Fringe Review: Dance @ Venue 1 - Part 1

Fonction Phatique ****
Even if you do not know what phatic communication is, you have engaged in it. It’s the “hello”s, “how are you”s, “thank God summer is finally here”s, the fluffy pieces of conversation that we use to enter in contact with each other and, more importantly, remain in contact. And it becomes the basis for Dominique Bouchard’s Fonction Phatique, a piece for three dancers and as many live musicians. Before the show even began, dancer Angélique Poulin came to talk and sit next to me. When the musicians brought their fast-paced rock music, she left my side to run onstage and dance with her partners with lots of energy. The music is simple, but effective. During the show, the dancers interact not only with each other, but with the musicians, and even the audience. One of the dancers even struck up a conversation with me in the middle of the show for everyone to hear, saying “You’re a reviewer? Now that I know you’re here, we’ll try to do even better.” But it was unnecessary. Fonction Phatique is a dynamic show that offers a really good time.
14 SAT 23:30 v/b, 2/1
15 SUN 12:15
20 FRI 19:45
21 SAT 16:45

The Alley Project:
Under/Overtaken ***½
Numerology ***
In the program for Under/Overtaken, choreographer Emily Gualtieri states that she is “investigating gender-specific power struggles […].” While I am not convinced that this particular work does so or that there is even such a thing as gender-specific power struggles (sexism? feminism? no trace of either here), let’s focus on what matters: the dance itself. While there are some good moments here, mostly when Gualtieri maximizes on the strength of her performers (they deserve to be mentioned: David Albert Toth, Hannah Dorozio, Jody Hegel, Lael Stellick), Under/Overtaken lacks cohesion (Toth’s breaking-influenced dance looks out of place), which is not helped by the awkward transitions from one music track to the next. As for Hannah Naiman’s rapper sword dancing Numerology, I found that it never transcended its gimmick, though I do enjoy the sound of the swords scraping against each other, creating a feeling of tension. But there’s no emotionality to be communicated here, the only thing appearing on the dancers’ face being the memorization of their steps.
15 SUN 22:00
16 MON 18:00
17 TUE 21:00
19 THU 23:00

Barbie World **
Well, at least they don’t actually use the song that first pops into your head when you read their title; they use Britney Spears’ “Gimme More” instead (for the subtlety, no doubt). Barbie World is the kind of project that’s doomed from the start. Is dance really the best medium to tackle body image problems? When all the dancers onstage have the bodies of… well, dancers, it almost seems hypocritical. But what really puts the last nail in the coffin is Lynsey Billing’s choreography, which looks like the kind of bland movement that suburban teenage girls do when sent to dance school by their mom. You can almost hear the “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8…” when they dance.
17 TUE 19:45 2/1
19 THU 24:00
20 FRI 20:45
21 SAT 14:00
22 SUN 16:15

Identity Crisis ***½
inFluxdance is back with a new show, this time a duo choreographed and performed by Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp and Alysia Woodruff. While they say that their movement is inspired by the theme of identity crisis, it looks awfully similar to what we saw last year, and this even though the show had a completely different topic. The truth is that the movement never communicates any kind of crisis. What saves the show however is 1) the good deal of humour that they bring and 2) the contagious fun that the two dancers have in the last section of the show, their friendship and complicity shining through.
15 SUN 15:15 v/b
18 WED 21:30
19 THU 20:00
20 FRI 14:45 2/1
21 SAT 23:15