DANCING TO THE AGES
Local choreographer explores dancers' limitations with NAC-funded project In My Body
Crazy Smooth's new work mulls growing older
At 40, Yvon Soglo figures he's part of the last generation of street dancers to learn the style on his own.
Growing up in Gatineau's Aylmer sector, the son of a diplomat from Benin, there weren't any schools or studios offering instruction in hip-hop dance. He and his friends watched music videos on TV and '80s movies on VHS to learn the moves.
“We used to come back to my house on Friday nights and practice in the basement,” Soglo says, recalling the time a high school friend acquired a copy of the movie Breakin', the 1984 breakdancing-themed comedy-drama. “When we saw a move, we'd press pause-play, pause-play to understand how it was done. That's how I got started. I'm probably one of the last generation to be self-taught.”
Now the founder and artistic director of the Gatineau-based street-dance company Bboyizm is gaining wide acclaim in the dance world for his work as a choreographer. In addition to receiving last year's Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award from the Banff Centre, his latest work-in-progress, entitled In My Body, is one of the 13 Canadian arts projects to receive a major injection of cash from the National Arts Centre's National Creation Fund in 2020.
Soglo, who's better known by his street-dance name, Crazy Smooth, received a whopping $175,000 to create a world-class production, complete with a script, dramaturgy, original music, multimedia effects and more.
“All that investment gives me the opportunity to put together my dream team of collaborators to work on this show with me,” he says. “This is a big step forward. I'm changing the range of what I can do. It's going to help me realize my vision for this show, and I'm very grateful and excited.”
His vision is to explore the effects of age on people whose identities are intrinsically linked to their physical capabilities — such as dancers. After decades specializing in the physically demanding style, Soglo has had plenty of wear and tear on his body.
“Like most dancers, I've had injuries,” he says. “I've had four knee surgeries, and each one was kind of a new life lesson. My body is the tool that I use to perform my art, to express myself and to work. Because of age, you don't recover as fast and I found myself for the first time really feeling like a prisoner in my own body and having to deal with the fact that, even though I wanted to express myself in a certain way, I could not because I had to be patient and wait for my body to heal.”
What moves the piece beyond his personal experience is the 10-member cast of dancers. Soglo has assembled a cast of five women and five men representing different demographics, ranging in age from early 20s to late 50s.
“We're exploring limitations,” he says. “Everybody gets older, everybody goes through a loss of capacities but on top of that, the women go through something the men don't. So I'm also exploring that and giving a voice to the five women in the cast as well.”
Soglo's piece has also received investment from the likes of The CanDance Network and Montreal's Centre de Création O Vertigo, where he is a long-term resident artist.
The commitment of other partners made the project even more attractive to the administrators of the National Creation Fund.
“He's a very compelling artist with a particularly strong vision of the work he wants to do, and taking it to the next level,” says Heather Moore, executive producer of the fund, explaining why Soglo was a good candidate for investment.
“There's the artistic side of things but also the practical side. When you look at major-scale work that comes touring into Canada from Europe and the States, it always has multiple partners. We want to see (candidates) have the support behind them to make the project come to fruition.”
The goal of the creation fund is to invest “big money for big ideas,” adds Moore, describing the support as an investment, not a grant, although it doesn't have to be paid back.
In its three years of existence, the fund has invested $7.4 million in the development of 48 projects. All of the capital came from private donors.
Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic has put any performance plans on hold, giving the artists more time to develop their projects.
For his part, Soglo calls the pandemic a “bar in the wheels” of the creative process. Although he's given assignments to each of his dancers to work on at home, he can't wait to get everyone back in the studio. The plan is to have the show ready for the stage by the spring of 2022.
“I want to get back in the studio and create,” Soglo says.
“The hope is we come back to a world where people can go to the theatre and pack it, and we can tour this work. I want to show it to the nation.”
All that investment gives me the opportunity to put together my dream team of collaborators to work on this show with me.