Rose Tuong may not be the assigned Ontario stunt double for actor Jason Momoa, is probably not the only human to have bicycled uphill through a lava flow, eating lime gelato with an entire rugby team balanced nude on their handlebars, and has not been reliably documented simultaneously beating 45 supercomputers at chess while knitting a rodeo clown outfit from the ponytails of their mummified ancestors.
There is, however, strong evidence that Rose brings so much passionate, vulnerable, kind, curious, raw honesty to every moment that most of the people who know them would happily bear their love child. (It is possible that Mr. Momoa is actually one such love child, because what is time, really?)
As a fan and witness to a few of their recent miracles, I will testify to the obvious facts: Rose is more metal than your platinum jockstrap and gentler than a bulldozer-load of butterfly kisses. Rose goes so hard that Mercury melts down, Saturn jumps through hoops and Uranus clenches, repeatedly. Who knows what extraordinary, unworldly feats of generosity and perceptive clarity you yourself might accomplish if you pay attention? Rose knows.
-Written by David F, Rose’s head chef
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Which ’hood are you in?
The Annex. I keep finding my way back here, and it keeps taking me back. Long live the Tranzac, RIP basement of Sonic Boom, and thank you Vietnam Lovely Noodle for being casual and comforting.
What do you do?
I act and perform, and I’m a capital T taurus, so for balance, I try to buck my attachments to the material world. Bruce Lee and I call this practice: be water. Shapeless, formless, flowing. This is what I do. Materiality being connected to literality, and my current project being a non-narrative, reflexive, process-based contemporary performance piece, I’ve got a tremendous opportunity right now to be water in a deep-sea reef.
What are you currently working on?
I’m working on a performance called The Herald, written and directed by Jill Connell. It explores the concept of labour, working a job, how we see and (de)value other people’s work. We experiment in collective dramaturgy, improvisational choreography, myth, time, sound. It feels Piscean, lush, and avant-garde. Aiming for alternate dimension, but I’m happy with whatever soft caress of magic might emerge.
Where can we find your work?
Do you know how Simone Weil defines labour? Labour: to feel with one’s whole self the existence of the world. When you’re there, that’s where I’m trying to be, too.
The Herald runed March 4-14 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, and I’ll also be performing in take rimbaud by Susanna Fournier, running May 6-23, also at Buddies. I would love it if you came.
The post “A Day in the Life” with: Performing Artist Rose Tuong appeared first on Toronto Guardian.
