Rock Steady: A Review

After giving us backstage access to the most hysterically funny rehearsal of a punk rock band with Hawks and Doves in 2007, choreographer Katie Ward is back at Tangente and this time puts the rock n’ roll in the title of her new work, Rock Steady. The characters that populate her world are not as easily typified this time around; the dancers look like they’re portraying themselves, using their real names and dressing as they might on any other day. For her part, Ward retains her sense of humour and aesthetic.

Indeed, she is still not after gracefulness. Though it does make a few appearances here and there, its contrast with the rest of the choreography turns it into a parody of itself. Performers might strike a dainty pose before defying our expectations and launching themselves into a movement sequence that is anything but. Even when Audrée Juteau performs a series of pirouettes, she does so with an elastic rubber band that hangs off Peter Trosztmer’s face, lending the exercise a most silly air. Gracefulness is presented as something unnatural and, by that virtue, something that cannot be maintained. Another time, Juteau spins until it becomes meaningless. She is like a child playing a game out of sheer boredom, a game that she abandons once boredom has seeped back into its midst.

She is not the only one to demonstrate such child-like behaviour. As she dances, Allison Rose Blakley sometimes creates sounds with her mouth which are not without reminding us of the noises kids make when they play with action figures. Her body just happens to be her toy of choice. Later, Trosztmer and Benjamin Read fight over cleaning the floor (with spit) like children do over toys.

While they are too busy being playful to take themselves seriously, deeper issues still manage to spring up from their antics. There’s a sense that, by playing, we might be able to figure some things out, and not only things of a simple nature. More than once I was reminded of David O. Russell’s I ♥ Huckabees in Rock Steady’s attempt to work out philosophical quanderings in the most concrete ways by bringing them into the physical world. In a touching section, Juteau is tied to three of her comrades by elastic rubber bands. While she lets herself go, her connection to the others ensures that she never falls too far away from them.

But, for the most part, Ward is interested in getting her performers into awkward positions that cannot be held gracefully. We can see the physical effort required as their bodies shake and sweat drips off their forehead. Rock Steady is about something more important than looking pretty; it’s about being alive. Early in the show, Patrick Lamothe asks “Can we celebrate a bit more?” The answer: a resounding “YEAH!”

Though Rock Steady is a tad uneven and the transitions between sections could be smoother, time still flies in Katie Ward’s world.

You can catch Rock Steady on Saturday, January 23, at 7:30pm, and on Sunday the 24th at 4pm. Tickets are 17$, 14$ for students. For more information, visit www.tangente.qc.ca or call 514.525.1500.