THE LONELY CHILD PROJECT

Holly Treddenick, Angola Murdoch, Stacie Dunlop | 2022 | 16m

Escape into the dream world of a child: surrounded in layers of colourful zebra stripes, fairies dance the farandole under a starlit sky, Merlin the Magician casts his magical spells and the evil fairy Carabosse glares down at the merriment from high up in her jade palace. 

The Lonely Child project is an intricate tapestry of elements, combining contemporary music, theatre, dance and circus to reimagine Claude Vivier’s iconic Lonely Child in a dramatic setting by animating the role of the child sung by soprano Stacie Dunlop, while his dream world is brought to life through the choreography of aerialist-dancers Angola Murdoch and Holly Treddenick. 

In our unique creation approach for this project, there has been no outside artistic vision, rather was co-directed in a collaborative process by Holly, Angola and Stacie. The work has come together organically through discussion, discovery and experimentation. 

Holly Treddenick is an artist, producer, founder and artistic director for Femmes du Feu Creations. In 2001 Holly was introduced to the world of circus, beginning as a fire dancer, then moving into the air as an aerialist. Holly serves on the Welland Downtown BIA, the Welland Arts & Culture Advisory Committee, and is co-founder and chair of the Welland Creatives Network. Holly relocated to Welland after 25 years in Toronto, with her family in 2019 just prior to the pandemic, to open a new circus and multi-arts center, The Bank Art House with her husband.