Tonight and tomorrow in Toronto, Kala Nidhi Fine Arts of Canada is presenting the Daksha Sheth Dance Company in their Canadian premiere of Sarpagati – The Way of the Serpent. Drawing on the symbolism and significance of the snake in Indian culture, Sarpagati breathes life into mythology by combining elements of chhau dance, martial arts, yoga and aerial dance. Notably, the company's lead dancer, Isha Sharvani, is a leading aerial dancer in India today.
According to their website, meaning in the work is further explained: "In tantric symbolism, the snake represents the primal creative energy or Kundalini which lies dormant in the base of the spine, which, when aroused, ascends and activates the chakras of the subtle body. 'The Way of the Serpent', specifically refers to the manifestation of this energy within the context of the lower three chakras, symbolized as the elements of Earth, Water and Fire. These in turn relate to three fundamental drives which form the basis of survival; the drive to accumulate, to procreate, and to dominate."
Tonight through to March 13th, Vancouver's Battery Opera will be presenting The Whole Beast at Dancers' Studio West in Calgary. This new solo, created and performed by Artistic Director Lee Su-Feh, embodies "butcher, meat, cook and the cooked".
The company's website eloquently describes the work: "Mining the singularity of her own body, Lee makes connections from bone and tissue to memory, dreams and desires. With fine precision and startling intimacy, Lee carves the spaces in and around the body, uncovering recipes and stories along the way, offering up a view of a life shaped and affected by food, love and loss."
In the March 2010 edition of The Dance Current print magazine, the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad is featured as the website of the month. This weekend they continue to bring more of the world's finest arts and popular culture.
On March 12th and 13th, Compagnie Marie Chouinard presents the world premiere of The Golden Mean (Live), a "ballet in one act". According to the company's website: "The beings performing on stage will appear to have come from a strange yet friendly future; in an absolutely scintillating acuteness of sensory perception, in which the underlying processes are laid bare, they allow us to listen to our senses in a serene and unprecedented way. The Being is a field of exploration, a crucible of possibilities; here it is on the verge of a thought-provoking and amourous mutation."
For more on Marie Chouinard, be sure to check out our previous online review of bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS, as well as profiles in the Summer 2006 and June 2002 print magazines.
March 10th through 13th in Montréal, Agora de la Danse presents the local company Van Grimde Corps Secrets in their new work Bodies to Bodies III (Les chemins de traverse - Metz). The work then tours to Lennoxville, Quebec on March 16th and then off to Belgium on April 21st.
This work is now in its third incarnation and is inspired by Isabelle Van Grimde's research project, The Body in Question. Her vision of the body has expanded over the past six years of her research, considering perspectives from artistic, scientific and intellectual communities from several different countries. Throughout the process of exploring these reflections, the movement vocabulary has transformed, moving away from peripheral architecture "to embrace a more visceral and sensitive approach to the body by studying its elementary drives and tensions." On her website, Van Grimde asks: "Indeed, what meaning can Dance have when Physics states that matter does not exist and that flesh, organs and the skeleton itself are nothing more than the sum of their energetic vibrations?"
The work is also characterized by the company's open creation process, which was adopted in 2005. Meticulously coded choreographic scores offer a movement palette that is freely interpreted by the performers all while respecting certain qualitative and gestural parameters, complying with the spatial and dynamic structure of the piece and maintaining relationships with the music and other performers. "This is a complex process that mixes constraint with volition, shifting responsibility onto the performers and revealing thinking bodies, completely in possession of what they have to convey."
For more information on Isabelle Van Grimde, be sure to check out the Summer 2006 issue of The Dance Current.
Tomorrow at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canadian modern dance icon Margie Gillis presents the premiere of Thread. This work, wrapped in metaphor, touches on our humanity and the connections that shape our lives. Gillis' website further elaborates: "The layered dimensions of the piece compel us to reflect upon the challenges and miracles that are threaded into the complex lace of our path towards maturity, towards letting-go and acceptance. Thread exposes the rope that trips us up, the twine that tethers us, the strings that attach us, the cords we cut, the ribbons that glorify us..." For more on Margie Gillis, be sure to check out the profiles in the Summer 2008 and October 2007 issues of The Dance Current.
