LET’S DANCE
‘3,2,1 Dance!’ celebrates the passion and emotion of older dancers
When three icons of Canadian contemporary dance come together to defeat ageism on the dance stage I need to pay attention.
Why?
Because I’ve seen the depth of emotion, spirituality and physical presence more mature dancers can bring to the performance space.
I’ll tell you now. They aren’t hobbled by age. They have time on their side; time to dig deeper, reach farther, batter borders and create performances that linger in the imagination long after the dance is through.
I’m thinking of Evelyn Hart mopping the stage with passion in a show called “Older and More Reckless.” I’m thinking of Margot Fonteyn dancing Juliet at 63. And I’m certainly thinking of Alicia Alonso, three years ago at 93, bringing the house down in a specially created dance solo in Havana.
Robert Desrosiers, 64, Robert Glumbek, 53, and Yvonne Ng who doesn’t tell her age, were stars when contemporary dance in Canada was young. That was more than 40 years ago. Each remains a legend to be celebrated.
Now, these folks are coming together to dance in “3,2,1 Dance!,” a series of trios, duets and solos as you might have guessed. They’ll be at The Burlington Performing Arts Centre Feb. 17. If there’s a ticket left, grab it. This is exceptional news for dance fans, past, present and maybe even future. Here are their stories. Robert Desrosiers was born in Quebec and began to dance because he loved to move. An innovative choreographer he created the legendary ballet “The Blue Snake” for The National Ballet of Canada in 1985. It shook up a staid Canadian dance world at The National where audiences were weaned on “Swan Lake” and “Giselle.” It was a phantasmagorical display of art, music, dance and forward thinking.
Where is it today? Of course, in some warehouse at The National.
“We don’t hold onto and celebrate our Canadian choreography near enough,” Desrosiers says from his Toronto flat. “We don’t support the arts either as we properly should. Dance can easily be the forgotten art when it comes to the media as well as the public. There never seems to be enough space for it.”
Desrosiers was hot news back in the 1980s. What happened?
“Time,” he says. “I had to close my company Desrosiers Dance Theatre. It was a confluence of things. Things that broke my heart. I still feel I had a lot more to give. The cartilage in my hip broke when I was 42, just when I needed my strength most. For the first time in my life my confidence dwindled. I couldn’t even walk to the store for milk. Around the same time the Canada Arts Council cut off funding for my company. When your heart is broken it affects everything.”
Desrosiers says he survived because his family helped him both financially and emotionally.
“Do I feel I went from huge success to a place of loss? Yes, in some ways. But then I was never good at promoting myself the way some people are. It’s not me. That too was my downfall.
“Now I teach at Toronto Dance Theatre’s school and I work on my own with dancers. I did a large piece for Canada Dances in Ottawa two years ago. But that funding is also gone.”
In Burlington Desrosiers is dancing his solo work “At The Bottom of the Pool.”
“It’s an abstract work suggesting different stages of consciousness. It’s part of a larger work I’m going to do called ‘The Choir’s Carnival.’ I would love to do more choreography, but in some ways I’m happy as I am. I’m grateful. I’m still active and I can work with young dancers.
“With contemporary dance in Canada we took people to places they weren’t ready to go” Desrosiers says. “The ballet world, you see, didn’t look at us as entertaining.”
I ask Desrosiers if there is ageism in dance.
“Of course,” he says. “Dance is so much about youth, but there should also be room for older dancers with years of experience. We feel a surge of emotion that young people can’t connect with. Dancers are different at 18 than they are at 28. And we are certainly different at 64. It’s not that it’s
more difficult to dance now. Of course, I just don’t jump a lot. That’s out. But it was just as hard to do things when I was 20. Back then I’d rush into the wings after a solo and my lungs were burning. I still feel that rush, the pain and the whole damn thing.”
Yvonne Ng is shocked when I ask her age.
“Oh, Gary,” she says. “I’ve been around, but do you really need a number?”
“I came to Canada from Singapore as a youngster in the 1980s. You can figure it out from that. I was just about to go to high school.
“There wasn’t much ballet training in my country. And my father didn’t want me to dance. He thought I wouldn’t be able to support myself. He let me go to York University because he didn’t know they had a dance program. I got some paying dance jobs quite quickly, so he changed his mind. Maybe I was meant to be a dancer after all.”
Ng danced with Danny Grossman, another legend in Canadian contemporary dance.
“I loved ballet, but I was too short for that, so I moved to a place where I could be successful.”
Ng is saddened by the fact that “so much wonderful Canadian repertoire is lost.”
“There’s not enough support to keep these works in front of the public. One or two presentations are given and then things seem to get stored away and forgotten. Maybe it’s because we are always seeking something new and different. But the past has a big role to play in the creation of the future.
“Ageism certainly is a factor in dance. But in North America it’s a factor in every part of life. Just look at marketing. It’s always about looking younger. Aging is part of the beauty of life. In Asia elders are respected, but things are changing there too. Ageism in the arts is also gender specific. Men who are older are seen as attractive and distinctive. With women it’s about crow’s feet and wrinkles.”
Ng admits dancing at a mature age is different.
“You don’t have the same desire to touch the sky anymore. Your goal changes. That comes from performing. It comes from realizing the physical is just part of the process.”
Because Ng creates many of her own solos she has freedom to make dance that works for her.
“I find I can go deeper into the piece I’m dancing now. I’m always finding more. Life is always in flux, right? Yes, I have to work harder at my age. Yes, I have to take care of myself. Yes, I have to eat the right foods.”
Ng teaches dance and has her own company called ,“tiger princess dance projects .” She likes working with young dancers and points out there are several in the program she is dancing at BPAC in Burlington.
She will dance “Stone Velvet” with Robert Glumbek, a work created by Ted Robinson.
“There’s no narrative, but there is a strong relationship. It’s quirky and funny, with darker, poignant moments. Now, about that age thing. If I was going to tell you, I’d say older than I really am. If you say you’re 50, there’s such a judgment call.”
Robert Glumbek defected from the Warsaw ballet after a performance of “Giselle” at Hamilton Place in 1987.
“It was tough, but I’d do it again. I was starved for new work, living and working in a communist world that vetted everything. I was 23 then. Now I’m 54.”
Glumbek moved from classical ballet to contemporary dance.
“I saw Robert Desrosiers’ work. I was fascinated and I wanted to move on.
“I always worked. I did choreography. I had a family to support. I danced in Europe too and had a company in Mannheim. So much is about making connections.”
A very physical dancer, Glumbek is visceral, sexy if you like, and he loves that he doesn’t need to be 18 to present that sort of feral image.
“Yvonne and I first danced ‘Stone Velvet’ 17 years ago and it was tough back then.
“It’s about innocence. Now isn’t that funny at our ages? It’s about two people looking at the world trying to understand it as a child would.” Glumbek thinks for a minute. “People are getting used to the fact older dancers can still be exciting. In Europe this has always been part of the wave of dance. There’s just something beautiful in what someone with an older, more dramatic body can do. I’d like to be an inspiration for younger people. But of course the body’s not the same. It takes a beating. I have to take more care of it. I run. I cycle. I do stretches. The worst thing is to ever stop. I have arthritis in my feet, which is the dancer’s great enemy.
“I will say I am not obsessed with youth. But I don’t want to let things go either. Getting older is a stage that’s all. There’s something beautiful about it really. We all just have to embrace it. It’s someplace we’re all going.”