Fall arts preview: Five must-see dance shows
Themes of isolation, anything pandemic-esque avoided
As Steve Martin famously said, “Comedy isn't pretty.” But dance usually is — except when it's not. In the case of Hofesh Shechter Company's Clowns, things get ugly fast as the choreography asks how far we'll go for entertainment. But the second piece in the company's double bill offers a glimmer of light.
In two other fall dance shows, music plays a crucial part — Franck Vigroux's Forêt and Ne.Sans Opera and Dance's Hourglass. Vigroux is an avant-garde guitarist as well as a stage director and will play live — Hourglass is built around the prismatic sounds of Phillip Glass. Corporeal Imago's Throe shows what happens when Cirque du Soleil choreographers are let loose on, and above, a contemporary dance stage.
Not to be outdone, Ballet B.C. presents the return of Bedroom Folk, a piece by Israeli duo Gai Behar and Sharon Eyal first staged by the company in 2019. Conspicuous by its absence in many fall dance shows is a theme of isolation or anything pandemic-esque, as though COVID never happened. As good a response as any, perhaps.
COMPAGNIE D'AUTRES CORDES/FRANCK VIGROUX: FORÊT
When: Oct. 20-22, at 8 p.m. Where: Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie St.
Tickets: $34/$25 at thedancecentre.ca
Amid a shifting forest-like landscape, French-Swiss dancer Nina Berclaz dances to the sounds of an electroacoustic score performed live by Franck Vigroux. Projections and haze add to the atmosphere, while Berclaz uses Japanese butoh movement to express her journey. An internationally acclaimed director, composer and multidisciplinary artist, Vigroux is known for work where music, sound, dance and video intersect. The presentation is part of the Scotiabank Dance Centre's Global Dance Connections series.
BALLET B.C.
When: Nov. 3-5 at 8 p.m. Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 630 Hamilton St.
Tickets: $25-$120 at balletbc.com
The first program of the new season features three pieces. Artistic director Medhi Walerski contributes Silent Tides, which he describes as “a duet about love and death, moving both apart and together, and about slowing down.” Dutch artist duo and siblings Imre and Marne van Opstal make their Ballet B.C. debut with a new commission and co-production with Helsinki-based Tero Saarinen Company. The collaboration “will explore themes of love, connection and pleasure, as well as the
stigmas and moral taboos that exist within,” according to Ballet B.C. And Bedroom Folk, a piece by Israeli choreographers Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar that has become a signature for the company, makes a much-anticipated return.
HOFESH SHECHTER COMPANY: DOUBLE MURDER
When: Oct. 21-22, at 8 p.m. Where: Vancouver Playhouse, 600 Hamilton St.
Tickets: Starting at $35, at tickets.dancehouse.ca
Dance House presents the Hofesh Shechter Company's Double Murder, a bill featuring two contrasting pieces. Originally created for Nederlands Dans Theater 1 and later produced as a film and broadcast by the BBC, Clowns is described as “a macabre comedy of murder and desire ... that unleashes a whirlwind of choreographed anarchy, testing how far we are willing to go in the name of entertainment.”
NE.SANS OPERA AND DANCE: HOURGLASS
When: Nov. 5-6, at 8 p.m. Where: Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre, 950 West 41st St.
Tickets: Starting at $18, at chutzpahfestival.com, and 604-257-5145
The Chutzpah! Festival features this world premiere dance performance set to the complete Piano Études of Philip Glass, one of the most innovative and influential composers of the late 20th century. Israeli director Idan Cohen choreographs an ensemble of dancers ranging in age from their 20s to late 60s. Pianist Leslie Dala performs 20 miniature études from Glass' body of work.
CORPOREAL IMAGO: THROE
When: Nov. 17-19 at 8 p.m. Where: Scotiabank Dance Centre
Tickets: $34/$25, at thedancecentre.ca
Formerly performers with Cirque du Soleil, choreographers Gabrielle Martin and Jeremiah Hughes formed Corporeal Imago (Ci) to combine aerial acrobatics, contemporary dance and visual theatre. Throe features six performers, three aerial ropes and “a soundscape of cosmic noise,” according to the Dance Centre, to explore “our interdependence in an inhospitable world where our existence is at the mercy of external circumstance.” So perhaps a little COVID influence has worked its way into the fall dance season after all.