The March 2010 issue of The Dance Current print magazine includes an article on censorship in Montréal during the 1960's touring of Les Ballets Africains.
"Montréal in 1959 was still coping with the social hangover of having lived for decades under the patriarchal government of Maurice Duplessis. When Montréal's police censor discovered that the female dancers were to perform bare-breasted, he cited the Criminal Code, 'Si ça bouge, c'est obscène' (When it wiggles, it's obscene)." By Amy Bowring, The Dance Current: Print.
This rare video of Les Ballets Africains shows one of their North American performances from 1968. Not surprisingly, the women are seen here fully clad. Also featured is their lead, Lead Djembe Soloist Famoudou Konaté, a Malinké master drummer from Guinea.
After many months of promotional adventures, the Vancouver International Salsa Festival is upon us, running March 4th through 6th, 2010. These four days of performances and workshops gather salsa dancers and instructors from eighteen countries. Featured Canadian artists include:
- Montréal's Comomango and Saltimambo
- Toronto's United Salseros, New Skin and Darius & Limor
- Calgary's David & Lezlie
- Edmonton's Etown Salsa
- Vancouver's Martinez Dance Company, Bravo Dance Company, Now Or Never, Hot Salsa Zone, Arassay Reyes, Las Dementas, Provocante, Grupo Americao, Mambo Hustlers and Giovanni & Inbal
Up until March 7th, Blue Print for Life is running a week long "Social Work Through Hiphop" program up in the Nunavik community of Kangirsuk. Their work targets youth in various at-risk communities and inner cities, with notable projects making headway throughout Canada's north. Their director Stephen Leafloor, aka Buddha, has been social worker for over twenty years and an active participant in hiphop since 1981. Be sure to check out the profile of Blue Print for Life in the November 2008 issue of The Dance Current.
This weekend, Bravo!FACT is airing a thirty minute episode featuring containR, a green cinema in Vancouver that houses free screenings of Canadian and International dance, sport and performance films. Five commissioned short films celebrating physicality in art and sport will be aired, including Falling by directors Marlene Millar and Philip Szporer of Montréal's Mouvement Perpétuel.
This particular work features contemporary dance artist Jeff Hall and his journey to regain his physicality after a life changing fall. As described on containR's website, Falling "gives us a peek into the emotion, the struggle and the pure intent of focus that can bring a man back from such a thing [...] The film celebrates this history of the body, the challenge of losing then re-finding mobility, and the subversive, absurd and sometimes tragic ways physicality weaves itself through our lives."
Check your local listings to confirm:
March 5th: 8pm ET or 5pm PT on Bravo!.
March 6th: 6:30pm PT and 11pm PT on 'A' on Vancouver Island
March 6th: 6:30pm ET on 'A' in Barrie, London, Windsor, & Wingham
March 6th: 11pm ET on 'A' in Ottawa
In the March 2010 edition of The Dance Current print magazine, the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad is featured as the website of the month. Vancouver has certainly been lit up in a flurry of arts and sports, leading our athletes to success.
Leaving the Olympics with a record breaking number of gold medals, Canadians are on top of their games. Last Monday, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir became Canada's first, North America's first and the youngest ice dance team to win gold, trumping the ranks with a score of 221.57.
The couple had a nail-biting ride through this three-part figure skating event. They began in second after the compulsory dance, vaulted to first in the original dance and confirmed their standing in the free dance. The number that put them in the lead was this flamenco piece, which had earned them silver at the December Grand Prix in Tokyo. Igor Shpilband and Marina Zoueva are the choreographers and coaches of our gold medalists as well as Meryl Davis and Charlie White, the American couple that took silver.
