Hotstepping at
the Fringe
DREAM BELIEVERS: inFluxdanceYou know summer is around the bend when the Fringe takes over the Main. This year, the fest’s dance round-up includes a mix of local and international works from choreographers.
From out West—Edmonton, Alberta, to be specific—A Line in the Sand by The Lightbox Project takes characteristic features of the prairie province, “country culture, the landscape and oil,” and translates them through contemporary dance. Hmmmm.
From our southern neighbours, making the drive up from Virginia, Fringe dance favourite inFluxdance presents DreamCatchers. This time around, the contemporary dance-theatre troupe looks at the danger of dreams. Then in a solo work, Minneapolis-based choreographer Tamara Ober tells us a tale of a blind girl and a tightrope walker in Pipa.
Last but not least, look out for Perverts!, a humorous dance-theatre piece by the British queer collective PanicLab. The hour-long, adults-only piece, inspired by the book The Trouble With Normal, celebrates perversion and sexuality.
Pick up a Fringe schedule along St-Laurent, or visit montrealfringe.ca.
by MARITES CARINO
Crack in Ottawa
DARK SIDE OF THE CAPITAL:
“Jessica & Mellisa” From USER
As any visitor to Ottawa’s ByWard market can tell you, behind the pomp of Parliament Hill and the lines of tourists waiting to buy their requisite beavertails, the area is home to an alarming number of crack addicts.
Compelled by the plight of this marginalized community, Ottawa photographer Tony Fouhse has embarked on a long-term project to document these individuals and their stories. His most recent exhibition of these portraits, entitled Tony Fouhse USER: Portrait of Crack Addicts, is currently on view at IPS Gallery (916 Ontario E., #410).
That the subjects in these portraits are all female is no accident. As Fouhse explains, “you can’t tell by the photos, but when I’m working on the corner, shooting the addicts, it’s pandemonium. All kinds of crazy happens. By only using women as subjects, I eliminate half of that craziness, because the men just leave to do their thing.” He was also fascinated by the “trappings of femininity” that these women carry with them despite the many hardships of their existence.
Meeting the camera’s lens with steady open gazes, the women seem comfortable. But there is a tension at work, one that Fouhse acknowledges when he asks, “Who is the real user here—me, the addicts or the viewer?”
by STACEY DEWOLFE
Beats from way out
Movies are all about transporting you to a different world and the films screening at Sublime Frequencies this Saturday, June 13 from 1–4 p.m. are guaranteed to transport you out of la Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent) and into another world—if not another level.
Presented by Rob Millis and Jeffrey Taylor, these selections look at culture and music in countries throughout Asia. Filmed in 2008 in Southern India, India at  78rpm looks at the intersection of old 78 records with traditional folk and classical music from the region. My Friend Rain acts as an impressionistic trip through Southeast Asia, with footage from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, among others. Shot over five years (2002–’07) the film is a collage of music and “tropical ambiance,” revolving around the decay, death and rebirth created by monsoon season.
The longest film of the bunch, Phi Ta Khon: Ghosts of Isan, is also the spookiest, following a traditional Buddhist ghost festival in Thailand. And like all good festivals, this one has it all, wooden phalluses, handmade masks, dancing and non-stop music.
by SACHA JACKSON
Southern goth love
Jacqueline van de Geer directs Westmount theatre group Dramatis Personae in Edward Albee’s adaptation of The Ballad of the Sad Café, a perfect little gem of a tale by Carson McCullers.
It’s a humid and ornery story about misdirected love, smack dab in the middle of the Southern Gothic genre. Set in the 1930s in a rural Georgia backwater, a  large, gender-bent matriarch named Miss Amelia sells moonshine from her corner store. She’s secretly in love with her hunchbacked dwarf cousin, while trying to forget her marriage to the “meanest man in town” that lasted all of 10 days. Newly sprung from jail, her ex returns intent on revenge.
“I’m the central figure in a drama which plays out as a very bizarre love triangle—very bizarre,” says Ellen Rubin, who plays the mannish protagonist. “These are people,” she laughs, “with little in the way of entertainment or social engagement.”
The contrast of material with this nice group offers an unusual savour. June 12–14, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Westmount Park Church (4695 de Maisonneuve W.) Free.
by NEIL BOYCE
IS IT ART?
SIZE DOES MATTER: Condoms can be an awkward topic, but a Pennsylvania-based art student who calls herself LittleElk wants to ease your uneasiness with the help of her giant prophylactic pillows.
 A self-proclaimed lover of condoms (check out her Twitter page!) she’s got her sales pitch down, stating: “Nothing like the image of a condom 100 times its actual size lying on your bed to remind you to wrap it up before you get it on!”
Each 18” x 17” pillow (which sells for $80 U.S.) is silk-screened and sewn by hand with hidden pockets, one of which holds regular condom packs and the other a giant human-sized condom made of stretchy material to keep bedroom play extra safe.
Though the artist is currently taking colour requests for future orders, it looks as though you’re stuck with the LifeStyles brand—at least for now.
littleelk.etsy.com
Arts hole
GIRLS ROCK! (WITH YOUR HELP): Come August, the city will play host to the first ever Rock Camp for Girls Montreal. Help them get the funds together this Saturday, June 13 at 9:30 p.m. at Il Motore (179 Jean Talon W.), featuring the girls (and boys) of Nightwood, Little Scream and Giselle Numba One. Tickets are $10 or PWYC. • PULL THOSE STRINGS: Articule (262 Fairmount W.) invites you to make your own articulated shadow puppet this Saturday, June 13 at 1 p.m. at Scopes, tropes and puppets. Along with the puppet, you’ll also learn about the history of animation, from ancient times up till today, and it’s free!
Artistat
The number of (water-free) swimming pools on view at the Maison de la culture Frontenac (2550 Ontario E.) as part of the show Piscines by artist Isabelle Dionne, which opens with a vernissage this Wednesday, June 17 at 5 p.m.: 3
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