In a fantastical world, the rules binding us to current reality can be shamelessly abolished.
This fall, the Danny Grossman Dance Company takes its audience to whimsical places bound only by the limit of the imagination with its performance of the 1982 piece Bad Weather.
Choreographer Robert Desrosier says Quebec folk art and the comics strips he read as a youth inspired the piece.
Not suprisingly, then, the piece is set in a world like no other and punctuated with slapstick comedy. It features Arnaud, a Charlie Chaplin-esque dairyman who drags with him his massive plastic cow, oblivious to a hula-hoop woman and tribal-painted natives dancing circles around him and engaging in battle.
The live percussive accompaniment rises from a gentle pitter-patter to the roaring crescendo of a thunderstorm, turning the worlds of these comedic creature bottom up as they contend with the outrageous and unexpected weather.
Bad Weather is a playful work, and at times, quite hysterical. Although the primitives did not seem quite menacing enough, Eddie Kastrau was outstanding as Arnaud, maintaining the technical integrity of bizarre choreography while embracing the quaint character role.
In a starkly different, but equally mythical realm, one janitor’s ultimate fantasy comes to life in This is Heaven to Me.
Grossman has never feared eroticism or homosexuality, and this new piece further explores these themes. In an office building filled with faceless, nameless suits, a dank bathroom is transformed into heavenly bliss for a janitor having a tryst with his fantasy lover. In a slightly corny escape from societal constraints, the janitor’s overalls are shed to reveal a dress and stockings, while one of the overcoat-clad workers emerges from a bathroom stall in gold lamé underpants and a halo.
In the safety of the dismal washroom, the two are free to explore forbidden desires, while nymphs dance soothingly in the background.
Despite some perplexing moments—like the janitor rigidly dancing for far too long with his tools—Grossman’s work is tender and comical, and reveals the forlorn viewpoint of a gay man in an unforgiving world.
Like Bad Weather, this play finds the Danny Grossman Dance Company attempting some fun choreography and brave theatrics.
The combination is a success, for the colourful characters presented draw the audience further into the dance. It’s a relief to find the financially trying times are not a damper to Grossman’s vivaciously creative spirit
