Ihtsi-pai-tapi-yopa—Essence of Life— by Coyote Arts Percussive Performance Association (CAPPA), brings story and movement from the Blackfoot-Blood-Kanai culture to the contemporary dance stage. Using lights and background video (Craig Alfredson), a soundscape ranging from bear growls to night-club beats (Sandy Scofield), and the strong, often animal-inspired movements of the three male dancers, the piece tells of bird men who become lost and full of conflict in an urban landscape, but are guided to a renewed sense of balance by a bear spirit. The story they tell of urban stress and the presence of an intervening, powerful, ultimately benevolent nature spirit—of...
Part of the 22nd annual Dancing on the Edge Festival, Status Quo is a dynamic and visceral hour-long journey through two solo pieces and one quartet. Choreographed and performed (in part) by Shay Kuebler and Amber Funk Barton, the mandate of Status Quo is to “create movement that is dynamically bold and emotionally captivating due to its velocity, speed, musicality and articulation.” Drawing from a variety of dance techniques (to this untrained eye, there were glimpses of pop and lock, breakdancing, modern, and even ballet), the pieces seemed to physically articulate the relationships and fragmentation of our own society.
DANCING ON THE EDGE is a contemporary dance festival held in Vancouver. It provides vital cross-pollination between local performers and internationally renowned dance artists. Through platforms such as this, artistic boundaries are expanded for all of us, ever widening the creative field. The festival opened last night with Edge 1; three diverse works which wooed, challenged and captivated its audience.
‘Here on the Ground’, choreographed by Sarah Chase and performed by Meghan Goodman and Julia Carr was a physical theatre piece about the unusual real life friendship of the two dancers. With simple stage props, recorded music, spoken word and...
Off to Dancing on the Edge tonight - went to a new Mascall Dance piece called The Three Cornered Hat. Featuring five dancers with choreography by Jennifer Mascall, it's happening at Chapel Arts which is just down the road from the Firehall Arts Centre. The music is by Stefan Smulovitz - he's also in the show playing live violin.
TWITTER COMMENTARY FOR YOU:
@AllysonMcGrane At Mascall Dance show The Three-Cornered Hat - happening tonight at Chapel Arts!
@AllysonMcGrane Now everyone is talking! To the audience directly... Some seem interested, others bewildered.
@AllysonMcGrane Now a few start to...
Lara Barclay & Billy Marchenski (Photo by Chris Randle)
The contemporary dance duet enables unparalleled expression of intimacy between two people, while the solo often represents a quest within the self. Edge 4, consisting of a duet and two solos, delivers on the promise of these forms, and more: we learn that individuality persists in the most interconnected of couples, while the imperative to relate—to oneself, to externally-imposed ideals, or to the social and physical world—exerts itself over even the most self-contained of individuals
Quell (part of this year's Dancing on the Edge Festival) is an interesting, if half baked, piece of modern dance that starts strong and ends poorly. Two dancers, Lin Snelling and Peter Bingham, share the stage to varying degrees of success. They're accompanied by Peggy Lee on cello playing the kind of music that could only be defined as experimental or avant-garde. Lee's cello alternates between beautiful and grating but she is always technically masterful. You've really got to know your instrument to fuck with it the way Lee does and as a result she's the first highlight of...
From the side-by-side civility of Caesura, through the manic attacks of Blood, to the final card game in “A pocket full of questions,” Edge One, a well-danced program of lively contemporary movement, explores various danceable modes of human interaction with energy, clarity, and grace.
Standing at the seaside in CRAB/Portside Park, looking across Burrard inlet toward the north shore mountains, who doesn’t want to bow and undulate in harmony? Mal de Mer, by Anatomica/ Proximity Arts, begins with the exquisitely satisfying tableau of two women (Susan Elliott and Tanya Marquart) swathed in sails, swaying in the thigh-high waves. What a pleasure to spend an hour in this gorgeous outdoors, as it is animated and given further shape by the engaging narratives (our sea-monkey origins? swimming with whales? drowning?), sound design (Emma Hendrix), sets (Jesse Garlick and Barnaby Killam) and movement structures of Mal de...
*endORPHIN*, creatd by the Plastic Orchid Factory and presented by this year's Dancing on the Edge Festival, takes us on a dark, apocalyptic journey into the subconscious of the 21st century. It shows human culture on the cusp of the cyborg era. The title endORPHIN – which ironically joins catastrophe and pleasure – suggests that this is a grim psychic reality where the only happiness is a terror-induced euphoria.
Natalie LeFebvre Gnam from EndORPHIN, a dystopian world
