"With some beautifully emotional pas de deuxs and striking precision, this was an impressive performance that showed how contemporary dance can push the boundaries of dance"

Stage Review

Show: New Work

Presented by: DanceHouse and Vancouver New Music Company: La La La Human Steps

Artistic Director and Choreographer: Édouard Lock

Composers: Gavin Bryars, Blake Hargreaves

Dancers: Diego F. Castro, Mi Deng, Talia Evtushenko, Sandra Muhlbauer, Grace-Anne Powers, Alejandra Salamanca Lopez, Jason Shipley-Holmes, William Lee Smith, Zofia Tujaka, Marcio Vinicius Paulino Silveira, Kai Zhang

Musicians: Njo Kong Kie, Jean-Christophe Lizotte, Jennifer Thiessen, Ida Toninato

Venue: The Centre for Performing Arts

Run: January 21st to 22nd, 2012

Reviewed by Tessa Perkins

This astonishingly fast-paced high-endurance show was a whirlwind of athletic grace. This Montreal company has toured all over the world, and it is easy to see why they are so well renowned as this new work by Édouard Lock weaves together two tragic love stories into a dark ballet full of intensity and drama.

Focusing on the tragic ending of love rather than the euphoria of new love, this show is dark in every sense of the word. The lighting was dim and sparse the entire time (we only really saw the dancers’ faces at the end of the show as they took their bows), the costumes were all black, the music was very sombre and tragic, and the subject matter of a broken love showed on the dancers’ anxious faces.

With precise, quick, repetitive ballet technique, this show took contemporary dance in a direction I’ve never seen before. The desperation of the movements was perfect for the abstract telling of two operas: Dido and Aeneas and Orpheus and Eurydice. Along with the brilliant cinematic lighting and musicians playing live music on stage, the show was quite mesmerizing and marks the thirtieth anniversary of this company with conviction.

Throughout the show, two giant video screens came down from the ceiling above the stage, each with a woman in a white button down shirt staring out at the audience. One woman was young and one was old, and they sat there adjusting their shirts or making other slight movements. While I think one reason behind these interludes was to give the sweating dancers a break, I wasn’t sure what the other meaning behind it was and how it related to the rest of the show.

The only thing I didn’t enjoy as much about this show was its repetitive nature. While performing these sharp, quick movements repeatedly takes highly skilled dancers, I found that I was waiting for the tone of the show to change a bit or for the movements to become a bit more fluid. That being said, I think this is probably the best contemporary dance company in the country and it’s a shame that they don’t tour more often at home.

With some beautifully emotional pas de deuxs and striking precision, this was an impressive performance that showed how contemporary dance can push the boundaries of the art form while telling a tragic story just as well as a happy one. I hope La La La Human Steps return to Vancouver again soon; though I hope next time they bring a more uplifting new work.       

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