As the saying goes, when it comes to love and relationships, it takes two to tango.
That’s what the indie dance festival Before During After proved. Presented by EDGEdanceworks and The Chimera Project, the second annual festival featured a series of eclectic duets from local talent. The event was organized by Tanya Crowder and Malgorzata Nowacka, two dancer/choreographers who wanted to put together a night of modern dance and diverse choreography. In anticipation of Valentine’s Day, the show was divided into two programs, titled “Love” and “Temptation.”
But don’t let the lovey-dovey theme fool you. While some pieces in Before During After were intimate portraits of coupledom, others evoked the tension of being too close for comfort. And while some pieces dealt with intense emotion, others had dancers flitting around the stage with comic abandon.
The tone of the night was set by the opening act, “to {two}.” Choreographer and dancer Crowder and partner Darryl Tracey showed off their flexibility and control as they twisted and turned while lying down. Staying close to each other, the couple moved fluidly from one intimate pose to another, as though depicting the various stages of a relationship. Given the small size of the theatre, the performance was made all the more intimate by the dancers’ audible breathing.
One of the most memorable performances of the night was “Irene Stands Alone.” Dancers Mairéad Filgate and Tim Spronk had a fast-paced routine featuring tautly executed spins and lifts resembling the moves done by pairs skaters. Choreographer Karen Kaeja had the duo alternately embrace and push each other away, and the music provided by the violinist at the back of the stage echoed the dancers’ moves.
Another noteworthy act was “What a Day!” in which dancer/choreographer Keiko Ninomiya strutted around in a bright red robe, trying to get the attention of a suit-clad businessman, Hiroshi K. Miyamoto. Accompanied by a sunny Japanese pop song, the dance is the shortest of the night’s, but also the most whimsical.
But lovers weren’t the only kinds of relationships on stage. In “Small Midnight,” Fiona Drinnan and Claudia Moore play quirky sisters who dance to a classical soprano solo. With quirky, bird-like movements and trembling limbs, the dancers imitated the soprano’s vibrato. And in “Afterimage,” Susan Lee based her choreography on a photography metaphor. The dancers struck poses while a single overhead light flashed on and off, mimicking the flash of a camera.
While most of the pieces could be enjoyed by the average dance fan, some were relatively inaccessible. “Beloved” used equal parts theatre and interpretive dance. Alison Rees-Cummings and Andrew Scorer danced to a soundtrack where two voices repeated the phrase “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.” While it tried to use erratic movements to be humourous, it remained difficult to make sense of.
Still, all the dances gave new meaning to the conventional pas de deux. Two can do a lot more than just tango, it seems.
