Reviews
Reading Dance
By Robin J. Miller Nanaimo Infringing Dance Festival Nanaimo Infringing Dance FestivalNanaimo, BC – about an hour-and-a-half’s drive north from Victoria on Vancouver Island – is not anybody’s idea of a chic, urban centre. It doesn’t even have a downtown Starbucks. What it does have is a contemporary dance festival, when other, much larger and ostensibly more dance-friendly cities have lost theirs.
Posted October 2, 2005
A Ceremonial Event
By Kaija Pepper “Percy Gladstone Memorial Dance (The Skidegate Project)” Karen Jamieson Dance Company, Dancing on the Edge FestivalThe good news from the Edge is that it got off to a great start. Margie Gillis, the opening headliner for the 17th annual Dancing on the Edge Festival of Contemporary Dance, drew excellent houses for both nights of her “Voyages Into the Interior Landscape”. Gillis appeared at the mid-sized, close to 700-seat Vancouver Playhouse, an upscale, downtown theatre, and to see it well filled and bustling made for a festive launch to the ten-day event.
Posted August 5, 2005A Stage Full of Hurtin’ Albert’ns
By Kaija Pepper “Nine Points to Navigate” Brian Webb Dance CompanyWhat is the soul of a man? … When Sheri Somerville and Brian Webb ask the question in “Nine Points to Navigate”… the answer is more meaningfully grounded in their particular world, growing up in post-World-War-II Alberta.
Posted July 26, 2005Absorbing All Boundaries
By Marilyn R. Wilson The 15th Annual Festival of New Dance Festival of New DanceTwo premieres, both of Newfoundland works; a six-day schedule of three repeating programs in venues throughout downtown St. John’s; and fourteen free shows, in such unexpected/found spaces as churchyard trees and high-end clothing boutiques. The Festival of New Dance’s fifteenth anniversary spread also incorporated “Momenta”, which ran throughout the festival at LSPU Hall.
Posted July 10, 2005An Act of the Heart
By Philip Szporer "Liberamae" Louis-Martin CharestThe night I arrived in the lobby of the Monument National for the performance of Louis-Martin Charest’s new work, “Liberamae”, I was taken aback by the crowd that had assembled for the performance. Montréal establishment types, in pearls and fitted suits, were shoulder to shoulder with folks from both the ranks of the ballet and contemporary dance communities. Everyone seemed to take great delight in being there for the show.
Posted July 6, 2005
Gods and Dance Know Space and Time
By Kaija Pepper "Vivarta -- Manifestations of Vishnu" and "HowZaat!" Lata Pada, Sampradaya Dance CreationsFor her latest project, choreographer Lata Pada travelled to India to hold auditions. The artistic director of Toronto-based Sampradaya Dance Creations was in search of full-time professional bharata natyam dancers, a rare breed in Canada.
Posted June 25, 2005
The Force of Water (unsolicited submission)
By Sherry Dawn Knettle “Swept Away” Mari Osanai, Mile Zero DanceMile Zero Dance’s annual Dance Lab Performance had an unexpectedly large audience for its informal showing of “Swept Away”, choreographed by Japan’s Mari Osanai. The result of a one-month workshop, this Dance Lab was exceptional because the work developed into a completed piece rather than the intended work-in-progress.
Posted June 19, 2005
Festival de theatre des Amériques
By Philip Szporer "100 Rencontres", "In Side" & "Aura" Benoît Lachambre, Par B.L.eux, Stéphane Gladyszewski“100 Rencontres” by Benoît Lachambre, Par B.L.eux May 25-29, 2005 Société des arts technologies (SAT) “In Side” & “Aura” by Stéphane Gladyszewski May 30-31, June 1-2, 2005 Tangente
Posted June 16, 2005Sita's Journey to Canada
By Nova Bhattacharya "Sitayana -- Sita's Story" Menaka Thakkar Dance CompanyThe Menaka Thakkar Dance Company’s presentation of “Sitayana – Sita’s Story” from May 12-15, 2005 at the Betty Oliphant Theatre, Toronto, was a virtuoso production of a dance drama in the bharatanatyam style.
Posted May 31, 2005
First, A Comedy
By Kaija Pepper RIFF Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, Day HelesicTara Cheyenne Friedenberg is half man. On her father’s side, going way back. Also, she tells us at the start of “BANGER”, she married a man. Amazing, eh? Who better, then, to explore the contemporary male than Friedenberg?
Posted May 27, 2005
Contemporary Connections: Dance and Nature
By Gregory C. Beatty Indigenous Dancelands Anthony Dieter, Gaetan Gingras, Byron Chief-Moon, Karen Jamieson, Santee SmithPresented by New Dance Horizons (Regina), Peterborough New Dance and Tangente (Montréal) under the auspices of CanDance Network, Indigenous Dancelands offered a fascinating amalgam of traditional First Nations and contemporary Western dance practices. Featured was the premiere of Saskatchewan-based filmmaker Anthony Dieter’s Show-Down; Manitowapan by Montréal-based choreographer Gaetan Gingras; Elmer and Coyote, which was co-choreographed by Byron Chief-Moon (Alberta) and Karen Jamieson (British Columbia); and an excerpt from Ontario dance artist Santee Smith’s Kaha-Wi.
Posted May 14, 2005A Savvy Program
By Paula Citron dance Immersion 2005 dance ImmersionSomewhere toward the end of dance Immersion, this writer had an epiphany. No matter how stirring the traditional African drumming and dancing, or how stylish a tap routine, or how attractive the synchronization of energetic b-girls, or how charming the Caribbean folklore, it was the contemporary choreography that gave substance to the evening.
Posted May 3, 2005
Turning Up the Heat
By Robin J. Miller ¡BULLA! Hannah Stilwell, Kimberley Cooper, Decidedly Jazz DanceworksIt’s too bad Victoria doesn’t get snow, because it would have been fun to watch it melt under the heat of “¡BULLA!”, the latest full-length show from Calgary’s Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, subtitled “A Loud Cuban Jazz Experiment.” And loud it was. Also raucous and sexy and colourful, and very definitely hot.
Posted April 20, 2005
A Double Handful
By Kathleen Smith New Crop of Dancefilms Premiere at FIFA FIFA (Festival International du Film sur L'Art)Montréal’s Festival international du film sur l’art (FIFA) launched its 23rd edition this past March at venues all over town. In addition to profiles of artists, films by artists and documentaries about creative process and art history, FIFA regularly premieres a double handful of dancefilms and docs about dance. This year’s crop was particularly accomplished.
Posted April 14, 2005
