Dead Philosophers' Limbo, 2009

Susie Burpee - Toronto, Canada

Dance

Dead Philosophers' Limbo is a twelve-hour dance to the life of ideas and the death of philosophers as told by the living philosopher Simon Critchley in his, The Book of Dead Philosophers. Each dancer's boombox emits passages from the book, broadcasting epitaphs as the score for the performers who literally and figuratively use dance to break into that space between life and death, between mind and body and between the here and the now. Find your place in this limbo as twenty-four dancers dance and nearly two hundred philosophers die. Witness the wonder and amazement as these bodies describe a philosophical dictum for the ages. Dance all you dead philosophers - dance!

Susie Burpee is a contemporary choreographer and dancer based in Toronto. She was awarded the K.M. Hunter Artist Award in 2006, and has received Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Performance and Outstanding New Choreography. She trained at the Professional Program of Contemporary Dancers in Winnipeg and studied at the Limon and Cunningham Schools in New York and Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Paris. Burpee has worked with many innovative Canadian choreographers and companies, including Dancemakers and Le Groupe Dance Lab.

Suitable for all ages

In association with Trevor Schwellnus, Environment