Brianna Stark's one woman show, Inside I, The Butterfly Effect, at the Heritage Playhouse last Saturday (Sept. 5) was dynamic if a little raw around the edges. She had worked on developing an original piece during the week long sixth annual dance residency sponsored by the Sunshine Coast Dance Society.
The Vancouver dancer has a physical style that employs her skill as a performer and mime artist. One piece took place while the dancer was seated, yet she managed to tell a story of flirtation using her lucid face and expressive hands. The performance piece she will take to Vancouver's Fringe Festival next week was a fresh and new combination of dance, video, lighting design and costume. It made great use of a unique outfit designed by Stark and Katherine Soucie in which magnetic butterflies or dragonflies adhere to a loose bodice. While the video projection by Stark and Paul Verge bombards the audience with images, Stark dances, losing bits of her magnetic coat along the way, until the metallic insects surround her on stage. Laser lighting and techno beat music pumped up the energy.
During her residency, Stark led a workshop for three of the choreographers who will design dances for the 2010 Ice Gate project. Jean-Pierre Makosso, Maggie Guzzi and Brittany Robertson developed their kinetic images of melting and freezing to be used during the February show in Richmond with ice painter Gordon Halloran.
"She was an amazing facilitator," Robertson said. The exercises allowed the group to understand more fully the audience's reaction to a piece.
"What you think you are dancing and what they perceive are often completely different," said Shelly Elston from the Dance Society.
The Dance Society plans to devote itself to fundraising this year and hopes to repeat their successful Celebration of Dance performance next year. For more information about the society, contact Elston at 604-885-3435.
