LORD OF THE DANCE
Webb continues to innovate
You might be surprised to hear Brian Webb waxing enthusiastic over the punk rock band S.N.F.U. Or would you?
For 40 years now this dean of Edmonton’s contemporary dance scene has brought a spirit of risk to the art of the dance, not only in his own dancing and choreographed works, but in presenting daring works from local and global sources under the guise of Brian Webb Dance Company.
From BWDC’s initial decadeplus in residence with MacEwan (then Grant MacEwan College, now University), through the 1980s and in its surprising, independent seasons since, Webb has helped further the careers of many dancers and choreographers, attracting even more artists to the city. In enticing us to such shows he has inspired audiences to re-think the possibilities of dance and played a key role in putting Edmonton on the dance map.
All that may only offer limited comfort when Webb stretches his 67-year-old frame to work out in the studio three mornings a week (“I turn so I’m not looking at myself in the mirror”). But there was the glint of a mischievous punk in his eyes when we met over coffee recently to discuss highlights of BWDC’s 40th season, which takes flight Friday.
PRAIRIE DANCE CIRCUIT
That S.N.F.U. reference ties to the opening show Prairie Dance Circuit (Timms Centre, Sept. 21-22) and a work titled Second Hand Dances for the Crude, Crude City by Gerry Morita which features the pioneering punk band as a soundtrack. Webb has early associations with punk sounds.
“I must have first heard S.N.F.U. on CJSR radio back in the 1980s, but before that when I was living in New York in the ’70s our studio was on the same street as CBGB’s, so I heard The Ramones and Blondie long before they ever recorded, and it was fun.”
Webb points out that notions of “punk” and “alternative” have changed completely since then. Hints of social history filter into his enthusiasm for the Prairie Dance Circuit, an event he cofounded 10 years ago to enable local dance works to tour between several prairies cities.
“That social commentary comes right through from the tradition of modern dance in North America. When modern dance came into being it was all part of American socialism in the 1930s and the social conscience of people like Martha Graham. The politic of contemporary dance has always been different from ballet, and so much contemporary dance was influenced by punk.”
Another part of this year’s PDC is a darkly humorous piece by Melanie Kloetzel which takes on topical issues — alternative facts and surveillance technology — threatening to undermine democracy.
Webb is always trying to encourage local forces in dance like Gerry Morita, who operates her own company, Mile Zero Dance, but PDC is just one of six shows as Webb pulls out the stops to celebrate this special season.
MARKING 40
BWDC follows up Oct. 5-6 with the company Attakkalari from Bangalore, India, actually part of a multinational collaboration using high-tech virtual reality in dance, sparking Webb’s own curiosity.
“I think people are going to be really surprised at the groundbreaking level of technology being used. It’s unlike (anything we have) over here.”
Video clips of the production are certainly intriguing for this show involving 10 dancers.
Webb’s friend, renown Montreal dancer-choreographer Paul-Andre Fortier is at the heart of a solo show Dec. 14-15 called Solo 70. At 70 years old, it’s Fortier’s final performance before retiring.
Wen Wei Dance, scheduled for next February, features a new work by Wen Wei Wang, the China-born, Vancouver-based choreographer who is splitting his time to head up another contemporary company here, Ballet Edmonton, starting this fall. Next April, Webb presents four up-and-coming dancers he’s come to know through his association with Edmonton’s Usha Gupta in the show Next Generation of South Asian Dance,
Finally, BWDC’s 40th closes with a complex second collaboration between Webb and local audiovisual
tech artist Gary Joynes (a.k.a. Clinker). Webb, to be one of the six dancers, recalls their first collaboration as “a hugely liberating experience that introduced me to so much.”
After Prairie Dance Circuit, the rest of this 40th season plays out in MacEwan’s Triffo Theatre.
DANCE AUDIENCE
Webb will tell you that, relative to the size of the city, Edmonton is a serious dance town. It may not compare so easily to Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, but he’s hopeful that powers like the Canada Council for the Arts are starting to take notice.
“We have such a strong dance community here and a lot of dancers come out of Edmonton. There are more dance studios in Edmonton — not per capita, more dance studios period — than any other city in Canada. Edmonton dancers do very well. From from ballet to hiphop to modern and contemporary, Edmonton has a name for itself.”
That predominance of dancers has seeded an audience too, something Webb has fostered since BWDC’s beginnings.
“You know a dance isn’t complete until it’s performed for an audience.”
Born near Drumheller, Webb came to Edmonton when he enrolled in a BFA program in theatre at the University of Alberta. Taking a movement class during those years changed his life. After moving to New York to study during the 1970s, some of his first works as a dancer-choreographer were featured in the Carol Conway Company. His return to head up the dance program at MacEwan and to found BWDC developed its own momentum. Along the way he finished a Masters in Choreography in California, but one senses he’s never stopped learning. He’s received numerous awards and honours and still gets inspired over those wideopen prairie skies that first inspired him as a young artist.
“It’s always been about big open spaces. That’s the place of potential.”