From the category archives:

DANCE

DANCE

Check The Backseat

Thumbnail image for Check The Backseat

ROADKILL, CINQUIÈME SALLE

by Tao Fei
12.02.2010

Disclaimer: roadkill is actually, seriously scary. Cinematic horror is not the most popular choreographic pursuit, but collaborative Brisbane-based company Splintergroup suggests it’s a frontier in contemporary dance worth visiting. With roadkill, their dance theatre thriller set in Australia’s mythic outback, Splintergroup makes its Montreal debut to conclude Cinquième Salle’s three-part Australian dance series.

More →

DANCE

High-Flying But Thread Lacking

Thumbnail image for High-Flying But Thread Lacking

SUTRA, THÉÂTRE DE MAISONNEUVE

by Tao Fei
06.11.2009

What does happen when East meets West, really? Culture-crossing Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, one of Europe’s most highly-courted young choreographers, gives his most ambitious two cents to date with Sutra, a 70-minute work that brings to the stage 17 high-flying warrior monks from China’s famed Shaolin Temple. Montreal’s Danse Danse gave its North American premiere at [...]

More →

DANCE

The World Is Flat

Thumbnail image for The World Is Flat

IS YOU ME, USINE C

by Tao Fei
24.09.2009

Is You Me is a multimedia dance piece created and performed by an unlikely hometown pair, Benoît Lachambre and Louise Lecavalier. Both have star-power in their respective worlds – his an experimental cool-kids Europe stemming from “downtown” New York improvisation; hers an iconic contemporary dance career with La La La Human Steps.

More →

DANCE

Dancers Doing It All

Thumbnail image for Dancers Doing It All

THE DANCERS’ CHOREOGRAPHIC WORKSHOP, CINQUIÈME SALLE

by Tao Fei
10.09.2009

There are better ways to get intimate with the dancers of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens than buying their used pointe shoes during Nutcracker season. The best opportunity comes once every two years, and doesn’t cost a dime. The Dancers’ Choreographic Workshop is a free biennial show at Cinquième Salle conceived entirely by Les Grands [...]

More →

DANCE

Supergroup Power Failure

Thumbnail image for Supergroup Power Failure

ÉONNAGATA, FTA 2009

by Tao Fei
04.06.2009

Féstival TransAmériques’ mammoth headliner combined the signed-and-sealed talents of three international stage stars: Sylvie Guillem, rebel prodigy of classical ballet; Russell Maliphant, wonderboy of British contemporary dance; and Robert Lepage, revolutionary theatre director and one of Canada’s creative greats. Audiences flocked to Éonnagata like firework-revellers around a harbour. In the end, we got cool [...]

More →

DANCE

The Body, Brutally

Thumbnail image for The Body, Brutally

SASHA WALTZ & GUESTS, FTA

by Tao Fei
28.05.2009

There are dances that conceal the body’s materiality and those that do not. Go to a classical ballet and you won’t witness flesh and bone, visceral weight and dimension. Want the brutal truth? See Körper. Created in 2000 for 13 dancers, the work that brought international fame to German choreographer Sasha Waltz seizes the body [...]

More →

DANCE

A Dance Destination Reborn

Thumbnail image for A Dance Destination Reborn

FESTIVAL TRANSAMÉRIQUES 2009

by Tao Fei
22.05.2009

One look at the programming of this year’s Festival TransAmériques and the memo reads loud and clear: Montreal is back on the map as a major destination for contemporary dance. Only in its third edition since debuting as both a theatre and dance festival, the FTA has prepared a walloping feast for the city’s [...]

More →

DANCE

The Guiding Shadows

Thumbnail image for The Guiding Shadows

CRYSTAL PITE / KIDD PIVOT, AGORA DE LA DANSE

by Tao Fei
06.05.2009

Crystal Pite is far and away Canada’s most exciting choreographic talent today.  She’s on a meteoric rise internationally, with a growing roster of commissions from some of the world’s leading companies.  Judging from her newly-minted work, Dark Matters, created on her Vancouver-based company Kidd Pivot and onstage in Montreal through Saturday, this artist lives up [...]

More →

DANCE

A Dream Of No Man’s Land

Thumbnail image for A Dream Of No Man’s Land

LES BALLETS C. DE LA B., Cinquième Salle

by Tao Fei
20.04.2009

Argentinean choreographer Lisi Estarás had all the right ingredients when she created Patchagonia, her first full-evening work for vanguard Belgian company Les Ballets C. de la B. Great dancers who can act. Live musicians on stage. A dramaturge. A clever title underscoring the listless (“patcha”) agony (“agonia”) of the most fabled desert in the Americas. [...]

More →

Page 1 of 212