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Not Your Average Swan Lake

Dada Masilo -- Dance Factory

South African choreographer Dada Masilo presents this alternate version of Swan Lake in Montréal January 14-16.

The differences of this contemporary version are clear by sight – everyone in tutus, barefeet – but Masilo’s choreography dives much deeper. The work deals with homophobia, forced marriages, the legacy of apartheid and the ravages of AIDS – all with sensitivity and humour. In Masilo’s version, Prince Siegfried falls in love with neither Odette nor Odile but instead with a male black swan.

Born in 1985, Masilo studied classical and contemporary dance in South Africa growing up, followed by two years in Brussels at PARTS, the dance school founded by the choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. Masilo founded her company in 2008.

Learn more >> dansedanse.ca

Posted January 11, 2016

Political Bodies

Public protest on the land now called Canada often disrupts the rhythms of everyday life. Dance, when used in and as protest, entails the work of remembrance and caring for difficult histories, memories and stories. Elan Marchinko explores four performative works that engage in protest: The Holomodor Project, Meridian, Bearing and Blackout. Included are Rodney Diverlus’s choreographer’s notes.

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BOW’T by Rhodnie Désir

“This significant evening-length political work explores notions of homeland, and a journey from an immigrant ship to the factory floor,” says Philip Szporer of Désir’s new work, a performance highlight in the March/April 2015 issue.

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