Dancing to The Disarm Suite - Jan 29/30

Lucy Rupert will be choreographing to Sarah Slean's music again. We have previously mentioned Lucy as she had danced to Sarah's poem, the Abecedarian and as the choreographer for the music video of The Rose.

At the end of January a new choreographed piece will be shown.

I have been able to confirm that the composed song for this performance will be a recording of The Disarm Suite from The Baroness Redecorates. A new compostion by Sarah is in the works for a dance at a later date.

Jan. 29 – Jan 30, 2010
Blue Ceiling Dance - The Sneak
in association
with Rebecca Carney
& Caroline Niklas-Gordon

Choreographers:
Lucy Rupert, Rebecca Carney, Caroline Niklas-Gordon
Performers: Rebecca
Carney, Caroline Niklas-Gordon, Lucy Rupert
Composer: Sarah Slean

A sleek, minimalist production of new dance-theatre works by three of Toronto’s
most accomplished indie artists. Rebecca Carney offers two short works drawing
on her vast experience with the extraordinarily inventive Circus Orange;
Caroline Niklas-Gordon delves into the abyss of human emotion with A-VOID: a
solo; and Lucy Rupert collaborates with lauded Juno-nominated singer-songwriter
Sarah Slean on square inch, a solo that draws on Rupert’s passionate
expressivity and Slean’s lush orchestration for string quartet and piano.

- Dance Works

New ways to follow littleslean

A few updates have been made to make following littleslean even easier.

1. An email subscription form has been added on the site for another way you can subscribe to littleslean news and get the more traditional email notifications. Subscribe to littleslean.com News by Email.


2. The second change is that I have created a twitter account to mirror new posts made to littleslean. A widget is doing the work so you may not see any different content from what you already see on here. https://twitter.com/littleslean

There continues to be a host of other syndication options that remain available taking use of the sites RSS feed.

Lastly, reminder that there is just 1 more day left for the online screening of Last Flowers through littleslean.

Thank you to the over 50,000 people that have visited the site, continue to read and contribute. Improvements will continue to be fourth coming.

Last Flowers - littleslean Online Screening (links)

We have been following up on CJ Wallis' film Last Flowers since last year with the news of Sarah Slean's acting roll in it. Sometime ago I had the opportunity to screen an early version of the short film and was very impressed.

This is Sarah's biggest role on the silver screen since her role in the 2005 film de noir, Black Widow. Sarah and her counterpart, Joseph May, both shine in their roles as two very likeable and believable characters. At times in the film it is easy to forget that Sarah is playing the character of Mona Miller with the sincerity she takes to the role and the many similar traits they seem to share. The story surrounds the death of Mona's mother and her relationship to the obituary writer played by Joseph. Dealing with death, rejection, sickness and lies the characters wind themselves into some uncomfortable places but there is a positive feeling to the film with hope and inspiration.

Today I'm excited to announce CJ Wallis has teamed up with littleslean to allow you to have one of the first opportunities to view the entire film in HD.

To view the film, follow the links below with the password 'littleslean'

part one: http://www.vimeo.com/5441167
part two: http://www.vimeo.com/5581655

Make sure to note the film is split into two parts. Please share your thoughts of the film here in the comments or post a link to where we can view them. The video will be coming down at the end of this weekend so do pass on the information to others you feel might be interested. You can also join their Facebook group and let them know what you think.

Enjoy!

Update 2010-01-20

The film is now available via the above links to the public with no password required.

Additional Art of Time Concert - Kitchener

Although we have announced the concert dates of Art of Time Ensemble tour with Sarah Slean in support of Black Flowers back in June one date appears to be added.

The Art of Time's website indicates a show on October 21st at the Registry Theatre in Kitchener. This additional date has not been confirmed on Sarah Slean's official site at the time of publishing.

Ahead of this tour is the Art of Time's show dedicated to the Beatles Abbey Road album. Tickets for that concerts are nearly sold out but they according to their twitter page they are looking for a merchandise volunteer who can view the show for free.

Update: 2009-09-25

A few minutes ago the Kitchener show was confirmed on Sarah's offical twitter account. The Beatles Abbey Road concert with the Art of Time has now sold out.

Sarah at the Rivoli - Review and Film News

Today marked the premiere of CitySonic's film of 'Sarah Slean at the Rivoli.' The free screening at a busy Dundas Square was mostly focused on Sarah and ironically didn't spend a great time on the Rivoli. She is interviewed around the Royal Conservatory and spoke about her time in school playing classical music. It spoke about her ambitions to play at the Rivoli as so many artists she admired played there and it was a place to learn how to play to a live crowd. There wasn't any mention to any of her past concerts dates there or bands she took in seeing there.

It was a well done interview and did come out quite beautifully. The music of California was played near the start and one of the most impressive visual scenes were animations of some of Sarah's paintings done to the music of Get Home. The art work came to life in a way that far different from the flash animation style used by Nelson Chan in the Tales of The Baroness, Day One and Mary.

If you missed it at TIFF, the film will likely see its way online by CitySonic in the near future. They have frequently been puting up episodes in this series to YouTube.

Earlier during the festival, The Translator was shown during the festival that features a cameo appearance by Sarah. The brief scene at the start of the film credits her as 'The French Speaking Girl". This film is currently available free to view at the Fim Festival site here.

Lastly, more exciting news is to follow regarding C. J. Wallis's film, Last Flowers. Stay tuned as a review and for a special announcement to littleslean readers.

Free Concert, Tomorrow! Don Mills

Sarah plays a free concert at the Festival in the Square in Don Mills.

Her 45 minute set starts at 2:00 and is followed by Ron Sexsmith, Jill Barber and Matt Dusk.

More information can be found here:
http://www.shopsatdonmills.ca/en/custom/Pages/FestivalintheSquare.aspx

This show has not been posted on Sarah's official site at the time of publishing. I was made aware of the concert via a Tweet.

New Music Video - I'll Never Tear You Apart

It wasn't long ago when we posted news about Sarah having a new music video and here is yet another one. On Wednesday Sarah debuted a new music video for her cover with the Art of Time Ensemble of Martin Tielli's, I'll Never Tear You Apart.

The video was shown on Bravo but is available on YouTube. View it here.

The original version can be found here.

New Music Video - The Rose

Back in March we announced that a new music video for Sarah directed by CJ Wallis (Lastflowers) was in the works. Today, with an aproval of a BravoFact grant, the video title has been announced.

From The Baroness Redecorates, The Rose.

Fortyfps Film

The Rose was first written for a series of Art of Time shows. Sarah is set out to tour with the Art of Time Ensemble this fall. Tickets for many of the dates are currently on sale.

Free Sarah Slean Documentary @ TIFF (Update)

For months I have been following City Sonic as they put together an episode where artists discuss an venue they have been intimately tied too.

The filmed piece directed by Rob Pilichowski that focuses on Sarah Slean and the Queen Street concert venue the Rivoli will be premiering as part of The Toronto International Film Festival. The Rivoli was one of the venues Sarah started her career at continued to play many memorable sold out shows there including her annual holiday shows. Her signed portrait photograph was the only one to hang above the stage bar for a number of years.

The film will be shown as one of the free showings at Dundas Square which this year at the festival will also include free musical concerts be Neil Young and Joan Baez.

The date and time of the showing have yet to be announced.

September 15th, 12pm Followed by Sweet Toronto - Update 2009-08-19

For those that can not make it to the free showing, City Sonic has been putting up the videos in high quality to YouTube and to one of my favourite music sites, Aux TV.