CLASH 2008

Harry S. Truman is famous for having said “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” It’s a sentence that came back to mind yesterday as I watched the CLASH event unfold at Tangente. Developed and directed by Lynda Gaudreau, CLASH is an event devoted to choreographic research. Over three residencies that took place in September, February, and May, choreographers Nicolas Cantin, Frédérick Gravel, Normand Marcy, and Anne Thériault developed material with the help of six dancers. The result plays like a series of pop songs, if by “pop” one means “modern”, and by “songs”, “dance”. About an eclectic dozen 5-minute pieces are presented, from solos to group works including all 10 performers, from the subtly humorous to the extremely physical. One choreographer might have started a concept that would later be picked up by another or become a collaboration, the lines being blurred beyond recognition; because what matters here is not recognition, but creation itself, which emerges for its own sake out of an interaction, of a sharing of ideas.

This year’s edition of CLASH is being shown one last time today, Sunday, May 25, at 2pm at Tangente (840 Cherrier, Sherbrooke metro). It’s free and on a first come, first served basis.