking things for me, being the frugal dancer, was how much it actually cost to stay alive on tour," she says. At home in Winnipeg, the only time she ever splurged on a taxi was when she had a broken foot. On tour, she often has to use cabs to get all her "show stuff" to the venue.

"I have grown up a lot," she says. "I sure do know the value of a dollar and how far it can actually be stretched."

This year, Bailie is "excited and grateful" that for the first time, her partner and lighting designer, Hugh Conacher, is able to go on tour with her.

Overall, she says, the positives far outweigh the negatives. She has learned, out of necessity, to be her own company manager, publicist and producer. Most importantly, she says, "the fringe circuit has allowed me the opportunity for quantum leaps of growth as an artist."

Altering the abstract

Jolene Bailie changes her MO for a more straight-forward dance show

Jared Story

Altering the abstract

Reality sometimes bites, but Jolene Bailie is happy to be dancing in it again.

For the 29-year-old dancer, whose past works have often been imaginary, fantastic and especially angst-driven, it was important to get back into the real world, which she'll be doing with private i. Bailie's latest solo show was created by Calgary's Denise Clarke and is a theatrical dance investigation of the self.

"I really had a hard time having fun (in the past)," Bailie says. "I know that sounds bizarre, but this show is about a person living a great life, and she loves her life, even though there are ups and downs. So what? It's life.

"To be that character and take that home opposed to my previous monstrous shows, that invade every part of your life, it's very refreshing to me."

To craft the reality-based piece, Clarke ran Bailie through an intensely personal interview process. The purpose, however, was never to put the dancer's life on display.

"She took that line of questioning and what she learned about me and used that as the basis for the writing, but it's done in a way where it wouldn't necessarily have to be about me," Bailie says. "It creates this world, this character and an environment that worked. The odd line is directly what I said, but mainly she just used it as inspiration, as a foundation to create the character."

Story aside, the actual dancing also has a firm grip in reality. She may be trained, but Bailie can get her groove on like anybody else.

"Often in modern works I have worked on in the past, the goal is to do something very abstract, something maybe not seen before, something completely different," she explains. "This show plays off the dance clichés, so I do dance steps, which often I don't do in my shows. It's very much like I'm dancing. It's clear what I'm doing is dancing around to the music."

That music is the instrumental indie pop of Toronto's The Hylozoists, so it's evident that Bailie is really putting the contemporary in contemporary dance, with private i promising to be very of the moment, a real look at a modern-day female.

"I've never had such current, real and human elements in my show," Bailie says. "Usually the show is often abstract, maybe a little bizarre, but this show, well even though there might be some bizarre elements in it, is about a real person. It's very relatable to everyday life."

You really don't want to miss Bailie stepping out a bit - so be sure to be on time.

Dancer takes an i-opening voyage into theatrical work

Local dancer Jolene Bailie likes to dip her nimble toes in new water.

In her latest show, private i, the Winnipeg performer explores the landscape of dance theatre for the first time. The hour-long solo show weaves together dance and storey-telling as it follows a female character's emotional roller-coaster ride on a journey of self-discovery.

"This is new territory for me," says the energetic and always enthusiastic modern dancer, who runs her own one-woman company, Cuppa Jo, and has performed over 180 shows since graduating from The School of Contemporary Dancers in 2000.

"I wanted to challenge myself to do something I ma not comfortable with. I wanted to do something completely different...to break some new ground, for me."

"I was so petrified that I lost my voice during my first working rehearsal," says Bailie, who has established herself on the modern-dance scene as an expressive performer, with a chameleon-like ability to create many different characters on stage.

"I have worked really hard on the text to ensure it comes across naturally, like a conversation."

Private i also marks Bailie's first full-length solo show. She typically mounts mixed-repertoire shows featuring several shorter works from various established choreographers, although she has also created her own short pieces as well.

In the case of this project, Bailie commissioned choreographer Denise Clarke of Calgary's acclaimed One Yellow Rabbit performance theatre company to create a dance especially for her.

"Denise Clarke's work intrigued me; she is very experimental and avant-garde," explains Bailie.

The resulting choreography is more animate and theatrical in style than her previous performances, she adds. It's also unique for her in dance that the dance is set to rock music by Toronto indie band the Hylozoists.

"The choreography is very athletic with big, expansive range of movements," she says. "The dances come from a very emotional place and the choreography is there to relay that emotion."

Bailie also points out that this is one of her most accessible and fun performances to date.

"The character is very human and tangible and vulnerable and someone we can all relate to," says Bailie.

"At the beginning she is really cool and projects confidence. She is a bit of a diva. Then she slowly removes her shell and shares herself with the audience. She is questioning herself, her life, the world, and that encourages the audience to question themselves, too."

"But it is done with humour, and in a very entertaining way, not in an overly sentimental, chick-flick way. It is a very spirited piece."

One of the most feted new dancers on the fringe scene
-Eye Magazine, July 07, 2005

Winnipeg's Jolene Bailie is considered by some to be the great new Canadian solo
artist, and heir (gulp!) to Montreal's legendary Margie Gillis. Working within various
idioms of modern dance, the charismatic siren performs works by...
Marie-Josee Chartier, Joe Laughlin and Julia Sasso.
Her Toronto debut is long overdue.
    - Paula Citron
    Toronto Life Magazine
    June 2004