Running Down a Dream

Thursday night, I went to the Bluma Appel Theatre to see triptyche from Les 7 doigts. This Montréal circus company has carved a niche as being a smaller, artier Cirque du Soleil. Their last show in Toronto, Cuisine and Confessions, played at the Mirvish-owned Princess of Wales Theatre. This time round, they double-downed on their arty pretensions by commissioning actual dance choreographers for their 3 works.

Marie Chouinard has videos on youtube where commenters often quipped about stumbling on the "weird side of youtube". This has to do with her incorporation of crutches and other mobility devices into her work. So in anne & samuel, a dancer and a hand balancer found themselves interacting with each other guided by their dependence on crutches. There was something weirdly animalistic about their movement, like human-giraffe hybrids. This obviously appealed more to the dancers in the crowd.

Victor Quijada stayed more on the circus performance side with variations 9.81. With the standard handstand, bane of beginner gymnasts and yogis, as the simplest form, the balancers explored alone and together all the advanced variations of inversion work. In their movement and transitions on the ground, there was a hint of the hip-hop asthetic that are usually present in Quijada's troupe RUBBERBANDance Group.

The last piece, nocturnes, occupied a happy medium for me. But from other reviews, it seemed both dance critics and aerialists found it to be overly long but for different reasons. Starting with a woman (or perhaps a young teen girl) settling into bed, the work spun off into a fantastic dreamscape of acrobats and fish-men flying through the air. At one point, the bed rose on ropes and flew around the stage like the world's most comfortable swing. There were a few flaws for me. First, the transition from dance to circus at various points was sometimes clunky. Second, each dance work has its own unique vocabulary. So like all languages, phrases and sayings should be repeated to become familiar, and larger themes should emerge: for examination, re-iteration, re-interpretation. The need to cram so much dance and performance arts into nocturnes left little room for this sort of introspection and recall. For example, insteadof  one long section of unicycling with ever more astounding tricks, use it more judiciously sprinkled throughout the piece.

ASMR

On Monday, I was at The Burdock for a show. A bit early in the week, but The Magic, manned by two brothers, don't play in Toronto too often. It became an evening of intense experience. First up was Joyful Joyful who combined gospel and spiritual lyrics with a shoe-gaze soundscapes of repeating and echoing samples. Is drone-folk a genre? During one of the numbers, the overlapping frequencies generated literal shivering chills in my back. I sat there frozen while having a physical reaction to the music. It was deeply unpleasant, though not because the song was bad, and I'm not sure I want to experience that again.

The Magic is like Bahamas times two. They mined the same retro-funk sound complete with male falsetto singing. The audience was ripe to boogie with songs like If I Were U. They also debut new unrecorded songs such as When You Leave. This number was apparently a failed attempt to sell a pop song to another artist. But given its odd melodic and time changes, it would have been too weird for Top 40 radio. These brothers make fun, danceable music. I'm set to enjoy the rest of the week, even if real-life isn't as funky as their songs.

Hurricane Help

It was a crisp Thursday night as I headed to The Monarch Tavern for a relief concert in support of Mexico and Puerto Rico. First up was a solo set by folk-pop singer Kashka. Armed with various synth equipment and her guitar, she gave us a taste of the new songs on her latest album. I'd like to hear these new numbers with a full-band.

Next up was a trio named Rapport. So this is where Maddie Wilde (formerly of Moon King) has been lately. Their set sounds like Alvvays in the 80s, a slightly garage-band sound combined with a Miami Vice/Night Court vibe. Quite fun and danceable. The dancing continued with Regina Gently. I haven't seen this high-energy singer in a while. Her set continues to combine frenetic choreography, dance beats, and snarky lyrics. The shimmery black outfits from the other women made sense as they joined her briefly as backup dancers.

I wanted to stay for the headliner/organizer Lolaa. But like most Wavelength shows, this one was running late. I'll catch this sister-act melding of dance/rock and Latin rhythm some other time.

The Future Is Feverish

Saturday night, I attended this year's dance recital from proartedanza. This contemporary dance company often combines classical ballet with modern dance. The first piece tonight was titled Future Perfect Continuous. At the end, we realized that the piece's text came from a millennial who was terrified of future climate change, ashamed of her inaction and wasteful Western lifestyle, and unsure about what she should do. Throughout the piece, these words were broken up into fragments and incorporated into the movement and speech of the dancers. This was the most successful work for me.

The second piece, entitled adjusted surrender, highlighted two older dancers who, by this time in most careers, would have hung up their shoes. Though physical virtuosity was behind them, there was still grace and gravitas in their movement. Appropriately enough, the piece was about a married couple who were looking back on their various life decisions with fondness, regret, or bitterness.

The last piece Op Sha! didn't work for me. Supposedly about life events like birthdays and weddings while incorporating Eastern European folk dance movement, the work actually seemed too abstract. This isn't usually a problem with modern dance but with music provided by Lemon Bucket Orkestra which was so rooted in a real culture (Balkan/Klezmer), it was hard to reconcile that music with mostly non-narrative choreography. Actually, I didn't much like the music either. It was repetitive and aggressive, which might make for a great concert to dance at, but not at a recital to sit through. So overall, I think this was their weakest recital in recent years.