2007 Dance Highlights – Long Works

I have had the chance to see so many great dance shows this past year that I could not resolve myself to singling out only ten, not to mention even attempting to place them in any kind of order. So I decided to double the list by dividing them between long and short works. The latter will follow next week…

Les Angles Morts, Mélanie Demers

Demers brought her social conscience to the dance scene with this highly creative work that managed to juggle the strange, the political, and the humorous without ever dropping any of the balls. A call to action that was fuelled by the power of imagination.

Bertolina, Sharon Eyal

One can only feel admiration in the face of this mass-scale work for twenty dancers that starts with a bang and exhaustingly maintains its high energy for an entire hour. A mesmerizing choreography of the collectivity where members are still allowed their own individuality.

Brutalis, Karine Ponties

Using little more than minimal lighting and her own body, Ponties created a strange work that revealed that no amount of Hollywood special effects can compete with the eerie and very real manifestations of the human body. Brutalis built a creepy atmosphere that was impossible to shake off.

Étude #3 pour cordes et poulies, Ginette Laurin

The title of Laurin’s choreography is misleading. It is much more than a mere study; it is a full-fledged living work of art that is complex, stunning and mesmerizing. Throughout the show, there are countless situations where we can sense her desire to make the invisible visible. For her, magic is not what remains hidden; it is manifest.

L’Oeil du pigeon, Marie-Pascale Bélanger

Bélanger made every effort to create a singular, cohesive experience despite the wide variety of her material. She blurred the line between violence and dance to create a work that is theatrical, original, funny, but most importantly a work that was always thinking, so that it was always alive.

Un peu de tendresse, bordel de merde, Dave St-Pierre

St-Pierre came back with his second full-length endeavor, which was like a punch in the face on the cheek that he had left untouched. He refuses to let the audience become passive voyeurs, demanding that we become accountable for the way we treat each other with corrosive humour and moments of staggering beauty.

Quantum-Quintet, Brice Leroux

In this choreography of limbs, the eye could not even see the forearms as such anymore, and they simply become lines. Evoking different patterns that could be as many physical combinations to open a lock, the work was not surprisingly unique and intensely hypnotic, and left the audience in timeless suspension.

R.A.F.T. 70 (Remembering and Forgetting Together), Marc Boivin

It is thrilling to attend a show that, from beginning to end, never forgets its audience. Through improvisation, everyone involved successfully managed to break the usual parameters of the dance experience and create a space that was exciting for the audience to enter.

Staccato Rivière, Emmanuel Jouthe

This tight but playful work for a trio of dancers juxtaposes physical excess with demanding stillness. Plus, Jouthe knows how to create tension and memorable endings, with water running down walls and spotlights falling from the ceiling, left to dangle just a few feet above the dancers’ heads.

Umwelt, Maguy Marin

An astounding study of everyday gestures. The result might be difficult for those with a short attention span, but patient viewers are treated to a touching homage to the everyday. Nothing short of a masterpiece.