An innovative contemporary dance performance unfolded at the Heritage Playhouse last Saturday (Sept. 11) featuring the work of the Sunshine Coast Dance Society's dance residency performer Josh Beamish.
As the artistic director of Move: the company, Beamish has been hailed as the latest wunderkind of dance, and it's easy to see why. He pushes boundaries and demands new interpretations.
The show opened lightly with the 11 residency students - all experienced dancers this year - in a Beamish piece to music by Vivaldi.
After the second dance, a solo by Beamish, the music became incidental to the movement. Local dancer Sylvain Brochu showcased part of a much longer dance session, choreographed by the renowned Peggy Baker, that he will perform in Toronto this fall, in which he moved to aleatoric music, that is, random sound. Brochu explained how the work will be performed as part of a group over an all-night session. Definitely, in this case, the dynamics of the larger group were missing and the piece seemed as random as its music.
Mermaid Parade, choreographed by Beamish, was stunning and yet disturbing. The chiselled perfection of Beamish's body coupled with the supple lines of dancer Jacqui Lopez produced an exquisite pas de deux that told the story of a mermaid pulled from the sea only to stumble and gasp on land. Lopez wore toe shoes to illustrate the awkwardness of a mermaid out of water, and she used her long black hair as a kind of prop. Other than these aids, the dance was a depiction of sheer form - bodies in powerful, controlled motion. The following piece, Burnt, choreographed by Olivia Thorvaldson, was also disturbing. Metaphorically speaking, it was a naked performance by Vancouver dancer Heather Dotto who left everything on the stage and demonstrated remarkable physical control and acting ability.
The title of the commissioned feature piece, Dendrochronology, refers to the science of dating trees by examining the patterns of tree rings. Choreographed by Beamish and featuring Brochu, it was set in a forest represented by logs on stage that were removed, replanted and relocated in the course of the dance. During Brochu's interaction with the forest, he spoke or sang snatches of Shakespeare and his own memoirs in an interesting combination of verbal and kinetic expression. It could not have worked with a lesser dancer; it needed the physical ease and the professional maturity that Brochu always brings to his performances. The germ of something far greater and more profound is still to be found in this piece, in my opinion. The story is, as yet, unfinished.
In all, it was a dance residency that nudged the boundaries of dance innovation on the Coast.
