Review: (Toronto / Dance) Kiss & Cry

Michèle Anne de Mey and Jaco Van Dormael, creators (photo by Maarten Vanden Abeele)

When it Comes Together
by Kallee Lins, Editor - Dance

Kiss & Cry, created by Belgium’s Charleroi Danses and opening the Canadian Stage season, is a dance piece that takes a refreshingly wide view of the discipline. The aspect that can most readily be called dance—two hands performing duets (evoking a surprising range of dance styles) on miniature sets, filmed and projected onto a large screen above the stage action—is frequently overshadowed by the incredibly precise choreography of the spectacle at large. 

Essay: Approaching Dance, Part III

The Fine Art of Approaching Dance, Part III
by Kallee Lins (Charlebois Post Dance Editor)

[Introduction: Writing and talking about dance is something that intimidates a lot of people.  As a performance scholar (who is going on a lot of dates these days), I am often met with blank stares at the inevitable response to inquiries about my area of study.  Even worse, my conversational counterpart will attempt to hypothesize what the study of dance entails, asking something like, “PhD in dance? Is that mostly routines or do you look at historical and social context too?” 

Setting aside the fact that such a statement is reductive of both dance and academic inquiry, what these exchanges have taught me is that, in the eyes of many people, dance does not seem to function as art in the same way other disciplines do.  We expect art to speak to us, to tell us something about the world, to communicate something that cannot be articulated in more mundane ways. Why would artists spend years learning the conventions and techniques of their discipline and fostering their own aesthetic, and then sink weeks, months or even years into rehearsal or studio production if what they had to say could be articulated in an essay or press release?  And yet, observers continue to believe (whether they acknowledge it or not) that if what happens on a stage, canvas or screen cannot, in turn, be stated in words, then it does not have anything to say.  Dance, with its chronic underfunding and lack of visibility in schools compared to music, drama and the visual arts, is particularly susceptible to this fallacy.

Essay: Approaching Dance, Part II

The Fine Art of Approaching Dance
by Kallee Lins (Charlebois Post Dance Editor)

Introduction: Writing and talking about dance is something that intimidates a lot of people. As a performance scholar (who is going on a lot of dates these days), I am often met with blank stares at the inevitable response to inquiries about my area of study. Even worse, my conversational counterpart will attempt to hypothesize what the study of dance entails, asking something like, “PhD in dance? Is that mostly routines or do you look at historical and social context too?” 

Setting aside the fact that such a statement is reductive of both dance and academic inquiry, what these exchanges have taught me is that, in the eyes of many people, dance does not seem to function as art in the same way other disciplines do.  We expect art to speak to us, to tell us something about the world, to communicate something that cannot be articulated in more mundane ways. Why would artists spend years learning the conventions and techniques of their discipline and fostering their own aesthetic, and then sink weeks, months or even years into rehearsal or studio production if what they had to say could be articulated in an essay or press release?  And yet, observers continue to believe (whether they acknowledge it or not) that if what happens on a stage, canvas or screen cannot, in turn, be stated in words, then it does not have anything to say.  Dance, with its chronic underfunding and lack of visibility in schools compared to music, drama and the visual arts, is particularly susceptible to this fallacy.

Essay: Approaching Dance, Part I

The Fine Art of Approaching Dance
by Kallee Lins (Charlebois Post Dance Editor)

Introduction: Writing and talking about dance is something that intimidates a lot of people.  As a performance scholar (who is going on a lot of dates these days), I am often met with blank stares at the inevitable response to inquiries about my area of study.  Even worse, my conversational counterpart will attempt to hypothesize what the study of dance entails, asking something like, “PhD in dance? Is that mostly routines or do you look at historical and social context too?” 

Setting aside the fact that such a statement is reductive of both dance and academic inquiry, what these exchanges have taught me is that, in the eyes of many people, dance does not seem to function as art in the same way other disciplines do.  We expect art to speak to us, to tell us something about the world, to communicate something that cannot be articulated in more mundane ways. Why would artists spend years learning the conventions and techniques of their discipline and fostering their own aesthetic, and then sink weeks, months or even years into rehearsal or studio production if what they had to say could be articulated in an essay or press release?  And yet, observers continue to believe (whether they acknowledge it or not) that if what happens on a stage, canvas or screen cannot, in turn, be stated in words, then it does not have anything to say.  Dance, with its chronic underfunding and lack of visibility in schools compared to music, drama and the visual arts, is particularly susceptible to this fallacy.

