RELATIVE NOTIONS
eko Dance Projects
Runs until March 25
The University Theatre (University of Calgary)
"We’re growing dancers in the community," says eko Dance Project’s artistic director and choreographer Erin O’Connor. "You don’t get the passion, the spark ignited within you unless you work with artists of integrity." Those artists make up the multi-generational company, which includes professional, contemporary dancers and youth, including members from The Urban Dance Project. All are performing in Relative Notions as part of the company’s professional season.
"(This show) is a resurgence in the theory of relativity, as well as people’s different ideas and notions on it," says O’Connor. "I presented those things to seven different choreographers and they all have a different take on the idea — how it affects the dancer’s feelings, the movement, the idea, and how it would relate to the audience. So we’ve got a broad range."
One of the choreographers is Toronto’s Sharon Moore, whose work The Delicacy of Bowls plays with the notion of endowing an object with movement.
"It’s about relating through each other, through the use of the physical universe, which is represented by the objects," says Moore. "The movement in the piece is very delicate and detailed, but visceral and physical."
"The bowls contain things that are precious to the dancers," O’Connor explains. "The bowls change metaphor as they change hands."
Fellow Torontonian and choreographer Holly Small has brought a segment called Weeping Sky, originally part of a longer concert work called Soul.
"It’s a preoccupation I have, the hopes and dreams of young women all over the planet," Small says. "And the question that I’ve had since I was very small — why do some girls get to realize their hopes and dreams, while others suffer?
"So when I started to work with these ideas with an original cast – members of the Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre and young professional dancers in Toronto – we talked a lot about that. It would seem like a very odd starting point for a dance, which is actually quite kinetic and sweeping."
Calgary’s version of Weeping Sky was originally a multi-generational cast of 12 dancers, including members from The Urban Dance Company. Unfortunately, due to the injury of one of the dancers, Anne Flynn (program co-ordinator for the University of Calgary’s dance program), the cast is now down to 11.
"My hopes and dreams for the piece took a hair-pin turn when that happened," says Small. "You don’t know what’s around the corner in your life."
Relative Notions will also feature choreography from Melissa Monteros, Wojciech Mochniej, Jamie Freeman-Cormack, Kyrsten Blair and Deanne Walsh. |
Copyright ©2006 FFWD. All rights reserved.