Strong bodies gliding though space, guided by internal melodies. The hum of limbs moving through air, dust rising off hardwood beneath stomping feet. Forms moving seamlessly as sound, their shadows making loud music.
Contemporary dance: so many reasons to love it.
I’ve always found it kind of impossible not to be drawn into its immediacy, and its inherent resistance of interpretation. Contemporary dance may also be our purest mode of expression, uniquely uninhibited as it is by the constraints of language, physical objects, or linear narrative.
“Good” contemporary dance appeals to the senses in an immediate and instinctive way, quickening your heartbeat before your mind has had a chance to understand.
The Harbourfront Centre’s 2012 contemporary dance line-up looks poised to deliver all of the above. The line-up includes artists from France, the U.S., England, Brazil and Canada, and ranges from electrifying urban correria from Brazil, to languishing lovers’ inspiring longings in The Wooster Group’s version of Tennessee Williams’ Vieux Carré. >> See the full line-up here
A few performances I’m looking forward to:
- “Entity” – Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (England) (February 28-March 3) is widely anticipated, as it follows up on McGregor’s National Ballet-commissioned “Chroma” of last year, which was excellent. In “Entity”, 10 dancers will create a spectacle that “fuses dance and technology.” The performance will feature music by Massive Attack collaborator Jon Hopkins, and striking, atmospheric choreography.
- “Paris 1994/Gallery” | The Dietrich Group (Canada) (April 25-28). This performance was nominated for the Dora-Award three times. The narrative weaves between two lovers’ past and present, as they confront the weight of memory and history in scenes of bodies beautifully collapsing into each other.
And if you’re already in a contemporary dance state of mind, check out the Dance Photography Exhibit @Balzac’s Coffee Roastery in The Distillery District, running from January 3 to 31.
What: World Stage
Where: Harbourfront Centre
When: Starts Feb. 18 and runs until May.
Tickets: Tickets for all dance performances may be purchased individually or as part of one of the Harbourfront Centre’s packages. There is the Flex Pass for any four theatre/dance combinations, or the dance-only package.
Maria Gergin is a Toronto articling student. Her column, Leisure Aid, appears every other Friday here at lawandstyle.ca
Photo: ‘Entity’ — Laurent Philippe