>>PREVIEW
ALBERTA DANCE EXPLOSIONS 2006
FESTIVAL OF CHOREOGRAPHY
Dancers’ Studio West
Runs February 9 to 25
2007 - 10 Ave. S.W.
Dancers’ Studio West’s annual Alberta Dance Explosions Festival of Choreography returns this February for its 24th year with a new leader at the helm. But the diverse three-week festival, which includes dance forms as varied as funk, contemporary, ballet, tap, modern, contact improvisation and flamenco, still promises to have something for everyone.
"The focus is the same as when Elaine founded it," assures DSW’s new artistic programmer, Bobbie Todd, referring to original artistic director Elaine Bowman, who started the dance company in 1980. "It’s the opportunity for emerging choreographers to show their work."
The dance pieces are chosen by a jury at DSW. The jury members, all veterans of the dance community, may also act as the "outside eye" and give feedback to beginning choreographers.
"Explosions is dictated by who applies," says Todd, and the challenge for her is trying to "have each week of Explosions as broad a week as possible. It’s all mixed up." Todd, the former artistic director of Edmonton’s Mile Zero Dance, who took over the reins at DSW this season, says she eventually wants to build on some of the things Explosions has been doing for young artists. "It would be nice to have more mentorship to emerging choreographers, and to have more time with that in the future."
One key difference in the festival this year is that the Aftershocks component, a series that ran after the main presentations, has been cut. "It’s come and gone over the years," notes Todd, adding that, while in the recent past it was an outlet for the work of newcomers, historically it has featured some bigger names in the local dance community, such as Denise Clarke.
There are more than 20 choreographers contributing to Explosions this year. Among the well-known names is Blue Collar Dance Company’s Tara Blue. Her piece, Belly to the Bar, premières during the festival’s first week, and combines dark comedy with contemporary movement.
"It’s a segment from a piece I’ve been working on all year," says Blue. "It’s about a wife and (husband), and her birthday doesn’t work the way she wants it to." Instead, the wife runs off to a seedy bar in a bad part of town.
Blue, who founded Blue Collar in 1995, began her association with the festival when she was still studying dance at the University of Calgary. "I first got involved with Dance Explosions in university," she says. "So it’s a bit of a full circle (this year)."
Taryn Javier da Silva is among the choreographers showcased in the second week. She’s offering a piece entitled A hundred years from now and ago, which explores human behaviour and its parallels within other living creatures.
Javier da Silva trained at Toronto’s Ryerson Polytechnic University and the University of Calgary, and has studied dance in the U.S. She’s also participated as a student at the ImpulsTanz Festival in Vienna and with Calgary’s Decidedly Jazz Danceworks.
"I like working in all forms," she says. "As a contemporary artist, I’m leaning towards physical theatre – that seems to be the way contemporary dance is going now. I love hip hop as well."
Javier da Silva is one of the many choreographers who is performing in her own work. Her piece also features Jennifer Doan, Edward Mitchell and Rosanna Terriacciano. "(They’re) all strong individuals and really involved in the process," says Javier da Silva. "I really like to show the dancers for who they are."
One of her piece’s catalysts was the book Songs of the Gorilla Nation: My Journey Through Autism by Dawn Prince Hughes. "This book gave me strong images," says da Silva. And as part of the creative process, she and her dancers studied the movement, behaviour and interaction among gorillas at the Calgary Zoo. "I felt a desire to go see the gorillas," she says. "I feel their movement is raw and basic, but very expressive."
Among the newcomers to Explosions this year is South Korean Seung-Eu Choi, currently a second-year student in the U of C dance program. She’ll be presenting a piece called Uchiufra Caacheea during the first week. The title of her work comes from a legendary African flower. In the legend, the blossom is hypersensitive, "like a clean freak," she says. "Whenever people touched it, the flower died right away."
Choi says Uchiufra Caacheea consists of two parts, with contrasting movement and music. The first part represents the flower’s loneliness. "It’s sad and depressing, but beautiful at the same time, because it is natural, soft and fragile. The second part is human loneliness, with powerful, sharp, hard and strong movement. It is more physical and difficult."
Among the more seasoned artists participating this year is Neah Kalcounis, whose work will be seen during all three weeks of the festival. Originally from Calgary, Kalcounis recently spent time living in Ottawa and taking in Eastern Canada’s dance scene.
She’ll be serving up two pieces – a duet entitled Hannah, danced by Jennifer Jaspar and Hilary Maxwell, and a solo called I Once Was A girl But Somehow Forgot To Become A woman. The latter is performed by Annalisa Bentzen and has already been presented in Ottawa and Mission, B.C.
"I’m treating the solo as my continual work-in-progress. I just keep reworking it. I’ve been working with (Bentzen) since July, driving her crazy making changes, changes, changes," says Kalcounis with a laugh.
I Once Was A girl will be performed in the first week of Explosions, while the duet will get two performances, in the second and third weeks. The title of her solo seems self-explanatory, but why is the duet dubbed Hannah?
"I really like the name, and I don’t think I’ll ever have an opportunity to call a child Hannah, ’cause I just don’t think I’m going to have children," she explains. "So, I have so much adoration for that name, and I’ve had so much adoration for both those dancers (Jaspar and Maxwell), because I’ve adored that process with them."
Kalcounis has worked with Jaspar, Maxwell and Bentzen in the past. When the choreographer moved back to Calgary from Ottawa this past July, she knew they were the dancers she wanted for her new pieces.
"It’s been really great – they take my movement and help me out," says Kalcounis. "They assist me in the choreographic process. They’re not just dancers – they have taken what I’ve given them, digested it and expressed it in a way that I could never do by myself."
Kalcounis says the dancers are an integral part of her process as a choreographer.
"In Eastern Canada, in contemporary dance, in French they call the dancer ‘interpreter.’ And I really feel that the dancers are interpreters – they’re only asking me to do so much as a choreographer, and then they take it a step further. So they’ve really interpreted the movement and spoken with their own voices on it."
Putting there best feet forward – the lineup for Alberta Dance Explosions 2006
FIRST WEEK (FEB. 9-11)
· Contrast by Maya Lewandowsky.
· Belly to the Bar by Tara Blue.
· The Walk Home by Richard Zimich.
· I Once Was A girl But Somehow Forgot To Become A woman by Neah Kalcounis.
· Sole Music by Danny Nielson.
· Influential Waters by Saxon and Caroline Fraser.
· This Dance by MoMo Dance Theatre.
· Uchiufra Caacheea by Seung-Eu Choi.
· Funk in da Trunk by Malfunktion. (Also performed in Week 2.)
SECOND WEEK (FEB. 16-18)
· Litost by Helen Husak. Original music score by Amir Amiri.
· Hannah by Neah Kalcounis. (Also performed in Week 3.)
· The Final Dance of the Pariah by Dorrie Deutschendorf.
· Funky Side of Life by Kaleb Tekeste.
· The Fates by Jaime Marr.
· A hundred years ago from now and ago by Taryn Javier da Silva.
THIRD WEEK (FEB. 23-25)
· Les Amants (The Lovers) by Gerry Morita.
· Un Momento en el Sonido (A Moment in the Sound) by Fiona Malena.
· True Source by Edgar Gilbert Reyes.
· Untitled by Gessuri Gaitan and Meagan Gole.
· The I and the storm by Mathew Popoff.
· This Miracle, Culled Life by Mathew Popoff.
· Finding by Karie Kohar.
Tickets and information: 244-0950 or www.dswlive.ca. |
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