2007 Dance Highlights – Short Works

Following last week’s list of outstanding long works from 2007, here are my picks for short works that often managed to pack just as much punch…

Les cuisses à l’écart DU COEUR, Virginie Brunelle & Dissemblance en série, Pascal Desparois
Each year, one of the Montreal dance schools blows me out of the water. This year it was UQAM, with two choreographers that made sure their work could not be ignored. Blatantly violent, disturbingly funny, and constantly creative, the relevance of their endeavours cannot be questioned.

A Certain Braided History & The Disappearance of Right and Left, Sarah Chase
Chase’s mix of storytelling and dance is one of those works that gently seeps into the mind. Still today I find myself reminiscing about a line that dancer Peggy Baker passionately uttered or about the playful complicity that Andrea Nann and Chase shared. It was like spending a pleasant evening with friends.

Comrade, Companion, Ladybox aka Hannah Dorozio & Jody Hegel
Speaking of complicity, it might be hard to top off the one that unites Dorozio and Hegel. Their completely irreverent sense of humour seems to be what holds them together, so much so that they have no problem acting mischievous onstage just for the entertainment of their audience. Ridiculously funny.

Hawks and Doves, Katie Ward
Ward created a space where the members of a punk rock band could dance and where the audience had unrestricted access to their private rehearsal. The pettiness of this trio of overgrown children was laid bare for us to witness and the only thing that exceeded their childishness was their out-of-control but hilarious self-importance.

Not I & Others, Karine Denault
The audience casually sat on the floor all around the room for this work that was appropriately meant to be enjoyed at a leisurely pace. Denault’s minimalist movement was fascinating and when she ended the piece by humbly sitting among the audience, she made us feel that it could have been any of us there onstage.

Re-, II, Shen Wei
Undeniably the best work performed by Les Grands Ballets Canadiens this past year, Wei’s motif-driven choreography turned dancers into ever slowly moving patterns. Gripping from beginning to end, it brilliantly blurred the line between artistic object and performance.

Revelations, Alvin Ailey
For a few nights, Ailey’s work made sure that the sun would shine in Montreal no matter what the weather. Place des Arts turned into something like a rock concert space, with a most diverse audience standing on their feet, clapping, cheering, demanding more. Electrifying.

Shitoi & Dordur, Dany Desjardins
Simply the best choreography to come out of Tangente’s annual Extracurricular Dances series. Every element seemed carefully considered in Desjardins’s work for two strange creatures that only occasionally resembled human beings, least of all the movement, which always strived to explore the unusual.

Struments, Luca Palladino
Contemporary jig? Post-modern tap dancing? No matter what it is, Palladino knows how to make it work. The tone was set from the very beginning when dancers wearing loud tap shoes tried to quietly move their set onstage in the dark, turning Struments into a live-action Looney Tunes cartoon. Utterly silly in the best way possible.

VA2 – Valeur ajoutée ajoutée, Anne Thériault
Thériault disregarded any purist conception of dance in this intensely scenographic choreography that did everything in its power to create a unique experience. Buckets of gumballs and motorcycle helmets (!) are only a few of the elements that were used to generate an irrational work that managed to remain surprisingly cohesive.