Reviews

Phosphorescent Figures Rattle

Priscilla Guy and Sébastien Provencher’s Deux squelettes By Philip Szporer

Guy and Provencher’s characters are, in their work Deux squelettes, two artists who’ve shed, well, everything to probe the meaning of their existence.

Posted February 11, 2019

Stepping into the Twilight of the Sacred

Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet presents Vespers at the National Arts Centre By Sheenagh Pietrobruno

James Kudelka transforms the religious evocation of this 1610 choral masterpiece into a contemporary spiritual testament to the union between animals, humans and nature.

Posted January 11, 2019

Navigating the Voyage

Lucie Grégoire’s Territoires By Philip Szporer

In many ways Lucie Grégoire’s new work, Territoires, is like an elusive secret. She notes that this piece is drawn from previous works and new material – a revisiting of her creative bank of work.

Posted December 7, 2018

Turn Me Inside Out

Rock Bottom Movement’s fantasylover brandishes a feminist awareness with a self-aware wink By Jillian Groening

fantasylover layers pop culture references and vibrant subversion of fairy tale tropes to create a feminist utopia.

Posted November 23, 2018

The Roots and Realities of Colourism

Esie Mensah’s Shades: What is Colour? By Collette Murray

Rooted in the fractured phenomenon of shadeism or colourism, Shades: What is Colour? engages with the discrimination deeply embedded in global communities of colour.

Posted October 31, 2018

Watching is Not Seeing

Rebecca Margolick and Andrea Peña & Artists By Lucy Fandel

A video projection of swaying torsos opens New York-based choreographer Rebecca Margolick’s birds sing a pretty song. Belonging to Austin Tyson and Margolick the torsos slowly turn and cross in front of one another, arms loosely wrapped around themselves.

Posted October 29, 2018

Inner Worlds and Outer Lives

Janelle Hacault and Jane Mappin at Festival Quartiers Danses By Lucy Fandel

The unseen and unspoken are themes that echo through a double bill with works by Janelle Hacault and Jane Mappin.

Posted October 29, 2018

Our Inevitable Fall

Alix Dufresne and Marc Béland’s Chutes: Descendre du ciel By Lucy Fandel

Uninhibited and tender, Chutes is a confrontation of our physical and mental fall at the end of life.

Posted October 16, 2018

A Process of Fulfillment

Benchmarq presents Darshan By Brannavy Jeyasundaram

The margam in bharatanatyam is a traditional repertoire consisting of core sections (or items, as they’re called in the form), strategically arranged to evoke a spiritual journey.

Posted August 29, 2018

Make It Rain

Eroca Nicols is the truthteller By Emma Doran

Truthteller is an interactive presentation engaging with performance economies, rituals and intimacies between bodies.

Posted August 21, 2018

Yes Manifesto (2018)

Linnea Swan interprets modern dance history, makes us laugh, makes us cry and makes us laugh-cry By Emma Doran

With Swan’s impeccable comedic timing, we’re in good hands on a journey through modern dance moments. Each performance is enacted by Swan as she struggles with anxiety, and each is interrupted by one of Yvonne Rainer’s tenets. Nijinsky? Swan asks through her performance (“No to spectacle”). Duncan? (“No to transformations and magic”). Chouinard? (“No to trash imagery”). Ugh, fine, karaoke? (“No to camp”). And so on …

Posted August 21, 2018

Sensational but Stuck

Breakaway Entertainment’s Anatomy of a Dancer at the Toronto Fringe Festival By Grace Wells-Smith

Befitting a show dedicated to Gene Kelly, I walked in the pouring rain to the Al Green Theatre in Toronto to see Anatomy of a Dancer by Breakaway Entertainment and choreographed by Adam Martino at the Toronto Fringe Festival.

Posted August 9, 2018

The Why and How

In Threes and The Fall at the Toronto Fringe Festival By Molly Johnson

Molly Johnson reviews two selection from the 2018 Toronto Fringe Festival: Colleen Snell’s The Fall and Alison Daley, Half Second Echo & Tracey Norman’s In Threes.

Posted August 9, 2018

Curating Time

Plastic orchid factory’s i miss doing nothing By Rachel Silver Maddock

In a large white studio, an immersive dance installation is going on, drawing audience members (or participants) into a space distinct from yet porous with the street below. To mark the ten-year anniversary of plastic orchid factory, performers and directors Natalie LeFebvre Gnam and James Gnam designed a unique movement retrospective framed by the present – i miss doing nothing.

Posted July 30, 2018

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