Not everyone celebrates Valentine’s Day with long-stemmed roses and cinnamon hearts. In fact, Common People’s Andrew Hartley and Emma Kerson will mark the occasion by journeying into the heart of loneliness.

With choreography by Simon Renaud and Renaud’s choreographic mentor, Tedd Robinson, the dancers explore isolation and connection, togetherness and seclusion on February 15-18 at 8pm at The Citadel: Ross Centre for Dance in Regent Park, Toronto.

In Songs and Tarps, Robinson explores partnership, asking: how does coming together satisfy our need for connection? Where do we fall short? How do we see ourselves in each other? In l’inanité des bibelots / love would only slow me down, Renaud transforms minutia into magic and shapes it into a glacial landscape of sound and light.