Night Moves

Friday night, I made my way to Fleck Dance Theatre down at The Harbourfront. I've enjoyed ProArteDanza's recitals over the years. After the show, director Roberto Campanella explained that in conjunction with the dancers, they fleshed out his ideas of the Jungian archetypes Anima and Animus as an exploration of the "inner demons" that arise at night, when someone is vulnerable in mind and spirit.

In Night Shadows, there was numerous group and smaller pairings throughout the show. These were sometimes tender but usually it was hard contortions of the body. Eyes and mouths are covered, by the dancers or their partners. One section highlighted individual solos, while the cohort shouted improvised encouragement, snarky put-downs or anxious insecurities.

One through line was a moving door that sometimes allowed people to step through in curiosity and other times was a barrier where dancers forced themselves past in violence. It was a reflection, a lure, and even a respite. For me, I was intrigued by the meta idea that it was just a door frame prop. Yet it created a separation of spaces: inside, outside, behind, in front, and so on. Furthermore, at the beginning and at the end of the piece, 3 dancers were inside rectangular boxes created by light projection. These were also non-real ideas that had a physical weight in the world.

ProArteDanza often uses entire movements from classical music though they will create modern sound collages in shorter mixed programs. Tonight was the first time I've seen them composed a "contemporary" sound design in a longer recital. Although there were classical snippets, they were often chopped up or manipulated to sound distorted and disquieting. The rest included propulsive "EDM for goths" or eerie effects. During the question period post-show, some dancers said they were instructed to fight the music. That is, to not descend into kitschy lyricism for the soft passages or to give in to the beat for the catchy parts.

As for myself, I don't fight my inner demons at night. Probably because I'm usually too tired from only 5-hour of sleep. It must be equal parts thrilling and frightening to confront the "unreal yet also real" spectres birthed from your hidden self.