SloE Lane

(c) Julia Sasso Dances

Saturday night at Harbourfront, Julia Sasso Dances presented SloE, a work based on Ann Southam's Simple Lines of Enquiry. Eve Egoyan played the composition near the back of the stage on a Faziolli grand piano. The piece was primarily a series of sparse, quivering, and intermittent scales. For her, it spoke of a feeling that "[p]iano is so connected to decay ... there is no way to hold on."

This theme was prefigured by the show's opening and informed the choreography. An enormous bare branch, made out of wire-frame links, loomed over the stage. While the music played hesitantly for a long stretch, a white light slowly transitioned to a darkening red, casting the branch's shadow onto the floor. Finally, the 6 dancers, 5 female and 1 male, moved slowly into view and surrounded the piano.

They would return to this position 2 more times, neatly dividing the recital into 3 acts. In the first, they were joyous and celebratory with fast movements and high lifts especially for the slightest member (Susan Lee). It ended with each dancer's limbs being mischievously manipulated by the others in turn. In the second, the movements turned fraught as dancers fell insensate, found their partner out of reach, or required help for wobbly legs and arms. Now and then, all 6 came together for a sequence of synchronized turns and jumps. In the final act, after Irvin Chow collapsed multiple times into each dancer's grasps, a procession of slow walks criss-crossed the stage, with individual dancers breaking out into short sequences.

Susan dazzled with her many lifts, but was also emotive in the quieter movements. Irvin, as the sole male dancer, provided an anchor that the dancers often returned to. His interactions with Susan had additional resonance because of an interesting but perhaps unintended "Other"/unassimilated feel since they were both minorities and dressed subtly different from the other dancers. Jesse Dell and Deanna Peters exuded strength and power, Vanessa Goodman was a contrast of smooth turns and jerky motions, and Angela Blumberg had a delicacy of movement.

It was an enjoyable recital though some of ideas wore out their impact: the bare stage with the shifting light ran on for too long, and the long gazes signifying some sort of profound attachment got old. But I was taken with the gentle hand pushes that propelled a dancer into motion or stopped them mid-stride. And the group manipulation in the first act was pure fun.