2 Footnotes • Issue 60 • Winter 2019
Dance Victoria brings the World’s Best Dance to the Royal Theatre and supports the development of new dance for the international stage from its studios in Quadra Village. Dance Victoria is a non-profit charitable society. DanceVictoria.com
Dance Victoria Board: President
Susan Howard
Vice President René Peloquin Treasurer
Susan Porter
Secretary
Nikki Sieben
Directors
Heather Lejeune Kari McLay Andrew Newcombe Colin Nicol Kirsty Thomson Emily Zeng
Staff: Executive Producer
Stephen White
General Manager
Bernard Sauvé
Operations Manager
Shireen McNeilage
Marketing Manager
Tracy Smith
Accounting
Julie Collins
Production Manager
Holly Vivian
Graphic Design
Rayola Creative
Advertising Sales
Bonnie Light Advertising
Events Manager
Pamela Sanderson - Hire a Somm
If you’d like to volunteer for Dance Victoria, please visit DanceVictoria.com and complete the online volunteer form. Studios and Office: 111 – 2750 Quadra Street Victoria, BC V8T 4E8 250-595-1829 DanceVictoria.com for trailers, tickets and more information
Dance Seen It’s Dark Here BY STEPHEN WHITE
NOTHING PREPARED ME FOR THE WIND. I expected it to be dark here in Reykjavík; it is December after all. I anticipated chilly weather and brought the appropriate clothing. I checked the forecasts so the rain wasn’t a complete surprise, but the wind…. I’m here at ICE HOT Nordic Dance Platform. It was at this biannual event two years ago in Copenhagen that I found that gem, MAN, which I’m very excited to bring to Salt Spring and Victoria later this month. This time, my colleague Bernard Sauvé joined me at ICE HOT and our two husbands also tagged along. We arrived two days before the start of the festival so we could see and experience Iceland. On the second day, Bill and I met Bernard and Michael at their hotel, and set out on a 25-minute walk to pick up a rental car for the day. It was pitch black when we set out at 9:30 am. (Sunrise is 11:15am. Sunset is 3:30pm) There was a bit of a drizzle. We turned up our collars and started our trek. Ten minutes in, the wind picked up suddenly. Make that gale force wind. So strong that at one point it held me in one spot unable to move forward. I half expected an uprooted tree to sail through the air and impale Bill as we trudged onward. In no time we were soaked. But we are hardy Canadians. We persevered. Somehow, that first morning impacted my experience of the entire festival. It seems that something of the brutal, raw, elements on this rock in the middle of the North Atlantic, this rock seething with volcanic eruptions and steaming geysers, has permeated the work that I’m seeing on stage. These dance performances have been very dark. The opening night at the impressive City Theatre was a four-hour marathon performed by the Icelandic Dance Company replete with film, dance, and lobby animation, a rambling life and death epic with lots of screaming and flailing. Other smaller, shorter works have also focused on murky subjects. I scratched my head when I attended one of the daily pitch sessions, where artists are given twelve minutes to show videos and talk about works that are ready to tour. One couple was very excited to tell us about their work with mealworms. Their piece featured a woman in a rubber suit, lying in the middle of a sandbox-like structure under a four-metre transparent geodesic dome, surrounded by a thousand mealworms chewing their way through Styrofoam waste. (Mealworms eat Styrofoam, who knew?) It all feels so dystopian. It’s so so dark. But then I wonder, is this Nordic Noir or is it a reflection of the times that we live in? FN
Stephen White photo © Tracy Smith
Footnotes is written by Tracy Smith and Stephen White (unless otherwise noted).