Black Swan

On Friday, I enjoyed my first live stream dance recital thanks to Citadel & Compagnie. It was a one-woman show with Syreeta Hector called Black Ballerina. First shown as part of Summerworks, she continued developing it at residencies in Belgium and Canadian Stage. Tonight was perhaps its most complete form with props and multiple steadi-cams.

Once you know that Hector has Black and First Nation (Mi'kmaq) heritage, the premise and symbolism of the piece were clear. The strength of the dance was in its execution. Hector laid on the stage, clad in black sweat pants and a hoodie. Slowly, she rolled and twitched as skittering, moaning noise echoed. At one point, she raised the hoodie's cowl high overhead with an extended arm, turning herself into some giant, mysterious spectre.

We still haven't seen her features. When she uncovered her head, it was with her back to the cameras, to reveal a cascade of long blonde hair. A documentary voice-over narrated about the mimic octopus, a creature that can hide and even resemble other animals, while Hector moved through nascent and tentative classical ballet movements.

Her internal conflict became apparent when she finally removed the wig, put one pink pointe shoe, and one gold sneaker. Hector danced in a stop-and-start manner with a mix of ballet and street, hampered by the mismatched footwear. The recital moved into its most free-flowing acts when Hector replaced that pointe with the other sneaker, and reveled in contemporary and hip-hop steps as A Tribe Called Red and Kendrick Lamar played. At one point, she flashed a grin at the camera. The final act had her return to her ballet roots complete with a soft tutu. Under a spotlight, she moved through various positions while a white powder drifted down to cover her face and torso.

The show was followed by a question-and-answer between the virtual audience, Hector, and artistic director Laurence Lemieux. The dancer talked about growing up in the Maritimes and not being taught (at home or in school) about her heritage or history. This erasure obviously had an effect on her. But I also felt that the looping back to ballet after joyously dancing to Lamar's Be Humble also revealed another conflict. As much as Hector identified with other Black artists, her reality of growing up in Halifax did not overlap fully with living in Compton or other heavily Black (and poor) areas in the U.S. Her "tribe" was as complicated and multi-dimensional as her racial background.

These live streams are becoming interesting. Like acts of faith, the audience was larger than one that would fit in the actual physical space. They also watched from everywhere, including places where these small productions would never tour. As for myself, even though I could attend this performance if allowed, having it virtual was a net positive. Being an old geezer, I often nap in the afternoon nowadays. I woke up only 15 minutes before the start time and would have missed it if I had to travel cross-town. But tonight, I even had time to start dinner before settling down to watch.