Preview
UNBREAKABLE AND BROKEN
Springboard Dance
Choreographed by Karen Kaeja, Glenda Stirling and Shelly Tognazzini
Runs May 13 to 15
Dancers’ Studio West (2007 10th Ave. S.W.)
Talk about role reversals: Springboard Dance’s latest show has taken a theatre director and thrown her into rehearsal with a dancer. In another piece, a choreographer works with two theatre actors.
It’s a blend not uncommon these days, says co-artistic director Shelly Tognazzini.
"I’ve always been interested in bridging the gap in theatre and dance," says Tognazzini. "In the last 10 years, dance and theatre have had this relaxed facility with one another, and artists from one discipline are more interested in finding out what the other offers. It’s logical, but a huge challenge, especially with funding and time – theatre is normally on a much tighter schedule."
Alongside co-directors Nicole Mion and Trina Rasmuson, Tognazzini celebrated Springboard’s 15th year in Calgary dance in 2003, with reason to cheer – as well as acquiring more stable financial support for the company of late, the three directors have sprouted wings in their individual careers. The new show, Unbreakable and Broken, featuring a trio of choreographers, also offers Springboard the chance to commission new work.
"Things have been full of flux and change for us, but it’s always evolving," says Tognazzini. "We’ve tried to link national and local artists for presentation and creation, but the creation aspect is particularly important."
Tognazzini, who performs in two solos and choreographs a third duet in this show, initially threw out two underlying themes as a starting point: the unbreakable and the broken. The results led to three entirely different takes on the human spirit.
"Each piece has a through-line of memory, and where that fits in the body internally and externally,’ says Tognazzini. "There are a lot of visceral, atmospheric, almost dreamlike states."
After presenting Resistance by renowned Toronto choreographer Karen Kaeja three years ago, Tognazzini followed Kaeja to Banff and Toronto for the creation of Avenue of Butterflies, perhaps the most abstract work in this show’s lineup. The solo recently took the stage at the Solocentric Festival featuring an original soundscape by Edgardo Moreno. Tognazzini describes it as ethereal and sensual in movement.
"It’s a more internal reflection of the bond we form with ourselves, with its own sense of flight and life, and the butterfly imagery in it is beautiful," she says. "Karen has this amazing passion for contact dance and improv, which is what led me to her as choreographer."
Tognazzini also performs solo for local theatre director Glenda Stirling, whose choreography is a more amusing, unique nod towards the lives of women.
"It looks at the roles women play and walk in and out of every day, from submissive china doll to warrior," says Tognazzini. "It also looks at how these stereotypes exist in our bodies – what is seen and what is unseen; the public versus private personas we carry."
For her own choreography, Tognazzini chose local actors Phillip Parsons and Jamie Tognazzini, her daughter, to create some text-driven dance theatre. The untitled piece plays on the heart, which both beats and can be broken. It was originally two separate solos, but Tognazzini combined them into one performance, using music, voice-overs and text to further infuse theatricality.
"What’s rewarding is the actor’s innate sense of investment and intention, which is a riveting place to start from," she says. "Actors can take it to a different place, and this is a poetic piece. They bring a different way into it, a new sense of life."
Adding new creations to Springboard’s repertoire also offers the company a sense of life, and there are plans for touring if all bodes well. As her co-directors prepare for Springboard’s fourth annual Vertical Summer this July and August – a combination of dance and climbing staged on the side of the Teatro restaurant in the Olympic Plaza – Tognazzini marvels at how her initial theme for Unbreakable and Broken has played itself out.
"When we started I had this concept that ‘broken’ and ‘unbreakable’ were opposites, but there is a yin and yang to this emotional world we live in – the broken and unbreakable are the same," she says. "The wholeness is finding a balance between the two." |
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