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Rubberbandance Group
and Kaha:wi Dance Theatre
At Enwave Theatre
In Toronto on Thursday
Print Edition - Section Front
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The latest DanceWorks double bill is cutting edge contemporary dance. Both Rubberbandance Group and Kaha:wi Dance Theatre have artistic directors who are developing new choreographic languages, and it makes for a compelling concert.
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Montreal's Rubberbandance is the new breakout Canadian sweetheart on the international scene. The repertoire is audience friendly because choreographer Victor Quijada cleverly uses urban dance forms like hip hop as the major ingredient in a postmodern/ballet stew pot. Eye-catching is almost too lame a word to describe Quijada's output.
Santee Smith of Kaha:wi is also winning recognition on both sides of the border. A Mohawk by birth, her dance works are firmly anchored in aboriginal sensibility. That being said, her highly charged, traditional/contemporary/ballet fusion eats up the stage.
For A Constellation of Bones, Smith has collaborated with Anishnaabe word artist Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm and Maori composer Dean Hapeta to produce a powerful work. Her company of dancers is stunning, it includes herself, fellow Canadian Ceinwen Gobert, Colombian John Henry Gerena and American Alex Meraz.
Akiwenzie-Damm's voiceover text, merged with Hapeta's evocative soundtrack fusion that runs the gamut from traditional rhythms, to rap and electronica, is a poetic paean to the mythologies of creation, in which humankind is both at harmony and in conflict with the earth and the sky.
It is a metaphysical dance piece that creates symbolic images that burrow deeply into our primal psyche. The dance raises philosophical questions about our individual roles within human existence as a whole. Within Santee's choreography we recognize actual steps from the Grass Dance, for example, that are then riffed into a whirlwind of movement.
One couple -- Smith and Meraz -- are in conflict with the life force, and their choreography is violent and restless. Dancers Gobert and Gerena are smooth as silk, almost like tango dancers in their symbiosis.
Nonetheless, the negative influence of Smith and Meraz spreads, enveloping the others in their miasma. All four must struggle to find their place as individuals.
The piece is optimistic and pessimistic at the same time, but there is no denying that Smith's pounding footwork, her unpredictable spins, her virtuoso gymnastics and her eloquent hand and arm gestures, all build to a work of strength and beauty.