Threading physical theatre, comedy, and painting-like montages with dance, Deborah Dunn’s Elegant Heathens is a unique and carefully crafted piece of delightful absurdity. The actors/dancers of Dunn’s company, Trial and Eros, have studied human facial and physical expressions at length.
The United States has elected its first African American president, and much public discourse has centered around the significance of this turn in American history. It is, of course, a tremendous moment, but what bothers me about the current media hoopla surrounding Obama is the sub-text of absolution; it is as if by having elected a man of colour to the most powerful position in the U.S. government, the rest of America can wipe the slate clean of its past and ignore its present tragedies.
they are composing a dance
working and reworking
and writing it down and changing things and discovering things and
going home to write it all down again and come back the next day with new ideas
As the tiny, hanging bulbs began to dim their way to darkness, Lee Su-Feh stood simply at the microphone and thanked us for choosing to spend our Friday night with her.
Do you suffer from heartache? Are you currently treating your symptoms with goblets of red wine, tearful texting, repetitive telephone conversations, or reckless ventures into e-dating?
Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg and her many personalities take the stage in Nick & Juanita
"Andrea Thompson":http://www.poets.ca/linktext/direct/thompson.htm
is an urban cougar. She is hot, she can spin words together faster than the urban male can think them and she has loads of talent, presence, and is dedicated to the spoken word art form.
The phenomenal guitarist on stage (Ricardo Garcia) is clearly a master of flamenco, and he looks quite a bit like Lenin. Not just any Lenin, though: a Lenin who studied in France instead of St. Petersburg, and who learned music instead of the twisted mix of law and revolution.
There's something a little audacious about entering the Fringe with a dance piece. Dance tends to hang out over in its own corner of the art world, while theatre does its thing over in its own camp, and rarely the twain shall meet.
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
