Red Rover, When Is it Over?

Saturday evening I headed down to the Fleck Theatre down at Harbourfront to see a contemporary dance recital called Red Brick. It's a program of dance pieces interspersed with musical performances created by Marie-Josée Chartier. The night is a tribute to the 10th year anniversity of the death of her composer husband, Michael J. Baker. All musical selections was composed by Baker and played by Array Ensemble.

I found this music very alienating. It's what people think of when they disparagingly talk about "modern music". It's fragmentary, with numerous repetitive passages, and no clear chord progressions. In many cases, for example in the piece "The Place of the Twins" for clarinet and violin, it has the drone-like quality of a gamelan ensemble: a continuous repetition of sound with a very minor progression of changes. However, it is nowhere near as hypnotic. The only interesting piece was "Train" which contained strong percussive rhythm. Unsurprisingly this got the loudest applause from the audience, who seemed glad to hear something recognizably musical.

The dance pieces were also "modern". This is the first time I've seen contemporary dance where I feel more like Homer than Frasier. The strongest piece was the first piece called "C.V." by Kudelka. Dancers in trios, duos, and single execute a series of friezes; that is, a 2-5 second burst of dance and lifts followed by a brief pause where they hold a tableau of gestures. And repeat for the entire piece. As the gestures included contorted faces and limbs, it prompted 3 young boys in the 3rd row just in front of me to bury their head in their hands, trying to stifle their laughter. The other pieces: Encoded Revision, Red Brick, and One Day were less strong. You had to look carefully to see the underlying discipline and skill; otherwise you'd simply conclude that these are people who just flail around and call it dance.

I think the evening was a disappointment for most people, including me. The music was just too strange for most people, and there's too much of it. I'm sure the dance students filling the side rows would have preferred more dancing and less "weird" music, as well as more accessible dance movements. When dance students waggle their hips in imitation of the pieces and then burst out laughing, your choreography might be a little bit too avant-garde.

For a different take on the show, see this Globe and Mail review.