Review: Miniatures

It’s sitting on a chair at the back of the stage, in plain sight, that José Navas patiently waits for us. He’s not trying to hide or to impress, to make Miniatures a hermetic work. It’s just him, alone, hoping to share a few autobiographical dance pieces with us.

José Navas, photo by Valerie Simmons

He walks a few steps up the stage and simply lies down while music by Jean-Sébastien Bach is heard over the speakers and the lights dim ever so slowly. It’s in calmness and simplicity that the show will unfold. When the lights come back up, Bach continues, but Navas is now standing up, ready to prove his strength as a dancer. This piece is extremely formal, bathed in the classical language, and filled with the kinds of turns that populated Anatomies, Navas’s previous group work. He even ends this section with a bow.

Between pieces, he walks back to the end of the stage, takes the time to wipe the sweat of his forehead with a cloth, take a sip of water. He comes back to dance to a Bellini opera sung by Maria Callas. There are still a few turns but, much like the music has gained lyrics, his arm movement has become wordy. He then takes a white dress shirt and wraps it all around his head, blocking out his sight. This piece, set to Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune”, sports ritualistic airs.

After, for the first time, he walks up to the front of the stage with a microphone and directly addresses the audience. The following piece, set to “Alma Mia”, is dedicated to his father, he tells us, and it’s hard not to be reminded of the section in Marie Béland’s Dieu ne t’a pas créé juste pour danser that is a parody of the homage to a relative in contemporary dance, especially since the show was just the week before. And maybe Béland has a point. It is a bit more awkward than touching to listen to Navas whistle the song into a microphone or then sing it under his breath as he’s dancing.

It is with red pants, a black shirt, and red lipstick that Navas comes back up the stage to lipsynch to “Do It Again” as sung by Judy Garland. He performs it earnestly, vibrato et al, which of course causes giggles in the audience. The best way to do comedy is to look like you mean it. When Garland goes on with “How Long Has This Been Going On”, Navas takes a different direction. His dancing style is suddenly a lot more casual, looking almost improvised.

For Chopin, Navas wears long black gloves and walks along a diagonal with his legs holding a precarious balance. This allows his arms to waver, but the wordiness of his hand gestures starts to become slightly bothersome.

Miniatures ends just at the right time. By the time Navas reaches the Vivaldi opera, the choreography is starting to look repetitive, but when the piece turns out to be the last one, it instead comes across as an amalgam of all the ones that preceded it. The evening ends in the same simplicity that it started in to reveal the talent of one dancer.

Miniatures continues at Agora de la danse until Saturday, November 8. Tickets are 26$, 18$ for students. For more information, call 514.525.1500 or visit www.agoradanse.com.