Review: (Toronto / Dance) So Blue (Luminato)

(photo by André Cornellier)

So Blue: A review OR A treatise on the dynamism and athleticism of Louise Lecavalier 
by Kallee Lins

Lecavalier’s accolades speak for themselves. She was the first Canadian to win a Bessie Award (1983) and the first dancer—rather than a choreographer—to receive the Jean A. Chalmers National Award (1999). She has been appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada (2008), the French Critics’ Union named her “Dance Personality of the Year 2010-2011,” and in the same season, she won the Prix de la danse de Montréal. 

Lecavalier rose to prominence as a star of Édouard Lock’s La La La Human Steps. A dancer with the company for more than 18 years, she appeared in all of their iconic productions until 1999 including the international sensation Human Sex (1985). She has appeared on stages around the world, in films, music videos and concert tours, most notably performing with David Bowie (check out Bowie’s video for Fame)—leaving no doubt that she is one of the few, veritable rock stars of contemporary dance.

All that to say it is astounding that So Blue is her first choreographic work. Premiering in 2012 and touring since, the hour-long So Blue is split between a dizzying solo performed by Lecavalier herself, and a duo in which she is joined by Frédéric Tavernini.

Review: (Toronto / Dance) Stones in Her Mouth (Luminato)

by Kallee Lins

There are moments in Stones In Her Mouth when the chants of the performers palpably resonate in your chest.  Deconstructed rhythms of Maori speech score the entire performance. The sound of each song and chant is compelling, hypnotic at times, and deeply affective. 

Visually, the stage has been stripped of all colour. Upstage is a massive screen of subtly flickering black and white projections while along the front of the stage runs fluorescent tube lighting. Helen Todd’s lighting design is immensely innovative in its reliance on the potential of darkness, perhaps more so, than illumination. Lemi Ponifasio’s choreography makes exceptional use of the shadows. The show concludes as the dancers slowly submerge themselves into complete darkness.

Review: (Toronto / Theatre) Cineastas (Luminato)

(photo by Carlos Furman)

Fictions of Cities
by Kallee Lins

Even while acknowledging that artists in the context of a festival like Luminato are rarely responsible for the content of their marketing, I tend to be wary of performances that explicitly promote their design and aesthetic concepts.  Cineastas’s formal experimentation, however, strongly serves its narrative content—albeit a delightfully fragmented one—making for a visually stunning performance and theatrically powerful production. 

Based on interviews with Argentinean filmmakers, Mariano Pensotti wrote and directed a story that flashes back and forth between the lives of four film directors over the course of a year as they film their latest projects in Buenos Aires. Mariana Tirantte has designed a split-level stage that allows the audience to simultaneously watch the filmmakers in their private lives in a home/office space on the bottom level, while scenes from the directors’ films take place on the sparsely decorated upper level. Alejandro Le Roux’s lighting design creates stark contrast between these two spaces with occasionally remarkable cinematic effect.

Sunday Feature: Interview - Angela Hewitt on Keys on The Street (Luminato)

(photo by Bernd Eberle)

The Piano, the Dancer and the City
by Kallee Lins

One of the world’s leading pianists, Angela Hewitt regularly appears in recital and with major orchestras throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia. Her performances and recordings of Bach have drawn particular praise, marking her out as one of the composer's foremost interpreters of our time. The 2013/14 season includes concerts at Seoul Arts Centre, Tokyo’s Oji Hall and Nagoya’s Shirakawa Hall; Glasgow’s City Halls and The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh; Wimbledon Music Festival, Sociedad Filarmónica de Bilbao, the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco, and De Doelen, Rotterdam; as well as several appearances at Wigmore Hall, London. In addition Angela Hewitt will undertake a tour of Australia with Musica Viva, performing recitals in major cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane,

Keys on the Street – A recital of Urban Dance and Piano brings together the international pianist and preeminent performer of Bach, Angela Hewitt, and renowned dancer, choreographer and So You Think You Can Dance Canada judge, Tré Armstrong, for an unlikely merging of artistic genres. Armstrong has been working with a group of urban dancers to choreograph Hewitt’s interpretations of Debussy, Bach and other classical composers. CharPo contributor Kallee Lins caught up with Ms Hewitt about such a radical departure from her usual concert circuit. 

CHARPO: How exactly did Keys on the Street come about? 

HEWITT: It was actually the idea of Jorn Weisbrodt who is the Artistic Director of the Luminato Festival. We were in touch about a lot of things and he  loved my playing and he wanted to bring it to a wider audience… to a different audience, perhaps, than in the standard concert hall. I don’t know Tré. I’ve never met her, but he had this idea of pairing us together and I watched some of her stuff and thought it was great, so I went “Ok, I’ll try it.” This is very much a first time and I don’t really know how it’s going to come out, but we’ll see. 

