Intense, uplifting and ultimately heartbreaking performance
Kevin Griffin
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, July 05, 2008
On a warm summer evening, Kokoro Dance summoned the ghosts of the Downtown Eastside. Using bagpipes and drums and Japanese butoh-style movement, they made the ghosts substantial for 45 minutes to open the Dancing on the Edge Festival.
Barbara Bourget performs in Kokoro Dance Company's production of Ghosts by Barbara Bourget and Jay Hirabayashi.
Then they disappeared, to return for two final performances Friday and again this evening.
The first performance took place on the rooftop parking lot of the Sunrise Market at 300 Powell. As a backdrop, an existing mural of tomatoes, peas, strawberries and other colourful fruits and vegetables, along with neighbourhood landmarks, stretched the entire width of the adjacent building's west-facing wall.
Several minutes before Ghosts started, the performers walked up the alley entrance and took their positions on the pavement. In the centre were the musicians. Surrounding them all were members of the audience, standing and sitting on the edges of the outdoor performance area.
Kevin Griffin
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, July 05, 2008
On a warm summer evening, Kokoro Dance summoned the ghosts of the Downtown Eastside. Using bagpipes and drums and Japanese butoh-style movement, they made the ghosts substantial for 45 minutes to open the Dancing on the Edge Festival.
Barbara Bourget performs in Kokoro Dance Company's production of Ghosts by Barbara Bourget and Jay Hirabayashi.
Then they disappeared, to return for two final performances Friday and again this evening.
The first performance took place on the rooftop parking lot of the Sunrise Market at 300 Powell. As a backdrop, an existing mural of tomatoes, peas, strawberries and other colourful fruits and vegetables, along with neighbourhood landmarks, stretched the entire width of the adjacent building's west-facing wall.
Several minutes before Ghosts started, the performers walked up the alley entrance and took their positions on the pavement. In the centre were the musicians. Surrounding them all were members of the audience, standing and sitting on the edges of the outdoor performance area.
The performers stood motionless and silent, their costumes fluttering
in the breeze. Then, as if an inner timer had gone off, a few dancers
started moving with focused intensity. Before long, four groups of
three dancers were all dancing, but not in unison.
At times, some of the dancers staggered, moved their hands in an obsessive-compulsive version of running in place, or went into such a deep crouch that their torsos were parallel to the ground. Slowly they waved fingers at the audience in a semi-circle of accusation.
Some crawled on all fours on the pavement or rolled on their backs, covering the white makeup on their bodies in dirt from the parking lot.
With each of the quartets repeating similar but not identical movements, there was a swirl of ghostly activity around the musicians. The insistent drone of bagpipes called forth neighbourhood ghosts whose troubles were perfectly illustrated by the dancers' slow, angular Japanese-inspired butoh.
The ghosts were everywhere. Next door, at 314 Powell, was where Japanese-Canadians were registered before being sent to internment camps during the Second World War.
Other ghosts were the neighbourhood's loggers and working people, who preceded the first wave of Asian immigrants, as well as the homeless, the binners and the drug users.
The emotional high point came when the dancers came together. In pairs, they squatted and stared into each other's eyes, extending their arms with their palms facing their partners' ears. This morphed into moving with one arm up to heaven and another down to earth, which created an S shape similar to that made by whirling dervishes. Some even smiled.
It was heartbreaking to watch as collective joy disintegrated and the dancers returned once again to their troubled, repetitive movements.
Ghosts will be performed again during the Powell Street Festival in August and at the Japanese Canadian Redress Anniversary Conference in September.
The 20th-anniversary Dancing on the Edge Festival continues daily to Saturday, July 12.
OTHER PERFORMANCES INCLUDE:
- Edge One at 8 p.m. today at the Firehall Arts Centre. Edge One features the works of three choreographers: Jennifer Clarke's Highly Unlikely But Very Serious, Kate McDonagh's fables and foibles of the foreigner and Lola MacLaughlin's Princess, an excerpt from Princess, Infanta, Queen, a work inspired by Diego Velazquez's painting, Las Meninas.
- Nine Points to Navigate, by Brian Webb, at 9 p.m. today and 8 p.m. Sunday at the Scotiabank Dance Centre. Featuring an eclectic score that includes Iggy Pop, J.S. Bach, Trent Reznor and Leonard Cohen, this interdisciplinary collaboration is a tribute to the fathers of the performers.
- Edge Two, Sunday at 7 p.m. and Monday at 9 p.m. at the Firehall. Edge Two features Sara Coffin's untitled work, Karen Rose's The (Remembrance) Trilogy, and Jennifer Mascall's and Ron Stewart's excerpt from What?, a work created from letters written between Mascall's parents during the Second World War and stories from Stewart's father.
kevingriffin@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
At times, some of the dancers staggered, moved their hands in an obsessive-compulsive version of running in place, or went into such a deep crouch that their torsos were parallel to the ground. Slowly they waved fingers at the audience in a semi-circle of accusation.
Some crawled on all fours on the pavement or rolled on their backs, covering the white makeup on their bodies in dirt from the parking lot.
With each of the quartets repeating similar but not identical movements, there was a swirl of ghostly activity around the musicians. The insistent drone of bagpipes called forth neighbourhood ghosts whose troubles were perfectly illustrated by the dancers' slow, angular Japanese-inspired butoh.
The ghosts were everywhere. Next door, at 314 Powell, was where Japanese-Canadians were registered before being sent to internment camps during the Second World War.
Other ghosts were the neighbourhood's loggers and working people, who preceded the first wave of Asian immigrants, as well as the homeless, the binners and the drug users.
The emotional high point came when the dancers came together. In pairs, they squatted and stared into each other's eyes, extending their arms with their palms facing their partners' ears. This morphed into moving with one arm up to heaven and another down to earth, which created an S shape similar to that made by whirling dervishes. Some even smiled.
It was heartbreaking to watch as collective joy disintegrated and the dancers returned once again to their troubled, repetitive movements.
Ghosts will be performed again during the Powell Street Festival in August and at the Japanese Canadian Redress Anniversary Conference in September.
The 20th-anniversary Dancing on the Edge Festival continues daily to Saturday, July 12.
OTHER PERFORMANCES INCLUDE:
- Edge One at 8 p.m. today at the Firehall Arts Centre. Edge One features the works of three choreographers: Jennifer Clarke's Highly Unlikely But Very Serious, Kate McDonagh's fables and foibles of the foreigner and Lola MacLaughlin's Princess, an excerpt from Princess, Infanta, Queen, a work inspired by Diego Velazquez's painting, Las Meninas.
- Nine Points to Navigate, by Brian Webb, at 9 p.m. today and 8 p.m. Sunday at the Scotiabank Dance Centre. Featuring an eclectic score that includes Iggy Pop, J.S. Bach, Trent Reznor and Leonard Cohen, this interdisciplinary collaboration is a tribute to the fathers of the performers.
- Edge Two, Sunday at 7 p.m. and Monday at 9 p.m. at the Firehall. Edge Two features Sara Coffin's untitled work, Karen Rose's The (Remembrance) Trilogy, and Jennifer Mascall's and Ron Stewart's excerpt from What?, a work created from letters written between Mascall's parents during the Second World War and stories from Stewart's father.
kevingriffin@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
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