Dance Ontario presents Dance Weekend ‘09
January 23-25 @ Fleck Dance Theatre
By Leandra de Valois-Franklin
Attending a professional dance event can be a risky business. Unlike the latest film or music release, you rarely get the chance to sample before you spend a substantial chunk of change on a ticket. For dance lovers and those curious to learn more about the art form, one of the best opportunities to feast on the province’s best performances is Dance Ontario’s annual Dance Weekend, a dim sum of emerging groups showcased alongside established companies. With three dance-packed days of performances spanning fifteen minutes to half an hour, 29 companies perform an impressive diversity of styles celebrating Ontario’s multicultural flare, including *deep breath* African/Caribbean, ballet, belly dance, Chinese, contemporary, Indian, jazz/hip-hop, Korean, Middle Eastern, modern, Spanish, and some movement that defies categorization — or gravity, for that matter! The works range from mediocre to magnificent, but for $10, you can’t (and shouldn’t) complain!
The weekend started off with the cheap crowd-pleasing routines, a bit of tap here, a bit of poor little rich girls acting all “street” there (those keffiyehs are bombing, so to speak!), and your token musical theatre types with their annoying so-you-think-you-can-dance lyrical numbers. After an adorable Chinese peacock duet by the Little Pear Garden Collective, the show picked up with a teaser for Da Collision’s upcoming (Re)tracing Fred (Feb 24-28 @ York University), a deconstructed disco starring the adorable Louis Laberge-Côté…sans pantalons! I’m definitely excited to see this number again, if not just to see one of the dancers pull a tube of lipstick from his tighties again! The next act was an exciting battle of b-boys (and b-girl) by the Supernaturalz which definitely got the crowd revved. Best part of the evening? When 15 zombies burst through the doors and crawled onto the stage to perform a kickass version of MJ’s “Thriller”! Awesome job, ghouls! Start getting your groups prepared for next year’s Thrill the World event.
The next day it was up to HoneyKats to recapture the crowd’s (well mostly the hetero males’) excitement, by forgetting their tops backstage. Not too impressive. And dammit, I swear if I see one more piece to Marilyn Manson’s “The Beautiful People”, or dancers wearing corsets and skuzzy tutus holding walking canes, I WILL pull a Tonya Harding on all their pseudo-goth asses! Luckily, the programme was salvaged by two wonderful commissions by the not-for-profit art organization Dance Ontario. The first piece was by the beautiful Barbara Pallomina and Lucy Rupert (of Blue Ceiling Dance), in collaboration with Denise Fugiwara, and explored natural raw materials inspired by 1950s Japanese art. The highlight of the day was Pamela Rasbach’s Incorporation, a charmingly cheeky parody of Bay Street corporate chaos by a group of highly skilled contemporary dancers.
The final day of festivities included an introduction by respected dance critic Michael Crabb of the world premiere of InDance’s Firecracker, where traditional classical Indian dance meets contemporary sensibilities. The dramatic portion of the day was presented by Sashar Zarif as well as Dance Theatre David Earle’s The Heat of Night, a compelling exploration of the darkness, suffering, and searching inherent in the writing of Anna Akhmatova. Arte Flamenco was an appropriate finale, the high-intensity flamenco ending the successful weekend with explosive passion.
For those of you dance lovers who are unaware of all the fantastic dance-related events offered in Toronto and surrounding areas, check out Dance Ontario’s website, or, even better, sign up to John Newton’s listserv at Rudolf_Nureyev@lycos.com for daily updates on dance events. Don’t be shy to introduce yourself to John at the next show you attend, he’d love to chat with you about and the latest dance happenings. He’s the guy sitting front and centre. Tell him I said hi!
