After showing some light-sabre enthusiasts performing on YouTube, Turner himself twirled two light sabres prettily in the dark. In his solo show at La Chapelle, 18 Practices, he often relied on his onstage computer console. Over the past 15 years, Montreal dancer/choreographer Andrew Turner has created several works that mix movement, video, and philosophical dialogue. Whether this was meant to be uplifting was hard to tell in a piece that left me cold. Falling artificial snow covered her as the Agora de la Danse stage went black. At the end, facing the audience, Santerre jiggled her hips and shoulders ever faster as though gripped by outside forces. Earnest to a fault, the piece became increasingly grimmer. Later came vigorous arm thrusts with pauses in freeze position. Eventually she edged to the floor as the music quietly throbbed. James Gregg and Anne Plamondon in Plamondon’s Seulement toi | Photo: Michael SlobodianĪt the start of Se dissoudre, a solo by another contemporary local choreographer, Catherine Gaudet, dancer Marie-Philippe Santerre stood still while relentlessly making pelvic thrusts that surged to her upper body with such force I feared for her physical wellbeing. Knowing how to embrace and when to let go was the key, the choreography suggested, to overcoming solitude. But both dancers shone in solos revealing their individuality. Such compelling interaction seemed at odds with their too-bland bits of spoken dialogue. During subsequent partnering, their limbs conjoined into pretzel-like positions, locking and unlocking without strain. Seulement toi opened and closed with a sequence out of everyday life in which the two tried on different shirts behind a scrim. Her thoughtful hour-long duet with James Gregg, Seulement toi ( Only you), richly exploited urban dance’s angularity and stop-start rhythm to show an adult relationship in progress. Urban dance has served as a rich lodestone for contemporary Montreal choreographers, including Anne Plamondon. As pretty and clever as Rhapsodie was, the single-toned choreography made its point long before the hour’s end. Regrettably, there was no tension or drama except for a moment when the dancers uncharacteristically hugged. Observing the variety of gestures and the smooth flow of movement, I felt delight akin to listening to light Baroque music. Occasionally the groups separated and inhabited a different space, maintaining cohesion through common gestures. Eventually dancers moved about the space in strict patterns. Another dancer then initiated a different gesture that the others repeated. Presented in the round by the Danse Danse series, Rhapsodie began with one dancer initiating an upper-body gesture that was picked up in turn by the others, like a musical canon. Sylvain Émard’s Rhapsodie | Photo: Mathieu Doyon Having staged outdoor performances of Le Grand Continental with upwards of 3,000 amateur line-dancers, Émard knows something about group movement. My enjoyment of Blankenbuehler’s choreography brought to mind Rhapsodie, the new hour-long work for 20 dancers by veteran Montreal choreographer Sylvain Émard, which I saw a month earlier at the Wilder Building’s Studio Theatre. The chorus of 20 cats wove movement patterns as intricate as the warp and weft of an oriental rug. Andy Blankenbuehler’s adaptation of Gillian Lynne’s original choreography had more virtuoso pirouettes and jumps than the Broadway staging I saw 30 years ago. Cats was Montreal’s first Broadway musical in over two years, and the public filled the city’s biggest hall to the uppermost tiers. In March, midway through Broadway Across Canada’s run of the musical Cats at Place des Arts, Montreal theatres dropped COVID passport requirements.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |