Renowned choreographer Noam Gagnon performs a deeply personal solo live-scored by Stefan Smulovitz, March 11 to 14
The piece by Vision Impure, called being, comes to KW Studios courtesy of Kokoro Dance Theatre Society
Noam Gagnon in being. Photo by Erik Zennström
Kokoro Dance Theatre Society and KW Studios are presenting Noam Gagnon with Stefan Smulovitz at the KW Production Studio from March 11 to 14.
Renowned Canadian choreographer and performer Gagnon returns to the stage with being, an intimate and deeply personal solo that reflects on human connection, impermanence, and the emotional undercurrents of contemporary urban life. Created under his company Vision Impure, this work distills decades of choreographic exploration into a concentrated meditation on presence.
Gagnon’s being invites audiences into a quiet yet electrically charged space—where stillness carries weight, and the smallest physical shift can feel seismic. In a world saturated with distraction and speed, the award-winning artist slows time down. Each of his gestures unfolds with intention, while each pause hums with tension. The result is an atmosphere that feels both fragile and volatile, intimate yet expansive.
Performed alongside acclaimed composer and sonic innovator Smulovitz, the piece becomes a live, responsive dialogue between body and sound. Smulovitz’s textured electronic score is created in real time, breathing and shifting with Gagnon’s movement. Music and motion do not simply accompany one another—they collide, overlap, and transform in a high-voltage exchange that keeps the performance alive and unpredictable.
Noam Gagnon in being. Photo by Erik Zennström
The spare stage environment heightens this immediacy. Elevated by the powerful and singular lighting design of James Proudfoot, the visual landscape becomes sculptural and immersive. Light carves space around the body, revealing vulnerability one moment and stark isolation the next. The minimal aesthetic strips away excess, allowing the raw physicality and emotional resonance of the work to fully emerge.
At its core, being explores isolation, disconnection, and the relentless search for presence in contemporary city life. It asks what it means to truly inhabit a body in a world that constantly pulls us outward. It is not a spectacle—it is an encounter.
Vision Impure’s being is minimalist, raw, and immersive; personal, intense, and unflinchingly human. This is not simply a performance to watch. It is an experience that asks audiences to lean in—ferociously.
Performances of being will take place at 8 pm each evening. For tickets and more information, visit Kokoro Dance Theatre Society.
Post sponsored by Kokoro Dance Theatre Society.
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