Margie Gillis Dances to Nature in A Stone’s Poem

With more than thirty years of professional dance under her belt, Montrealer Margie Gillis’s reputation is no longer to be made. This week, she continues to take the stage at Agora de la danse and presents A Stone’s Poem, a solo show that was originally meant to be performed by two dancers.

Choreographed by Gillis and American collaborator Paola Styron, A Stone’s Poem, like its title indicates, finds its inspiration in nature. Gillis and Styron created the show in the natural landscape of three different countries: Canada, the United States, and Norway. Rocks and tree branches from these places bring them a little bit closer to us by gracing the four corners of the stage.

The prelude is slightly alienating. An imposing dress hides Gillis’s legs as she floats from held position to held position. Less than human, barely more than marionette, her body strikes positions as the piano keys are likewise stricken. Her body becomes a musical partition. In her eyes, feelings can be perceived, yet they are not transported over to the spectator.

When she comes in contact with the natural elements of the mise-en-scène, my worst fears came close to being confirmed. As exemplified by Gillis licking a stone, my apprehensions that the theme of nature would be approached in an … elusive manner were creeping up. I feared that despite the title’s focus on the solid, concrete stone, Gillis’s love of nature would lead her to get lost in some intangible concept of the environment.

Luckily, my fears were quickly put to rest. Gillis goes on to put a dress with a long trail that she proceeds to violently shake around her body to the sound of winds. It is a spectacle that reveals that the theme of nature is most interesting, not when it is approached as an abstraction, but when it is most concrete. She does not merely feel the storm; her dress is the storm.

The tangibility of nature and its direct influence on the human body is underlined as Gillis walks on rocks, supporting herself with a fat tree branch. The ground the dancer treads upon becomes all the more unstable and she struggles to maintain her balance.

As she lifts the rocks, their weight changes the gravitational pull of her body and she must constantly compensate to remain standing. The stage is no longer a blank slate. Nature is present and concretely shapes her movement.

Her dance with a tree branch is another highlight. She dances with it as if it were her partner, fluidly moves to dancing against it, and shifts to taking on its shape. With great skill, Gillis reveals the impossibility of escaping our environment: it shapes us both in concordance and opposition just as much as we shape it.

The show goes on until this Saturday, January 27 at Agora de la danse, 840 Cherrier. [map]
Tickets cost 18-26$ and can be purchased by calling (514) 525-1500.