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Monumental struggle Cameron MacMaster tests his faith at the Monument-National by WALTER KRAJEWSKI
Such a bleak view of the cosmic order is reminiscent of Pascal: "The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me." But MacMaster is adamant about his own attitude: "I may sound pessimistic, but I'm not. When you find yourself, you discover freedom--you choose the life you wish to live." These serious thematic approaches are evident in MacMaster's previous works. In the Gathering Darkness was inspired by the death of three of his friends; Desire and Denial tackles the Catholic Church's attitude toward sexuality. But this is not to say that humour absent from MacMaster's repertoire. In Alone With All My Sex, which explores sexual maturation and male-female encounters, MacMaster engages a dildo in a rather heated discussion. The title of his new work, Faith, is not meant to suggest a religious reawakening but the sense of a belief in oneself; the acceptance of one's ultimate aloneness but also the recognition of support from one's friends. The recurring image in Faith is of a fisherman casting his line in a bucket, with nothing ever caught. "God is never caught, because he doesn't exist. So we have to hook the fabric of our being onto something inside of ourselves," MacMaster says. "Because I don't create nouvelle danse, I feel like I'm working in a vacuum in the Montreal dance scene. While I acknowledge technique as important, I'm more interested in characterization, that movement inside of a person. So it's a monumental task for me to get support, financial and otherwise, and I have to produce my own work." MacMaster's background is unusual and multifaceted. He began as a black-belt holder headed for a kick-boxing career, then discovered ballet and began classical training, only to switch to modern dance and work in the Randy Glynn and O Vertigo dance companies. Now that he has established his own company, Duodance, MacMaster has the means to create his own visions. He certainly has faith in his ability to capture them. One could say, then, that Cameron MacMaster has found himself. Faith can be found at the Monument-National, June 12-15. 871-2224 |
Cameron MacMaster begins his interview by describing the grandeur and immensity of the universe as captured in Carl Sagan's Cosmos series. Although he was raised a Catholic, MacMaster's response is surprising: "How could all this vastness be ascribed to a god? You can wallpaper it any way you want; still, we come in alone and we die alone."