Take It Back - Would You Care to Dance?

take it back, Helen Simard; photo: Melissa Gobeil

Sometimes, when the curtain is drawn, you just know you're in for a good time. When the curtains move aside for Solid State's Take it Back, we are looking at a picture.

Four dancers dressed-up as street kids from the 30's stand in a photographic pose. They stay that way for an uncomfortably long time, until some of the audience decides to take the introductory announcement to "make noise and have fun" to heart. But even through the hoots and hollers, they stand.

Finally, JoDee Allen falls out of step. Her foot, pumping to the music, gets her going. Her crazy dance moves get nothing but disapproval from her stoic peers. Back in line she goes. But the beat won't stop, and she's at it again - reeling and spinning to the beats. Every time she tries to gain composure, she's drawn back into the rhythm, until finally the rest leave her to her thing.

Like Betty Page break-dancing, she is flirts and teases while moving from street dancing to coy poses. Her interlude over, there is a shift into couples dancing, and that is where the premise of the piece is introduced.

"Why don't we dance in couples anymore?" they ask. Take it Back moves through all-too-familiar social structures. Formal dance moves and how awkward they can make you feel. The brilliance of being the one shining star in the middle of a dance circle. The wallflowers finding their courage by moving out together, and loosing their bravery the minute one of them heads back to the wall. The Solid State dancers point out the ingrained traditions of dance by making humourous situations when women take the lead, or men dance together.

That final point was what makes this piece not just fun but truly interesting. Sure, the dancers' facial expressions and body movements provoke humour when they push into the realm of questioning gender roles in dance, but at the same time, questions remain valid: why must this move, or this one, still be taboo?

Helen Simard and JoDee Allen's choreography is superb, combining break dance moves with swing, capoeira with ragtime, and crossing as many chronological and cultural boundaries as they can.

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Take it Back (Solid State, Montreal) is a Dancing on the Edge 20th Anniversary Festival presentation.
Choreographers: JoDee "Fiesty" Allen and Helen "Cheeco" Simard
Performers: Helen "Cheeco" Simard, Joe-Danny "Dingo" Aurelian and Guy-Robert Jean
Music: Les Mains Libres

 

By Miranda Huron