Dancing with taboos

>> Japanese dance troupe H*ART*CHAOS expose their Secret Club

by MARITES CARINO

Pssst--want the inside scoop? Now's the time to shell out the bucks for the all-female modern dance troupe, H*ART*CHAOS. Three years ago when this Japanese company made its first Montreal appearance, they bowled everyone over and left them with mouths agape, wanting more.

The most recent creation by Japanese choreographer-director Sakiko Oshima is called Secret Club--Floating Angels 2000. "Secrets are usually hidden, forbidden or taboo," says Oshima over the phone. "What interests me is what happens when the forbidden is released. And when one does the forbidden, it creates an eroticism which I'm drawn to."

Secret Club--Floating Angels is the fourth work in a series on secrets. The first dealt with personal secrets, the second with secrets of a minority group and the third explored the secrets of women's bodies.

"This one is about the secrets of the real world," explains Oshima. "Such things as life and death, sanity and insanity."

And Oshima uncovers even more secrets beneath the dancers' layers of clothing via a captivating trio and a solo in the show. "I believe the nude state is the most sacred human state," she says. "In our society, it is not everyday. So in a sense, it is the forbidden."

Has Oshima let out any secrets of her own through her works? "I think for me it would be my perspective on the world," she says. "Since I was a child, I felt that there seemed to be a gap between my perspective of reality and what everybody else perceives as reality. I think this appears in my work."

Oshima's perceptual differences first occurred during her early education. "In elementary school in science, I saw a picture that showed what the world looked like according to a fly. So you have the infrared version of what the fly sees and the version of what the human sees. I realized at that moment that the same world could look very different. Reality was, in fact, the overlapping of every living creatures' perspectives." It was after this epiphany that Oshima decided she wanted to do visual work and show people her perspective.

And that perspective is often bleak. H*ART*CHAOS is known for its treatment of such dark themes as rape and death. And why is Oshima drawn to such subject matter? "I don't think you should close your eyes to the ugly," she says, adding that what is ugly can sometimes be beautiful. In this production, the grim underlying theme of violence is ubiquitous and reflected in the 10 dancers' frenetic and tumultuous gestures, along with the setting, which sometimes involves dancers suspended from the ceiling.

It was 11 years ago that Oshima met Naoko Shirakawa, like herself a classically trained dancer. Oshima was so taken by Shirakawa's aura that the two built their own critically acclaimed vision of the world through H*ART*CHAOS.

"I firmly believe that dance can open doors to the unconscious," she says. So who knows? Seeing this show could unexpectedly uncover your deepest secrets lurking within.

Other dance In the mood for some Flamenco? Don't miss Spain's Noche Flamenca, where nine dancers stamp it up to traditional Spanish singing and music. And on a more serene note, dancer Lin Snelling is back at Usine C with her solo multidisciplinary show Femme Comme Paysage. :

Secret Club Floating Angels 2000 at Le Centre Pierre-Peladeau, this Thursday, March 2 to Saturday, March 4, at 8pm, $29-37

Noche Flamenca Saturday and Sunday, March 4-5 at 8:30pm at Kola Note, $25

Femme Comme Paysage at Usine C Thursday, March 2 to Sunday, March 5, and continues on March 7-11, at 8pm, $15-$20