Review: Cabane and FTA Dance Recap

Disclaimer: I am not a fan of Paul-André Fortier’s choreography. So please read this post with that in mind; if you have enjoyed his work in the past, then there is a good chance you would like this one as well.

Paul-André Fortier’s Cabane, photo by Denis Lavoie

It is on its third stop that I got to see Paul-André Fortier’s new creation, Cabane. After traveling to Espace Go and the Old-Port, Fortier set down his portable cabane downtown in the Versailles ballroom of the Windsor. The room is luxurious but dusty, with an exuberant chandelier hanging just above the space where Fortier and his partner Rober Racine perform.

Its lights are dimmed for the length of the show, the bulk of the lighting being provided by video and acetate projectors. Racine sits on the roof and bursts into a series of noises into a megaphone, sounding like a rooster putting out the morning call. Fortier comes out of the cabane and looks at Racine, who ceases to make a sound.

Racine comes down from the roof only to go stand on a tripod, looking like an eagle, an image that comes back later as a video projection. There are a few good moments, like when Fortier is sitting on a tripod inside the cabane, his limbs coming through the window and the door, making him look as if he is floating above the ground, or when there he violently shakes bedsprings as neon lights flash on and off.

But my issue with Fortier’s work remains the same: as much as it feels wrong to say this, it always comes across as movement for movement’s sake. There are never any clear constraints and by having no constraints, the work inevitably seems to have no direction. The philosophy seems to be that doing anything is better than doing nothing, and as such anything starts to look an awful lot like nothing. Even Martin Bélanger’s Grande théorie unifiée at least restricts itself to the concept of Everything, which is better than none.

Cabane plays one last time tonight (Thursday), June 5, in its final location, the Jean-Pierre Perreault Building (2022 Sherbrooke East), at 9pm. For more information on this and other FTA shows, call 514.844.3822 or visit www.fta.qc.ca

FTA Dance 2008: Recap, Ranked & Reviewed.
1. Chambre blanche: the best (despite those two minutes at the end).
2. Poésie, sandwichs et autres soirs qui penchent: enough to renew our love of poetry.
3. aKabi: the most underrated, the one that transcended its gimmick.
4. Melt: the proof that in the right context minimal movement can offer maximal results.
5. Is You Me: the one with the simplest yet most effective scenography.
6. La Marea: the one that fascinatingly turned mind reading into theatre.
7. Grande théorie unifiée: the good one that could have been great (or the one most in need of editing).
8. Orphée et Eurydice: the one most suffering from Middle Child Syndrome.
9. Maybe Forever: the most disappointing.
10. Cabane: the one that won’t have converted me.