I tried to choose music that I felt was danceable – I mean, I was a classical ballet dancer myself for 20 years, so I have a feeling for dance.  Of course I never did urban dance, but I know what it’s about.  It’s all great music.  It’s all beautiful music.  And something like Bach’s Goldberg Variations which is the main part of the program –  40-45 minutes – that’s really one of the great masterpieces of Western music, and I’m very interested to see what Tré’s done with it. She’s been working to tapes that I sent her because we’re not in the same part of the world, but we will be getting together several times before the event and that should be really exciting.  This will be the first time ever that I’ve been up on a stage playing in a concert with dancers at the same time. Something I’ve thought of in the past; first time I’m actually doing it. I think we both will have to be flexible.

In a Word... Kiyoshi Nagata and Charles Hong on collaboration

Understanding Drum Language
Nagata and Hong discuss their upcoming performance at Harbourfront and the challenge of collaborating across different musical styles. 
by Kallee Lins

Kiyoshi Nagata, the ensemble’s artistic director, is Canada’s preeminent taiko soloist who has been performing in a career that spans three decades. His principal studies were with Daihachi Oguchi (as artistic director and performer of the Toronto-based, Suwa Daiko from 1982 to 1992) and with Kodo (as an apprentice from 1993 to 1994). With the assistance of a Chalmers Performing Arts Training Grant in 1999, Kiyoshi studied classical percussion with Paul Houle at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Since 1998 Kiyoshi has taught a credit course in taiko at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music. In September 2003, he began teaching a public course at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. For eight years, he instructed two community groups, Isshin Daiko in Toronto and Do-Kon Daiko in Burlington, which he helped establish in 1995. Kiyoshi is also regularly invited by universities and taiko groups to conduct workshops and present lectures. In 1994, Kiyoshi founded the cross-cultural percussion ensemble, Humdrum, whose debut Toronto performance was ranked fourth in Now Magazine’s “Top Ten Concerts of 1995″. He has composed and performed taiko music for dance, theatre, film and radio and continues to collaborate with artists from all genres of music including traditional Japanese instrumentalists.

Charles Hong, the Artistic Director of Jeng Yi, has been drumming and dancing since 1990. From 1992 to 1996, he apprenticed under Kim Duk Soo, master drummer and leader of the world-renowned group SamulNori. Charles Hong returned to Toronto in 1996 and soon after founded Jeng Yi. He has also studied with Dong-Won Kim, a specialist in the music of Dodang Kut, a shaman ritual practiced in the central region of the Korean peninsula. Besides his work with Jeng Yi, Charles Hong has also worked in dance, music, and theatre productions. He has performed at the Guelph Jazz Festival, Canada Dance Festival, and the McMaster University Concert Series. He received the 2008 Dora award for Outstanding Sound Design/Composition in the dance category for his musical work on Soojung Kwon's original choreography Choonengmu, a dance work performed at the 2008 CanAsian Dance Festival. He is also an instructor of Korean drumming at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto and at York University, Department of Music.

CHARPO: Is this the first time you’ve collaborated on a show?

NAGATA: We’ve known each other since university and we’ve played together on a handful of occasions, but this is the first time our groups are coming together. 

CHARPO: You work in two different styles—Japanese taiko and Korean drumming, respectively—what is it like to create together?

NAGATA: I think the greatest challenge, but also the greatest joy, is kind of understanding each other’s drum language. A lot of people might assume that Korean music and Japanese drum music might be quite similar because they're both part of East Asian culture, but actually, our cultural drum history is quite different from each other. So, it’s about trying to find the common ground to explore how our rhythms work together. 

HONG: I find that even when there are similar time signatures we might work with, there are slight nuances in the swing, or in the feel, or even in the accented beats that provide a challenge, but also material to work with. 

CHARPO: Has there been a particular structure to your collaboration for this show?

NAGATA: We’re trying to work on about four group pieces. Basically, it’s been half-half where Charles has introduced rhythms or pieces from their repertoire, he’s played it for us and we use that for the basis of a new composition, or vice versa.  

CHARPO: It sounds like it’s been a really organic creation process.

HONG:  Ya, and I think that’s the way both groups work with our own ensembles. With any kind of new composition it’s quite organic and there’s a lot of improvisation.  The best ideas kind of float to the surface and then you make it into a cohesive piece. 

NAGATA: And we don’t notate any of it, so it’s just kind of playing around and recording our sessions and then, after Charles and I have met, we both go back to own groups and teach them the rhythms we’ve been working on. Fairly soon our groups will come together and we’ll start putting all the pieces together.