This is only my second dance review for Plank. With the first one, I neatly got out of any detailed analysis by talking about Areosia’s Cumulus in broad terms. I couldn’t actually see Cumulus so couldn’t comment on its shortcomings or strengths as a dance piece.
Lunar Rouge, The Tomorrow Collective; photo: Chris Randle
It’s a mystery. Why does pure choreography sometimes create its own meaning, and other times leave you craving for context? For many in contemporary dance, the ideal is to let the movement speak for itself.
Lunar Rouge, The Tomorrow Collective; photo: Chris Randle
Wadded plastic, descending airplanes, and dangling mikes: memorable images graced each of the three commissioned works in Dancing on the Edge's Edge 5. Made up of two duets and a trio – Co.Erasga’s Adam-Eve/Man-Woman (Part 1), Peter Bingham’s right in front of you, and Serge Bennathan’s Slam for a Timetraveller – the program chanced to follow a classic narrative arc, from emergence in the first piece, to greatest tension in the middle, and restoration of harmony at the end.
Billy Marchenski and Alison Denham connect and disconnect in Adam-Eve/Man-Woman
The tone for Industry of Dreams, the first of two performances in Edge Three, was set with an opening, deliberately amateur film of India’s daily life mixed in with dancing. Traditional theatrical dancing mixed with dervishes fade into scenes of people riding buses. The mood is set: This is India, and India is movement.
Namchi Bazar steps carefully through the Industry of Dreams
The Vancouver Art Gallery wants to become known for its collection of photography. This makes sense. Photography is an art-form at which Vancouver has become closely identified, as witnessed by the success of Jeff Wall and Roy Arden.
aeriosa, cool images; photo by audience member meg walker
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.
The Brian Webb Dance Company is 29 years old - experienced, mature, steeped in training and knowledge. And dancing is still Webb's announced and lived passion - he describes himself as a person who "lives for dance" in the performance I'm about to describe. But the full-length piece he created for the 10 for 20 Dancing on the Edge commission was strong in staged story-telling - and strangely weak in choreography.
