A SUBTLE TIDAL FORCE
Taiwan’s Legend Lin Dance Theatre slows things down with latest piece
Be prepared to enter the No-Hurry Zone next week as Taiwan’s Legend Lin Dance Theatre brings its latest piece, The Eternal Tides, to Place des Arts as part of the Danse Danse series.
This is the first time the company, formed more than two decades ago, has visited Canada, so audiences may need to acclimatize themselves to a form of dance that is more like an infinitely slow unfolding than the gravity-defying, full-tilt moves that are more typical of westerly latitudes.
The rewards for doing so are reportedly worth it, with initially fidgety audiences gradually falling under the spell.
Following on from the company’s Heaven, Earth and Humans trilogy — which, as the title suggests, blended spirituality and nature as well as references to Taiwanese Aboriginal mythology — The Eternal Tides is a celebration of and meditation on oceans, rain and water in general.
Speaking via an interpreter on a rather choppy phone connection to Taiwan, company founder and choreographer Lin Lee-Chen advises audience members to just abandon themselves, to “follow the journey” and not worry too much about literal interpretations of what they’re experiencing.
Thus, when I raise the question of how political the show might be, given the tense situation between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland (separated, after all, by a muchcontested stretch of water), or ask about the narrative similarities between this show and the trilogy (environmental carelessness, cycles of the Earth, divine animals interacting with humans, etc.), you can almost sense Lin giving a dismissive wave of the hand.
“I don’t worry about that,” she says. “What’s important is how you dedicate yourself to the show. Just be open-minded, follow the journey and you will find yourself. When people come to the theatre, they don’t necessarily have to concentrate on something. They can just come along and empty themselves and they will find a place in themselves.”
Easier said than done, given our conditioning to expect attentiongrabbing entertainments while our cellphones burn holes in our pockets with urgent and un-ignorable messages. But images and videos of the production suggest coiled, concentrated energy, which occasionally explodes, rather than boredom-inspiring inertia.
The visuals, too, promise to be striking, with nine bodies mostly painted white, Aboriginal-inspired costumes and lurid splashes of red punctuating the blankness. Small wonder that critics have written about Lin’s painterly eye.
Like Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan (last seen at Danse Danse in 2014), Legend Lin Dance Theatre has been instrumental in bringing Taiwanese dance, and Taiwanese culture in general, out of the shadows.
Now recognized as a significant international choreographer, Lin has certainly come a long way since she took to the stage dancing solo in 1978. And the name of the piece that predates by almost four decades her epic vision of tides, oceans and rain? Don’t Forget Your Umbrella. Also presented by Danse Danse at the same venue is Siena, the latest show from Barcelona-based La Veronal. Company founder Marcos Morau places his dancers in an ultra-naturalistic set reproducing a museum gallery in Siena, Italy. Dominating the space is a huge replica of Titian’s Venus of Urbino. But don’t expect too much naturalism from self-confessed David Lynch and Luis Buñuel fan Morau, whose work was last seen in Montreal in 2015 in a surreal fish-heads-and-unicycle contribution to a trilogy presented by Les 7 Doigts. Siena features nine female dancers dressed, incongruously, in fencer’s gear, coming and going in the gallery (to paraphrase T.S. Eliot) while being overseen by a slightly sinister attendant. Contemporary dance specialists Agora continue their program with a trilogy of new pieces presented under the umbrella Résistances Plurielles (Wednesday to Jan. 27 at the Wilder Building, 1435 Bleury St.). Icône Pop sees Mélanie Demers following her previous show Animal triste with a contemplation of society’s worship of icons like Beyoncé and Madonna. Recurrent Measures is a live installation that sees George Stamos joining six other dancers in an exploration of the limits of movement. And don’t forget to leave on your cellphone for Instant Community, which sees Peter Quanz and Montréal Danse inviting audiences to use smartphones and other devices to share an experience in real time. (Or, if you prefer, you can simply watch.)
Also performing at the Wilder Building is Montreal dance veteran Margie Gillis, who brings her latest show to Agora next month (Feb. 14 to 17). Viriditas has Gillis joining two female dancers in an attempt to balance youthful wildness with the wisdom of experience.
For ticket prices and performance times, call 514-525-1500 or visit agoradanse.com.