Review: Punto Ciego

Even though RUBBERBANDance Group (RBDG) has been performing in Montreal almost every year since its creation in 2002, I had somehow managed to miss every one of their shows until this week. RBDG is characterized by its fusion of ballet and break, here enhanced by composer Jasper Gahunia’s remixes of classical music. It will have taken their seventh show, Punto Ciego, which they are now performing at the Cinquième Salle of Place des Arts, for me to correct the situation and attend one of their performances.

The show starts with co-artistic director Anne Plamondon walking to the front of the stage with a finger resting on her lips, asking the audience to quiet down. Already the performers are establishing their desire to break the fourth wall. She begins to dance, but pauses every time choreographer Victor Quijada claps his hands. Their choreography then becomes structured around and between pauses, fragmented by the sound of handclaps. Whenever they find themselves caught in an awkward, uncomfortable position, break becomes a way for them to get out of that situation.

The focus of Punto Ciego is truly dance. The scenography is limited to the bare necessities; the costumes look like everyday apparel and the lighting largely remains inconspicuous. Punto Ciego has its theatrical moments however, like when a recorded interview is projected on a screen as it is reenacted live. While the situation is highly artificial, Plamondon as the interviewee seems earnest, exposing her vulnerability to the camera in what surprisingly turns out to be a touching scene.

The four other dancers that complete the cast then dance as they proceed to move the couch that Plamondon was sitting on a moment earlier from one end of the stage to the other. Despite this change in the number of performers, the energy onstage oddly remains at the same level. It’s the main problem in Punto Ciego. Nothing ever seems to build up and, on the other end, the audience is also never offered a moment of calmness.

Only when the performers run after one dancer with flashing lights do we get to experience a more intense moment, then taken further with strobe lighting, just before a five-minute pause. Luckily, the second half of Punto Ciego is much stronger. When the performers quickly move between duos, solos, and group sections, the piece finally gains the dynamism that it lacks in the first half.

When they at last slow the movement down – too little, too late – even that ends up losing a lot of its power because of Quijada’s voice-over explanation. There is something almost patronizing about it, as if Quijada doesn’t trust us to appreciate when things are smaller on our own and we need him to walk us through it. Unfortunately, Punto Ciego ends on one of its weakest moments, when once again spoken words are abused to offer an unnecessarily corny conclusion. Still, there is Plamondon’s impressively precise performance to pull us through.

Punto Ciego continues until April 11. Regular tickets are 25$, 15$ for those 30 years old and under. For more information, visit laplacedesarts.com or call 514.842.2112.