Enfin Vous Zestes: external delights
After a "Vancouver International Dance Festival":http://www.vidf.ca/ show comprised entirely of local performers, a dancer friend and I were discussing the merits of projecting emotion. There seems to be a disturbing trend for dancers, specifically amongst those trained at Simon Fraser University, to completely internalize their performance.
Why, is this disturbing? Well, maybe disturbing isn’t quite the right word. Maybe a more appropriate word would be something along the lines of… tiresome. It’s tiresome because the idea that the performing arts are a tool for personal exploration is just a little too 1982, and, except in rare circumstances, really deserves to be shelved right along with unitards and music that sounds like “computers.”
Maybe I’m exaggerating… Or maybe not. But is it too much to ask for a little projection every once in a while? There’s nothing wrong with self-exploration, but tell me about it, you’re on a stage for crissakes. You know?
Or perhaps you don’t. Perhaps you’re sitting there, at work, killing a little time on PlankMagazine.com during your coffee break, wondering, “What is this writer on, and where can I get some?”
What I’m really trying to get at, dear reader, is that Louise Bedard’s *Enfin Vous Zestes* (Finally, You Are, and also part of this year’s VIDF) is one of the best performed shows I’ve seen this year. And it features dancers who, you know, convey emotion! And not just with their bodies but with their faces too! And it wasn’t even bharatanatyam! Imagine that.
Can we talk about Sarah Williams? She’s one of the dancers in *Enfin Vous Zestes*, and I’m pretty sure I want to marry her. The last time I saw, Williams perform, she was sporting a mini-skirt, a blond wig, a chainsaw, and a smile. That, my friends, is performing art at its finest. This took place at last year’s VIDF, during a late night cabaret. Williams is someone who understands the idea of performance. She is so expressive (not to mention agile and powerful), I felt like she was dancing just for me.
But enough about Sarah Williams! So what if she’s danced with everyone from La La La Human Steps to Holy Body Tattoo? Aren’t you writing a review or something?
If we could just go back to Sarah Williams for a second, I would like to talk about her playful and fantastically fun duets with Ken Roy, another dancer I couldn’t keep my eyes off of. The interaction between Williams and Roy was magnificently childlike, and yet so connected. In fact, I would say that the physical connection between all the dancers could be felt all the way to the back of the theatre. It didn’t feel as though they had been choreographed to touch, rather it felt as though they really wanted to be with each other; like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Artistic Director and Choreographer Bédard has put together an outlandish, playful and overall excellent piece. Everything comes together perfectly – the silly (but adept) dancers, the minimalist set (mostly made up of blank canvasses placed at the back of the stage), the ambient music, the stuffed toys… and, of course, Sarah Williams.
The piece takes us through life’s big themes: Childhood! Work! Romance! Life! Death! But in that lovely, abstract way that contemporary dance has when it’s not busy trying to be the new mime.
After all, what’s life without a little silliness once in a while?
_Louise Bedard Danse performed March 12-14 at the Roundhouse as part of the Vancouver International Dance Festival. For more information emote_ "here":http://www.vidf.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=26