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On Tour

Let DJD bring jazz to life for your audiences in a way they’ve never experienced before. DJD invites audiences to experience how jazz shapes movement and feeling; to explore the connection between personal expression and collaboration; and to move.

Our touring company includes eight to twelve dancers and three to eight musicians, depending on the work that is being offered. We have an extensive variety of full evening works in our repertoire. DJD has toured various locations on a biannual basis since 2005. Past tour highlights include Japan, Cuba, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Chicago and all corners of Canada, including International Jazz Festivals in Montreal, Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Winnipeg.

better get hit in your soul

on tour starting in 2022
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Charles Mingus

In 2013 DJD premiered a piece about the wild short life of Charles Mingus—a virtuoso bass player, accomplished pianist, bandleader and composer. Known as the ‘Angry Man of Jazz’ Mingus was a brilliant, mercurial and bodacious character. Back by popular demand, Better Get Hit in Your Soul gives audiences an ear and eye into the music of one of the most important figures in 20th century American music. Join us as we explore his music and some of the lighter and darker sides of his dramatic life.

Featuring live and recorded music by Charles Mingus
Created and choreographed by Kimberley Cooper
Danced by the DJD Company
Live music direction by Rubim de Toledo
Set designed by Scott Reid
Costumes designed by Ronda Borneman
Lighting Designed by Brain MacNeil

ACCLAIM FOR Better Get Hit In Your Soul

Better Get Hit In Your Soul captures the wild, inventive spirit of Charles Mingus, paying homage to the roots of jazz dance and music, while being firmly grounded in a contemporary jazz perspective. The evening length work is among the very best concert jazz work I’ve seen in the past 10-15 years. – Melanie George, Founder/Director, Jazz Is…Dance Project and JazzDanceDirect.com,Associate Curator, Jacob’s Pillow

Kimberley Cooper’s Better Get Hit in Your Soul awakens the senses to the incredible brilliance of Charles Mingus through visual music, a complete jazz experience you can see, hear and feel. Her choreography transports you on a journey back in time and through a whole range of feels…it’s edgy and then free…sensual and then confrontational…dark and then joyful. It would be hard not to get lost in the magic of the world she creates and the rich stories that unfold. If you’ve ever wondered what jazz is, look no further. Cooper’s work honours tradition and transcends with contemporary innovation—keeping jazz alive in all its glory while carrying it into the future.– Lindsay Guarino, Editor- Jazz Dance: A History of Roots and Branches, Associate Professor of Dance, Salve Regina University

The company’s physicality is on full display during Better Get Hit in Your Soul, in which they deliver transcending leaps, jumps and turns in dynamic spatial formations while spirited vocalizations add to the vibrant score. – Dance Current

In Better Get Hit in Your Soul, fans will recognize pieces such as the Haitian Fight Song, selections from The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady and even the Children’s Hour of Dream. – Calgary Herald

BOOKING Enquiries:
Contact DJD Agent, Sarah Rogers, for booking informatioN

JULIET & ROMEO – TOURed 2019-2020

DJD’s take on Shakespeare’s classic tale
Artistic Direction and Choreography by Kimberley Cooper | Adapted and narrated by Cory Bowles
Featuring the DJD Company of dancers and live, original music by the Nick Fraser Ensemble

Two households… This is dance, this is theatre, this is a jazz concert. This is Shakespeare’s tale of love and violence re-imagined, re-visited, re-loved hyper-realized, sampled, questioned recognizable but twisted, current and classic, gritty and glorious. Passion, pheromones, pick-up lines, I want you I need you I love you These violent delights have violent ends.

2019 TOUR DATES & PRESS

Acclaim for Juliet & Romeo

“Bowles is a charismatic narrator…His story is quirky, at times quite brilliant, sometimes wacky, always compelling… Choreographically, the show is masterful. Cooper’s choreography switches up pace and mood to keep us engaged, even enthralled.” – Anne Georg
“This is dance.” – This Calgary Life
“…entrancing, exciting, and best of all, steamily on message…” – Calgary Herald
“…a lucid, smart and sassy contemporary commentary on Shakespeare’s classic tale.” – Edmonton Journal
“… there’s plenty here in dance and dream to delight and deconstruct R and J into a powerful new J and R.” – Calgary Herald
“…an exciting, vivacious new dance piece.” – Stephen Hunt
“It looks beautiful.” – Metro News, Calgary

TOUR HISTORY:

2016 TOUR – GREAT JAZZ HISTORY MYSTERY

Northern College Auditorium, Kirkland Lake, ON
Geraldton High School, Geraldton, ON
The Centre, Dryden, ON
Red Lake Madsen Public School, Red Lake, ON
Evergreen School, Kenora, ON
Townsend Theatre, Fort Frances, ON
Atikokan, ON
Sault Saint Marie, ON

2013 TOUR – GREAT JAZZ HISTORY MYSTERY

Morinville, AB
Victoria School of the Arts, Victoria, BC     

2009 TOUR – WOWFLUTTER:

Dunn Theatre, Halifax NB
Rose Theatre, Brampton ON
Brock Centre for the Arts, St. Catherines ON
Port Theatre, Nanaimo BC
MacPherson Playhouse, Victoria BC
Yukon Arts Centre, Whitehorse YT
Vernon & District PAC, Vernon BC
The Arden, St. Albert AB