Touching Ground Festival

In 2013, Jumblies moved to a new home-base in the newly developing neighbourhood of CityPlace in downtown Toronto.

From here, Touching Ground was launched: a multi-year project, leading to a seven-week festival of interconnected new works in 2017: representing a switch for Jumblies from a primarily place-based to a theme-based project. 

Touching Ground explored Toronto’s layered and Indigenous histories and presence, and  asking: what stories and footprints lie beneath and above the concrete of Toronto’s streets and towers? The Festival gathered together a constellation of new works on the theme - some fully realized, while others remaining in development.

As with much of Jumblies’ work under Ruth Howard’s artistic direction, Touching Ground created space for reflection rather than resolution—offering ways of engaging with land, memory, history, present realities and future dreams that were at once personal, collective, playful, and deeply considered.

New Works:

Talking Treaties Spectacle - an pageant, performance and installation at Historic Fort York, telling the story of the Toronto area’s Treaty history and present ramifications, with Lead Artist/Director, Ange Loft; Historian/Co-Writer, Victoria Freeman; Choreographers, Brian Solomon and Lilia Leon; Composers: Melody McKiver, Brandon Valdivia and Rosary Spence; Performers, Jill Carter, Jesse Wabegijig & others; Stage Manager: Sasha Tate-Howarth.

Under the Concrete - a 40-minute choral work questioning, learning about and acknowledging the land’s history,  composed by Martin van de Ven, with original song by Rosary Spence, libretto by Ruth Howard (from community voices, text from newspapers, Treaty 13/the Toronto Purchase, and a poem by Victoria Freeman); Singers/Musicians, Vania Chan, Brian Katz, Arie Verheul van de Ven, Rick Sacks, and the Ground Floor Choir conducted by Shifra Cooper, performed in the Blue Barracks Room at Historic Fort York.

Voices Dangle Like Bells & Quarry - two musical works, forming part of Jumblies’ Four Lands project, performed at Evergreen Brick Works, in partnership with Continuum Contemporary Music, with Composers, Jason Doell and Juliet Palmer; Musicians/Singers, Sarah Albu, Leslie Newman, Kaili Maimets, Anthony Thompson, Graham Lord, Graham Mackenzie, Ryan Scott, Daniel Morphy, Adam Campbell, Julia Chien, and the Ground Floor Choir conducted by Shifra Cooper and Guest Conductor Hussein Janmonhamed; Choreographer, Shula Strassfeld; Lighting Designer, Jenny Jimenez; Consulting Director, Varrick Grimes; and Installation Designer,  Adrienne Marcus Raja; Stage Manager, Dylan Tate-Howarth.

On Tuesdays - a musical walking tour - with libretto by Ange Loft, composed by Kyle Brenders, sung/performed by Vania Chan, Allison Au and Christine Duncan, with the Making Room and Ground Floor Community Choirs, conducted by Shifra Cooper. 

What Was My Backyard? - a workshop presentation of a new musical-in-progress, featuring a jigging mastodon, composed by Britta Johnson; directed by Beth Helmers; with Dancers, Aria Evans and Julia Hune Brown; Puppeteers, Nikki Shaffeeullah and Sasha Tate-Howarth;  Musicians, Rosary Spence, Mark Blouin, Alyssa Delbaere-Sawchuk, and the Ground Floor Community Choir, conducted by Shiffra Cooper.

Turtle Quilt - a seven-foot square quilt with a central turtle image and surrounding representations of valued objects from diverse community participants, commissioned by Scarborough Native Child and Family Services, designed by Phil Cote, assembled by Marianne Alas, embroidered and beaded by many hands over several years, in partnership with the Community Arts Guild. 

Soft CityPlace - a soft immersive playground version of the neighbourhood, created by Fabric/Visual Artists, Marianne Alas and Parker Dirks,  installed at the Fork York Library.

City Place Chronicles - artifacts and ephemera from 3 years of exploration and art-making at The Ground Floor (Jumblies new home on Fort York Blvd).

The View from Here - a whimsical short comic opera film, composed by Norbert Palej, with Librettist, Liz Rucker; Filmmaker, Sofia Bhdanowicz; Comic Artist, Sid Sharp; Musicians, Vania Chan, Keith Klassen, Christine Duncan, Ryan Scott, Martin van de Ven and Erika Crino; Conductor, Samuel Tam; with the Ground Floor Choir;  in partnership with Arts4All. 

Walking Treaties - a shot film tracing the journey of several dozen tiny handmade shoes, created by students from Alpha Alternative School, with Fabric/Visual Artists Marianne Alas and Mackenzie Konecny; Filmmaker Adrienne Marcus Raja; Soundtrack Composer, Arie Verheul van de Ven; and in partnership with Ginka Girls (Emily Chan & Maria Hupfield).

and More!