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Last Chance to Get Some Quiet
Arkadi Zaides offered little relief to the expectant audience that gathered last night at the MAI for Quiet. In this explosive response to Israel’s splintered political landscape, Zaides and three...
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Power Mama
Political Mother is, in a word, power, and a commentary on the fear that – even unjustified – nonsensical power can bring. A row of electric guitarists and percussionists bombard with a heavy rock...
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Skin Deep
I love press releases, especially those that have been translated. The one handed to me on Wednesday night for Frédérick Gravel’s Usually Beauty Fails was particularly good: “The choreographer...
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Fall Down Go Boom
Jocelyn Monpetit performed La Danseuse Malade at the Segal Centre Thursday, an interpretation of Tatsumi Hijikata’s text of the same name. Paying tribute to Hijikata as both writer and choreographer,...
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Dare to be Different
“I want to give you dance, dance that dances,” declared Compagnie Flak choreographer José Navas Tuesday night at Theatre Maisonneuve. As a prelude to Dipytych, Navas took to the stage in a brief...
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Terminus Terminé!
“I’m sorry,” I whispered as the applause for Charmaine LeBlanc’s Terminus grew to a standing ovation Wednesday night. “It’s OK,” responded my friend. “It wasn’t all bad.” I looked out at the smiling...
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Dance Away
Aszure Barton and Artists performed two works at Theatre Maisonneuve Friday night: Awåa, which premiered this past June at the Canada Dance Festival, and Busk, a popular staple of the company since...
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They Ain’t Heavy
It’s been an interesting Danse Danse season in Montreal, with a notable focus on contemporary Québécois and Canadian companies. Tuesday night brought the much-anticipated Chinese choreographer Tao Ye...
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On the Prowl
Discovery Bal feels like a dance still unfolding in the quagmire of Andrew de Lotbiniére Harwood’s mind. At several points during Friday night’s performance I thought I’d found my point of reference –...
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Flamenco Forte
La Otra Orilla opens the 2013 Danse Danse season with HomoBLABLAtus. Led by the forceful Myriam Allard, the work explores the language of flamenco and the flamenco of language with sharp, playful wit....
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Sleepy Pastoral
Trois Paysages, as choreographer Karine Ledoyen notes, is not meant to pack a punch. Instead it should flow naturally, like a river; its dancers blown about like leaves in the wind. Poetics were...
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Water Works
There is an anarchic animalism to Harold Rhéume’s Fluide. Clothed in punk garb, Le Fils d’Adrien Danse exude the dexterous pack mentality of wolves and the languid cool of a vampire cult. When its...
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Large Emotions, Small Executions
In a work of eight successive solos, José Navas explores the effects of time, memory, and dance upon his body: through each, the vulnerability of the soloist is revealed and heightened. As the title...
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Walking Distance
For choreographer Sharon Eyal, walking is the new dancing. Corps de Walk, performed here by the Norwegian National Company of Contemporary Dance, Carte Blanche, redefines the mundane act with sharp,...
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At the Circus
Invited to a dress rehearsal of Didy Veldman’s TooT at the Les Grands Ballets studio, it took me two tries before I finally located the building – a nondescript, concrete block just south of Saint...
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Clowning Around
Danz & TooT opened Thursday night at Theatre Maisonneuve with a program of five short teasers compiled from longer works by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin, followed by the single and complete...
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So Long, Farewell
“It’s over!” Jacques Poulin-Denis yells at the small press group scattered about Usine C’s large auditorium Tuesday night. “Au Revoir! Auf Wiedersehen! Good Bye!” Nobody moves. “What? What, you wanna...
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Strange Fruit
Veteran dancer and choreographer Margie Gillis returned to the stage Tuesday night with The Light Between, a collaboration with fellow dancers Marc Daigle and Paola Styron, choreographer Holly Bright,...
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Captivating and Captured
For a brief three-day run, Maria Pagés and company perform Autorretrato, a self-portrait of its star Flamenco dancer. On Thursday night, the theatre of the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier was packed, with...
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One Step at a Time
Mary St-Amand Williamson and Zohar Melinek performed Collective Individual on Friday night, a careful, discreet new work that explores the physicality of revolution. Presented in conjunction with Le...
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