Collective Encounters and Brief Tomorrows; Unlikely Creative Pairings
*Brief Encounters 10* was facing some pretty unreasonable expectations. I had attended only one Brief Encounters before, number 9, last Spring.
That event, which featured performances by six pairings of individual artists from completely different genres, had started with my own personal brief encounter when one of the Producers, Jennifer McLeish-Lewis from the Tomorrow Collective, gave me – a total stranger – a hug while I waited in line to purchase my ticket. It just happened that she had embraced a friend in the line-up. When she stepped back and looked down the line, there I was with a gentle shrug and a look that said, “Do I get one too?”
There’s something about the event that makes you lose your inhibitions. After all, the artists are up on stage taking huge risks, working with people they may have only met a fortnight before.
After a moment’s pause, she said, “Oh, why not,” and my first experience at *Brief Encounters* was starting to look pretty good. (Unbeknownst to McLeish-Lewis, this was not the first time she had given me something special. In July 2007, as part of her dance performance in *The Rules* at the Firehall, she had come into the audience and handed me a secret sealed in an envelope—and don’t bother asking. That secret remains just between the two of us).
Once we were settled in with our beer at *Brief Encounters 10*this October, the show started, a cascade of unlikely pairings. In this case: Timothy Wisdom (d-jay) with Heather Pawsey (soprano); Venus Soberanes (filmmaker) with Michelle J. Paddack, Ph.D (marine biologist); and Brendan McLeod (spoken word artist) with Namchi Bazar (indo-fusion dancer). After the intermission and more beer, the encounters resumed: Vin Arora (ceramics artist) with Alex Ferguson (theatre artist); Sabrina Sandberg (acrobat) with Graham Oatman (b-boy); and Ndidi Onukwulu (singer/songwriter) and Anne Cooper (contemporary dancer). Essentially, the artists are working with strangers. Each pairing is given only two weeks before the show to develop and rehearse their piece, following the one rule that it must “be a true collaboration.”
The beauty of Brief Encounters is that, until the performances happen, anything is possible. The audience, ever mindful of this, wants the pairings to succeed, wants the collaborations to be amazing and exciting, and eggs on the performers, supporting them, cheering them and letting them know that even though they may be out of their comfort zone the audience is up there on the stage with them. Figuratively speaking.
Much like the metaphor of Schrdinger’s Cat, which appeared in the Arora/Ferguson piece (whereby a cat in a box with randomly released poison can be said to be both dead and alive at the same time until the box is opened and the actual result revealed), each pairing has the potential of being spectacular or disastrous. And until they play out on stage, all possibilities remain and the air is charged with expectation and hope. The hope that you will witness greatness, something special, something magical. And, in that sense, Brendan McLeod and Namchi Bazar’s collaboration stole the show. Their playfully hilarious, and disturbingly detailed, portrayal in song and dance of pregnancy and childbirth morphed into a Bollywood-style musical number at the end, complete with a teddy bear baby and a toilet seat as dancing partners.
And that’s really the point of Brief Encounters. Each piece is potentially unique, likely never again to see the light of day after the short run (for good or bad), and no matter how high your expectations may be when you arrive, you will see something special. Whether it is an opera singer rapping, someone singing the blues while suspended over the back of a dancer, or doomed clay vessels having a barbershop conversation.
It may not be great. It may not even be even be good. But it’ll be special.
_Brief Encounters occurs about three times a year, and number 11 will take place December 3-5, 2008 at 8pm at the Anza Club. Arrive early._