Different beats

Three dance fans look back on what disappointed, charmed and moved them this year

ALWAYS ENCHANTING: José Navas’s Miniatures (left),
Sur les glaces de Labrador by Sarah Chase

by MARITES CARINO

This year, I decided to snoop around and find out what other dance aficionados thoughts and musings were on the past year. But before we get to their highs and lows, meet the panellists.

Dena Davida is artistic director and co-founder of the Tangente dance space and programs the season, which features 50 dance companies per year. Lorraine Hébert is general manager of the Regroupement québécois de la danse, a non-profit organization that represents more than 500 dance professionals. And Paolo Bramucci, a banker-mutual fund and investment specialist has no formal dance training but has been taking in about 25 shows a year for almost three decades.

Mirror: Looking back, how would you describe the year in dance?

Dena Davida: Packed, immense, impossible to see absolutely everything. There are so many new presenting initiatives driven by younger dance curators. A younger generation is moving forward, predominating the scene.

Paolo Bramucci: Overall, I thought it was a good one. There seemed to be something, if not a couple shows that I wanted see every week. In particular, the dance program of the Festival TransAmériques (FTA) was a strong one.

M: What was a high point?

DD: Dave St-Pierre and company’s mega outrageous performance during the FTA. What could be next?

Lorraine Hébert: The strong presence of artists at the protests in Montreal and Quebec against the cuts to culture by the Harper government.

PB: José Navas solo performance Miniatures.  

M: And the low point?

DD: The “choreography” of France’s critic-choreographer Raimund Hoghe at the FTA. Boléro Variations was two tortuous hours of wondering what on Earth he was trying to do, and why he wanted to call it choreography at all.  LH: The decision by the Harper government to cut several arts and culture funding sources like PromArt and Routes Commerciales in August.

DD: Manon Oligny’s L’Écurie, her dance-installation-text performance at the SAT. The powerful energy of the horse stall performances, the raw poetry-en-direct, driving soundscore, intelligent feminism, and the ambiance created by the moving audience members as they strained to catch all they could from different angles.

PB: Marie Chouinard. As to why? In a word, imagination. Even after all these years, she still gives me reasons to go and see what she’s up to. She has an impressive range as a choreographer, seemingly able to do it all and with ease.   

M: Favourite choreography from a non-Montrealer?

DD: Susanna Hood’s She’s Gone Away at the Théâtre La Chapelle.  An extraordinary journey into a psychological surrealism played out in an intriguing paper room. It’s a cutting-edge update on “Doll’s House” by a Canadian choreographer at the peak of her powers.

PB: Sarah Chase. Over the years, Chase has enchanted me with works that are intimate. I find she’s successful in her melding of words and movement in her works.

DD: The very last scene from Fred Gravel’s evening at Tangente with the fragile naked dancer and the song “When Beauty Fails.”  I got teary, and rarely do. Also, the end of Chanti Wadge’s Just Beings when she meditated for a long time along with the audience, ending with chanting “Chanti.”  It was a hilarious ironic take on spirituality, audience-performer relationship and orientalism.

LH: Anik Bissonnette receiving the Prix Denise-Pelletier in performing arts of 2008, Marie Chouinard being invested as an officer to the Order of Canada, Margie Gillis accepting the Walter Carsen Prize for excellence in the performing arts, and Dena Davida and Tangente receiving the Grand Prix du Conseil des arts de Montréal.

PB: José Navas lip-synching to “Norma: Casta Diva (Alto 1)” in his Miniatures work. What could have easily been camp was a moving demonstration of facial choreography. Simple and powerful, it had the audience spellbound and teary-eyed.

M: Last thoughts?

PB: I discovered dancer Karen Fennell. She’s someone to watch, with a good stage presence and energy.

DD: Contemporary dance is becoming an increasingly vast and eclectic field, and gradually becoming a better-known part of the performing arts landscape.