>>PREVIEW
ALBERTA DANCE EXPLOSIONS
Runs until February 24
Dancers’ Studio West
(Dancers’ Studio West)
"A variety of dances created by Calgary’s most engaged dance artists" could well describe any given evening at the Alberta Dance Explosions festival of choreography. Put on every year by Dancers’ Studio West, this year marks the annual festival’s 25th anniversary.
"This year, our 25th season, is a mixture of quite a few things," says DSW’s current artistic director, Brian Hansen.
"We have some interesting old school and new school, a funk/street/hip hop kind of dance that to me is quite exciting, because in the past, there’s a lot of people who weren’t into contemporary dance, who really do enjoy seeing the tricks and the fun that street and break dancing provides," says Hansen. "We have very technical dancers who are great performers and can also street dance, break and funk as well. They’re telling a bit of a story using contemporary dance, but also using that street feel as well."
There is a range of choreographers at the festival (pieces are chosen by jury), including veterans such as Decidedly Jazz Danceworks’ Kimberly Cooper, and contemporary choreographer Neah Kalcounis.
"It’s a stage for beginning, emerging and professional artists to polish their work, or to find a voice for themselves. That’s why Elaine Bowman started this festival 25 years ago," Hansen says.
There are also works by Tara Blue (of the Blue Collar Dance Company), Tara Wilson (of Wilson Dance Projects), flamenco artists Rosanna Terracciano and Fiona Malena, contemporary artists Matthew Popoff and Sung-Ah Choi, Trina Rasmuson and MoMo Mixed Ability Dance Theatre and the hip hop-based Saxon Fraser and Kaleb Tekeste, to name a few.
"It’s going to be very diverse," Hansen says. "It’s not just contemporary dance. There’s also some jazz, some street stuff, belly dancing, flamenco – everything kind of combined. And if you want to see really where contemporary dance is going, it’s a great three weeks."
Kimberly Cooper is creating two works for Dance Explosions, one with fellow DJD dancer Jason Stroh that premiered at the Fluid Movement Festival last October.
"It went over very well, and we decided that it deserved more audience time, so we’re doing it again. It is kind of a silly, rock ’n’ roll love dance," she laughs. "I don’t know how to describe it any better. We are attached for most of it, and it’s just kind of fun and wonky."
susurrar, a jazz cat in the rooster pen, is another work Cooper has created. For Cooper, this solo piece explores her own foray into Cuban dance and music blended with jazz.
"susurrar is a Spanish word that means ‘to whisper.’ A few years ago I made a show for DJD in collaboration with Hannah Stilwell called !BULLA! – in Spanish it means ‘to make a racket or a fuss.’ That was a big Cuban jazz show with up to 20 people onstage, so this is a very quiet solo for me as sort of a response to that."
Set to musician Angá Diaz’s version of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, susurrar provides an opportunity for Cooper to re-explore some of the movement between Cuban and jazz dances.
"It’s fun to go back to the Cuban jazz thing," she says. "I’m also trying to use images of cats and roosters – for me the cat is the quintessential jazz animal, and there’s so many references to chickens and roosters in Cuban music. I just turned to those animals for extra movement inspiration."
Dance artist Tara Wilson – who specializes in dance styles such as popping and locking – has worked on a short study called Trading Places for Dance Explosions.
"I choreographed it with my friend Caroline Fraser. It is really a dance that focuses on popping, and the idea is just about sharing the space between two dancers," Wilson says. "It is really a very simple little piece, and the idea grew out of the strange coincidence that we always came to rehearsal in opposite but matching clothes.
"It looked like we had traded clothes with each other. We are playing on the ideas of trading clothes, space: trading eights in the old tap sense of the word."
Many choreographers, especially relative newcomers to the Calgary dance community, find Dance Explosions to be a useful outlet for developing their work.
"The Calgary dance community is so small, and there are so many talented, creative dancers in it. There’s so few places that we get to show off our talents," says Calgary choreographer Caroline Fraser. "Dance Explosions is one of the only places where I can put my own work just to basically show it, for no other reason. The show has no theme or anything like that. Dance Explosions is very open to all types of creativity and talent, so it’s incredibly important."
Alberta Dance Explosions runs three consecutive weekends at Dancers’ Studio West: February 8 to 10, 15 to 17 and 22 to 24. Check listings for more information. |
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