Reviews
Devious Spine Chills
Hélène Blackburn and Lucie Bazzo’s Suites Ténébreuses / The Monsters By Xdzunúm Danae Trejo-BolesThere was a soft calmness to the dark theatre space of Agora de la danse as a mixed audience entered to see Cas Public’s Suites Ténébreuses / The Monsters, co-created by choreographer Hélène Blackburn and lighting designer Lucie Bazzo.
Posted December 9, 2019
Humanity Adrift
Alan Lake Factori(e)’s Le cri des méduses By Dylan SchoenmakersA painting come to life, Le cri des méduses dramatizes humanity at its most fractured and desperate.
Posted November 21, 2019
Repetition is a Form of Change
Andrea Peña’s Untitled I + III By Helen SimardIn her latest work, choreographer Andrea Peña uses “sameness,” or repetition, as a catalyst for change, highlighting the transformative nature of the body as it oscillates between a site of resilience and vulnerability.
Posted November 12, 2019
In the Grip of a Crowd
Hanna Kiel’s Resonance By Erin BaldwinIf you’re looking for clues to deciphering Resonance, the new dance production from Toronto-based choreographer Hanna Kiel, you might start with the name.
Posted October 29, 2019
A Quizzical Assortment
Three choreographers remix Melanie Demers’ Cantique By Philip SzporerWhen you let other choreographers remix your work, radical shifts can result, bringing into question cultural practice
Posted October 28, 2019
Performing Radical Sincerity
Dana Michel’s CUTLASS SPRING By James OscarDana Michel’s latest serving challenges us to reach into our imaginations to create our own intimate vocabularies while sitting with the work.
Posted October 9, 2019
A Glimmer of Hope
Rodney Diverlus and Syrus Ware’s burn, burned By Valeria NunziatoThrough their original work, burn, burned, Rodney Diverlus and Syrus Marcus Ware present a fictitious futuristic setting following a band of revolutionaries looking to salvage what is left after decades of race-driven war and destruction.
Posted October 7, 2019
Reclaiming Narrative for a Contemporary Audience
Josh Beamish’s @giselle By Rachel Silver MaddockIn @giselle, Josh Beamish takes the tragic romance of Giselle, which dates back to 1841, and inserts a third player, social media, to expose its role in modern-day relationships.
Posted September 19, 2019
Defying the Familiar
dance: made in canada’s Mrozewski Series By Valeria NunziatoThe Mrozewski series at this year’s dance: made in canada festival defy the familiar with Katia-Marie Germain’s Habiter and Josh Martin’s Leftovers.
Posted September 17, 2019
Blending In, Blending Out
Syreeta Hector’s Black Ballerina By Valeria NunziatoSyreeta Hector’s Black Ballerina bears a loaded title, with an equally weighty repertoire of choreography. At SummerWorks Performance Festival, we were offered a preview of this work-in-progress, her first-solo work, with the full program premiering at The Citadel this fall.
Posted September 10, 2019
That Sweet Spot Between Gallery and Stage
Alexa Mardon and Erika Mitsuhashi’s Tender Engine By Rachel Silver MaddockAcross four evenings this June, VIVO presented Tender Engine, a performance-installation piece co-choreographed by Alexa Mardon and Erika Mitsuhashi. The artists have been in research for over a year through residencies in Vancouver and Halifax, during which they investigated four areas: technology, language, storytelling and “performative expertise.”
Posted July 23, 2019
An Electric Bolt of Messy
Helen Simard’s Requiem Pop By Philip SzporerHelen Simard explores the life and work of music icon Iggy Pop in her newest creation called Requiem Pop, which tackles the notions of hero worship, fandom and the cultural icons we don’t know but love. The work unleashes an electric bolt of messy, self-destructive Iggy chaos onto the stage.
Posted May 21, 2019
Gogol’s Glitch
Kidd Pivot’s Revisor By Philip SzporerThe co-creators of the bold and distinctive Revisor, Jonathon Young and Crystal Pite, bear witness to themes of deceit, tyranny, greed and corruption in their re-telling of Nikolas Gogol’s The Inspector General.
Posted April 23, 2019
Skin, Pain, Plastic and Paper
Kelly McInnes’s SHINY at the Vancouver International Dance Festival By Rachel Silver MaddockJust how deep does the damage go? In SHINY Kelly McInnes gets to the guts of this question in a persistent and stealthy topic: the effects of the beauty standards inflicted on women through media.
Posted April 16, 2019
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