Preview
I WAS LOOKING AT THE CEILING AND THEN I SAW THE SKY
High Performance Rodeo
Directed and choreographed by Nicole Mion
Runs Jan 28 to 30
Vertigo Playhouse (Tower Centre)
"We are sculpting space with light, sounds and our imaginations," says director and choreographer Nicole Mion of her concept for the 2005 High Performance Rodeo.
I was looking at the ceiling AND THEN I SAW THE SKY is the result of an extended collaborative process with dancers, designers and a musician. Inspired by Yan Lee Chan’s lighting design, Robert Duke’s set design and an original composition by Amir Amiri, dancers Lori Duncan and Natalie Poissant take the stage in an extreme play on space, gesture, sound and meaning. There are elements of spoken word interwoven throughout the piece, with the stories ranging from fiction to fact and personal experiences.
"Dancers have a really involved world," says Mion. "To do a good performance you’re incredibly involved and incredibly engaged on many levels, and then it comes out through physical expression. But I thought it would be fun to explore what it is that they’re thinking… in that moment."
The show’s choreography explores the concept and experience of space, and its effects upon emotion, memory and human relationships. The dancers seem to go back and forth in time, in a series of structured terrains determined by intense industrial lighting. The performers’ relationships with movement and with one another are addressed through confrontation, co-operation, elusiveness and a variety of other emotional states.
"That’s the beginning," says Mion, "and then flight, insects, performance…" she breaks into laughter. "A whole bunch of tangents."
Flight becomes a metaphor for an artist’s performance, and for being in the moment. The comparisons range from the uncontrolled experience of an airline passenger to the tiny body of a fly trying to cross an ocean. There is also commentary on the fear involved in taking flight.
"I always knew that there’d be take-off music at the beginning and landing music near the end, but through this process we’ve amplified a lot more," says Mion of the flying theme.
Drawing on Mion’s work with movement improvisations, the show’s dancers met several times, during a long process that resulted in substantial creative growth.
"We had a chunk where we focused on the movement, and dissected the movement, and really defined the perimeters of movement and stretched it out," says Poissant. "And then the second time we got together we got into text and our stories and words, and how it started to affect the movement that we had spent a lot of time on. And then it just kind of added another layer."
The performers had time between the rehearsal processes to absorb the creative concepts of the piece.
"The third time we got together, it was defining our relationship in space," says Poissant, explaining that things will change in performance depending on the performers’ choices and their reactions to one another.
"It’s the kind of a piece where, at the end of it, you go, ‘What just happened?’" adds fellow dancer Duncan. "That’s how involved we are in our heads and with each other." |
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