Pulling Towards/Pushing Away at Tangente

Thanksgiving weekend unfolded unexpectedly in the dance world. Having already seen Marie Chouinard’s stunning bODY_rEMIX/les_vARIATIONS_gOLDBERG last year, I had decided to rather focus my attention on Ölelés at Agora de la danse. I showed up at the venue only to find out that the show had been canceled due to a family emergency that called one of the dancers back to Spain.

Luckily, I had showed up at the venue half an hour early, so Tangente still had its doors open for the show that was just about to start in their space. After a quick change of plans and the necessary realignment required, I was getting ready to indulge in the second week of Tangente’s annual Extracurricular Dances program.

The evening was off to a great start with Ladybox’s creative duo composed of Concordia graduates Hannah Dorozio and Jody Hegel. The title of their work, Comrade, Companion, is an appropriate reflection of the complicity that can be felt between the two artists. What it does not reveal, however, is the other side of the medal, the mischievous antagonism that sometimes creeps up.

So compelling is the relationship between the performers that it was almost ten minutes in before I realized the absence of a soundtrack. This choice is undeniably the right one too. Adding a layer of music on top of their already charged choreography would have been too much. There is already the swishy sound of their tacky nylon pants, not to mention the noises that punctuate the series of hilarious cliché gestures they act out, from machismo handshakes to imaginary gunfights, passing by pop dance moves and a dose of face slapping. On this wildly playful romp, what might be the most surprising are the moments of genuine tenderness that emerge in a kiss, a hug, a touch.

The following piece, Juilliard graduate Michelle Mola’s It Must Be, has some surprising similarities. Most noticeably, the relationship of our two dancers is also one of constant pulling towards/pushing away. We physically hit each other, only to then get lost in an embrace. If Comrade, Companion is comical, It Must Be is its dramatic counterpart.

At times destructive, at other times life giving, the relationship never leaves either party untouched, like when one’s simple breath makes the other’s arms fall. While a performer in Comrade, Companion is able to walk closer and closer to the ground by leaning against her partner, here the performer is able to walk higher and higher above it.

Finally, both pieces end with the dancers rolling over one another. The performers cannot be untangled; no matter how imperfect, their relationship is undeniable, like what no man is an island. In the end, comedy or drama, both works reveal to be incredibly touching.

PREVIEW: This week, the action is once again divided between Agora de la danse and Tangente. At the former, Zab Maboungou presents Décompte from October 10 to 13; at the latter, Nacéra Belaza, Aïcha M’Barek and Hafiz Dhaou share the stage as part of the Circulations program from the 11th to the 14th. For more information, call 514-525-1500.