Founded in Toronto over 30 years ago, Dancemakers is an innovative dance company mandated to explore and expand the field of Canadian contemporary dance.

In the years since its formation, the company has earned world-wide acclaim and international prestige through its unique combination of raw physicality and soul-stirring drama.

In 1990, Dancemakers took an even more progressive turn when they hired as artistic director Serge Bennathan, a French-born, globally recognized choreographer. During his sixteen year tenure, Bennathan took the company on a path to productions that are both emotionally compelling and visually captivating, along the way earning several Dora awards.

Under Bennathan’s guidance, the Dancemakers troupe has become well respected and recognized both at home and abroad. Their numerous tours continued to spread the company’s name in major cities across Canada, the Americas, Europe and Asia.

“Everlasting Journey” tells the story of Bennathan’s final, and arguably greatest, creation for Dancemakers, the stark, emotionally-charged production entitled Absences. A particularly challenging work, both for creator and dancers, Absences seeks to explore in depth the human condition, focusing in particular on the inherent beauty and elegance of the soul.

Even more than Bennathan’s final curtain call, Absences was the last opportunity for audiences to see Dancemakers’ long-standing ensemble together, marking as it did the final performance for company members Julia Aplin, Susie Burpee and Shannon Cooney. Adding a note of poignancy, the show also featured the return of former company member, Carolyn Woods, a Dora award winner and critically applauded dancer of exceptional grace.
More than a mere visual template, “Everlasting Journey” documents the master, the players and the challenges they face in bringing their art to life. It is both an intimate encounter with the beauty of modern dance and testament to the physical, emotional and mental trials dancers and creator face as they struggle to mount Bennathan’s magnum opus.

Using a mélange of carefully selected filmmaking techniques, including scenes shot in cine-verité style, the documentary invites the viewer to embark on a special journey of the mind and of the spirit, one which the viewer will not soon forget.

Film Synopsis