Beethoven’s Ninth gets an innovative treatment from Toronto troupe

ProArteDanza

(out of four) Until Oct. 5 at Fleck Dance Theatre, 207 Queens Quay W.; 416-973-4000 or harbourfrontcentre.com

Musical purists might understandably cringe at the thought of anyone setting a dance to Beethoven’s iconic Ninth Symphony, the argument being that such music should be offlimits to choreographers. Yet they might be pleasantly surprised by the refreshingly innovative way the choreographic team of Roberto Campa- nella and Robert Glumbek have interpreted such a hallowed score. The new work is a highlight of Torontobased ProArteDanza’s annual Harbourfront Centre season.

Campanella, the troupe’s founder/ artistic director, and Glumbek, his artistic associate, are tackling Beethoven’s Ninth movement by movement. In 2009, it was the first. This time it’s the third movement, the slow, lyrical interlude before the famous final choral movement. The choreographic duo promise to return to the second movement as they build towards the complete symphony. Beethoven’s 9th — 3rd Movement, the title of the work, plays imaginatively on the possibilities of combining eight dancers with seven wooden straight-back chairs. The number of dancers and chairs in play varies throughout. The chairs are manipulated and negotiated every which way. They’re sat on, balanced on, overturned and tossed. The dancers at one point use them to form a twisting chain. Meanwhile, the choreography remains faithful to the musical flow and the deployment of dancers conveys a sense of social cohesion as the cast are formed into lines, arms intertwining, all driven by a shared rhythmic impulse.

In contrast, Fractals: a pattern of chaos, the revival of a Dora-nominated work National Ballet principal dancer Guillaume Côté made for ProArteDanza’s 2011 season, is strongly punctuated as it plays on the title’s mathematical connotations and the pulse of music from the endearingly titled 2005 Venetian Snares (Canadian electronic musician Aaron Funk) album, Rossz csillag alatt szuletett.

If the very mention of fractals gives you a headache, fear not. You could have flunked every math class you ever took and still revel in the sheer kinetic excitement of Côté’s choreography. Detailed gestural motifs expand and explode into complex ensemble patterns and dazzling offbalance, full-body moves, varied with occasional solos and duets.

It must be an exhausting workout for the eight-member cast but they never flagged.