New Tricks
My first work post-TDT, New Tricks was performed in Toronto, Victoria, Vancouver, Halifax and St. John’s, and remounted at the Citadel in Toronto in May 2025. This very personal solo was incubated during the days of Covid-19 lockdown when I would dance in the living room for my sweet audiophile boyfriend. I officially began work on New Tricks in the fall of 2022 at Tedd Robinson’s studio in the Outaouais, improvising with props, costumes and new ways of moving.Tedd's devilish dramaturgical wisdom was and remains a gift.
Premiered Toronto, March 24, 2022
Created and performed by Christopher House
Sound Design
Thom Gill
Lighting
Simon Rossiter
Costumes
Sarah Doucet
Consultant
Tedd Robinson
Rehearsal direction
Rosemary James
"House makes a poker-faced first appearance in New Tricks wearing the suit back-to-front. It’s at once comical and poignant and, like everything that follows, rich in suggestive imagery, although the choreographer is happy to let audiences make their own connections"
Toronto Star
“A piece about self-renewal, New Tricks taps intrepidly into hidden powers of artistic expression, appearing as a testament to the artist House is today – older but also wiser in knowing how to make the most of his aging (but still taut) body...he keeps you watching and wondering, alert to all the subtleties of his constantly evolving presence. House is in complete control of the artistic journey...It’s a quest of (re)discovery”
Critics at Large
"...House presented an extended solo that was as much performance art as dance; or was it? There was a matter-of-fact nature about the whimsical costume changes and playing with props that was far removed from the winking archness and calculated transgressions that one associates with performance art. The whole affair had an almost childlike innocence while the vignettes offered a multitude of meanings”
Dance International
Photos by Omer Yukseker