CROSS CULTURES AND BORDERS WITH DANCE
Travel from the Rockies to the Andes, then home for music and poetry of Leonard Cohen
Stick around Place des Arts this month and you’ll be danced all the way to Mexico, to Andalucia, across the Rockies to the Peruvian Andes, and all the way back to Montreal. Meanwhile, just next door at the Wilder Building, Agora de la Danse continues its season with two new experimental shows. Here, then, is a look at seven dance shows that will be playing throughout March.
TLAKENTLI (MARCH 14 TO 16, CINQUIÈME SALLE OF PLACE DES ARTS)
First workshopped in 2017 as part of the Aboriginal Spring of Art festival in Montreal, this two-person dance-theatre piece is presented by Indigenous company Ondinnok. It features Carlos Rivera Martinéz and Leticia Vera, two artists of Nahua and Mixteco descent who immigrated to Canada from Mexico. The title of the show, Martinéz explained in a telephone conversation with the Montreal Gazette, is a Nahuatl word that means “well-dressed,” usually to attend a ceremony or to meet somebody. But, he goes on to explain, this sense of presenting your best self has other meanings explored in the piece. “Both the title and the piece are talking about how we transform ourselves when we pass borders: they could be physical or cultural borders,” Martinéz says. “In the show we talk about how it was for our ancestors to move from their traditional lands to the big cities. How was it for them to transform themselves and deny who they were?” Ostensibly about a man and a woman in conflict, Tlakentli draws heavily on Nahuatl mythology, specifically the story of the sun and the moon, two deities engaged in an undying fight. Martinéz is keen to emphasize that this is no exotic demonstration of pre-First Contact myths and traditions. “We’re both contemporary artists,” says Martinez, who also has performed regularly with the Toronto-based Red Sky Performance (see below). “We use lots of contemporary dance and popular music, so the show is very up-to-date in many ways, and very cross-cultural.” The spoken component of Tlakentli is in French, English, Spanish and Nahuatl. Tickets: $38.25
FARRUQUITO (MARCH 9, SALLE WILFRID-PELLETIER OF PLACE DES ARTS)
He is “the greatest Flamenco dancer of this century,” according to the New York Times. Born into the world’s most celebrated Flamenco dynasty, Farruquito (real name Juan Manuel Fernandéz Flores) can be seen, preteen, in Carlos Saura’s 1995 movie Flamenco, dancing opposite his legendary grandfather, El Farruca. By the time he was 15, Farruquito was performing his own show at London’s Royal Festival Hall. His soaring career came to an ignominious halt in 2005 when he served prison time for a fatal hit-and-run, but he has reasserted himself since as the major flamenco figure those early achievements promised he would become. Being listed among People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People can’t have hurt either. This new, eponymously titled show features 10 musicians and dancers, including Farruquito’s favourite bailoras (female flamenco dancer), Gema Moneo. Tickets: $46-$65
MARVL (MARCH 10, CINQUIÈME SALLE)
A different kind of dancing from the streets plays for one afternoon only, on March 10. Marvl consists of seven dancers specializing in breakdance and urban moves. It was one of three companies representing Quebec in the television dance-off Danser pour gagner. Fittingly for a company called Marvl, the new show, Jam, is wrapped around a story about superpowers as two groups of dancers (the baddies being called Warvl) battle it out over possession of a magic shoe. Tickets: $28-$60.
DANCE ME (MARCH 14 TO 23, THÉÂTRE MAISONNEUVE OF PLACE DES ARTS)
After playing to sold-out crowds during Danse Danse’s 2017 season, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal bring back their homage to the music and poetry of Leonard Cohen. The show features 14 dancers performing to 16 songs, including not only standards such as Suzanne, So Long Marianne and, of course, Hallelujah, but several from Cohen’s final album, You Want It Darker. BJM boss Louis Robitaille directs what he has described as the most ambitious show in the company’s 45-year-plus history, while the choreography is shared between a triumvirate of major European dance figures — Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Andonis Foniadakis and Ihsan Rustem. Tickets: $45.13-$81.70.
BACKBONE (MARCH 19 TO 23, CINQUIÈME SALLE)
Inspired by the mountain range that stretches from the Canadian Rockies to the Peruvian Andes, this latest show from the Toronto-based Indigenous company Red Sky Performance makes the link between the spine of the Americas and the more supple backbones of eight dancers, including a contortionist. It’s performed against a backdrop of video projections, and the music features driving percussion, throat singing and beat-boxing. Backbone is presented as part of the Danse Danse season and is directed by company founder Sandra Lalonde. Tickets: $42.83$47.43. Agora’s 2018-19 season continues with a new piece from experimental urban dance specialist Ismaël Mouaraki and his company, Destins Croisés. Phenomena (March 13 to 15) explores the impact of the digital world on the evolution of mankind, with five dancers reacting to the increasingly frenzied flow of data. It’s followed by Wen Wei Dance and a new show called Dialogue (March 20 to 23), which evokes attempts to understand universal communication — verbal or otherwise — and collective experience. It reflects company founder Wen Wei Wang ’s experience as a Chinese immigrant arriving in Canada in the early ’90s. Both these shows are performed at the Wilder Building, 1435 Bleury St. Tickets: $35. Discounts available. Call 514-5251500 or visit agoradanse.com.