New Tricks is an intimate solo work created and performed by Christopher House. It uses costume, disguise, ritual and 44 years of choreographic research to explore new ways of being in the world in a veteran body. The work is personal and playful and is inspired by a desire to embody liveness, the ambiguity of gesture, the poetry of failure and inefficiency, the beauty of the ordinary, and a queering of both the body and the imagination. The work exists in relation to the space in which it is performed, unfolding through a series of episodes that invite the viewer to consider the specificity of each passing moment. Sound is run onstage by the performer.

Created in residencies at Centre Q2, Citadel + Cie and the Banff Centre, New Tricks premiered at the Ross Centre for Dance in Toronto on March 24, 2022 and was subsequently performed at the Festival of New Dance in St. John’s, NL. The soundtrack by Thom Gill is a series of covers of familiar tunes and of original music composed for the work. Gender-bending costumes are by Sarah Doucet and lighting is by Simon Rossiter. New Tricks was created with dramaturgical support from Tedd Robinson and Rosemary James with contributions from Ame Henderson and Jordan Tannahill.

Presented as part of Vancouver International Dance Festival 2023.