WALKING:HOLDING

What happens when two strangers hold hands in public?

What intimate connections can we develop with someone we’ve just met?

Walking:Holding is a singular nomadic experience designed for spectator at a time.

During a forty-minute wander through the city, audiences will hold hands with seven artists of different ages, genders, social backgrounds, and cultural and sexual identities.

The duos will follow a carefully thought-out and pre-established route. They may remain silent, or they may talk. No interaction is scripted, leaving the space open for instinctive and organic connection.

An opportunity to explore the social diversity and cultural codes of our metropolis from a new perspective.

Seemingly simple, Walking:Holding is a complicated, rich, nurturing experience for audience members, performers, and witnesses encountered on street corners.

Walking:Holding allows us to put ourselves in the shoes of the other, to become aware of the gaze of passersby, to challenge prejudices. It raises awareness of the realities of minority identities. A precious moment of reflection and intimacy, a break from the hubbub of the city.

This intersectional creation by Rosana Cade (Glasgow) has been touring the world since 2011. It now comes to life for the first time in Ottawa after two years of pandemic that have challenged even the most benign human contact.

Start at La Nouvelle Scène Gilles Desjardins, 333. King Edward Ave, K1N 7M5, Ottawa.