by MARITES CARINO

In her how-to book The Art of Making Dances (published posthumously in 1959), American modern choreographer Doris Humphrey dishes out no-nonsense advice for choreographers in the making. Take this tip: “All dances are too long.” A tad extreme, but often true. When no longer captivated by what’s on stage, the mind drifts involuntarily and temptation inevitably sets in to peek at your timepiece. Here’s my compendium of works that didn’t trigger the wrist twitch.

For me, 2005 was all about memorable choreographies from locals—like Zab Maboungou. Last winter, clocking in at a succinct 50 minutes, Lwáza, her explosive work for three dancers, left me yearning for more at the fade to black. A definite highlight was dancer Karla Etienne’s intense, fiery performance that dialogued with percussive rhythms of the on-stage musicians.

In February, the public got a chance to see O Vertigo’s Ginette Laurin up close and on stage after a long performance hiatus. Laurin joined improv guru Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood at the SAT for one evening in his improv series Les Cinq Mouvements, where the duo interacted around the theme of fire while sharing fleeting moments of joyous spontaneity to the haunting vocals of Christine Duncan.

Over at Studio 303, whose Vernissage Danse series gives emerging artists a platform to shape works and collect valuable feedback, another gem of a duet left a good taste. In A Collection of Letters, by Concordia grad Thea Patterson, dancers Cat Lipscombe and Peter Trosztmer worked in synergy toying with each other’s weight and emotion. Word has it they’re making a film version of the piece, so keep an eye out in case you missed it.

Solid sketch

Normally, when we shell out for a show, we expect it to be polished and finished. But it doesn’t always have to be that way, as proven by Marie Chouinard, who shared a snippet of Mouvements, a work in progress that featured long-time company dancer Carol Prieur. Juxtaposed against ceiling-high projections of shadow-like black ink drawings by poet-artist Henri Michaux, Prieur translated the flat static images into movement. By the end of the piece, with a quick lighting change, Prieur broke free from the drawings and was creating movement and casting her own inky shadows.

The piece left a mark not only because of its content, but before the performance, Chouinard drew the public into her intimate creative space by showing us how she worked with Prieur to bring these drawings to life. Since process is an integral, yet mostly invisible part of the final product, it was revealing and refreshing to catch a glimpse of this exercise on stage. Similarly, choreographer Paul-André Fortier took spectators backstage this fall with a poignant documentary by Yannick B. Gélinas that showed Fortier at work with actors James Hyndman and Rober Racine.

Welcome guests

From France, choreographer Jean-Claude Gallotta brought us Trois générations. He took a choreography and taught it to three different groups of dancers made up of youngsters, adults and seniors, who then repeated the phrases in succession. I feared monotonous results, I was proven wrong. Instead, the movement, which morphed time, bodies and ages, was fascinating—and for once we saw young people at Place des Arts who weren’t just tip-toeing to The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies.

Speaking of sylphs, but decked out in ballet drag, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte-Carlo temporarily drew us out of the winter deep freeze with their romp through ballet classics, sporting low-cut leotards and tufts of chest hair. I was wary of the cheeze factor—what with stage names like Olga Supphezova and Maria Gertrudes Clubfoot—but the boys not only impressed with their technical capabilities and pointe prowess, but I was also taken by their humour, which we don’t see enough of in dance.

Even though it was back in March that I saw Finks, by Japanese choreographer/video artist Akiko Kitamura, vivid images still remain. Kitamura established her name with this stunning piece, set to a driving techno soundtrack and using four on-stage video cameras to project larger-than-life images of the incredible dancers, who address concepts of communication. But on the downside, and I’m sure Doris would concur, it was about 10 minutes too long.