September 25, 2018: DanceWorks opens its 2018-19 season with a new work from Montreal’s acclaimed RUBBERBANDance Group, choreographed by its Artistic Director, Victor Quijada. With Ever So Slightly, Quijada delves into new territory as he explores change and how it happens in this startling 70-minute work that runs for two nights only – Thursday, October 11 and Friday, October 12 – at Harbourfront Centre’s Fleck Dance Theatre preceding its Montreal premiere.
With the world in upheaval, Ever So Slightly is a quest for tranquility within chaos – but at what cost? This full-evening work explores the reflexes developed to face the ceaseless flow of irritants bombarding us every day. We constantly struggle to avoid succumbing to the external forces that oppress us, as well as to the dark forces within us. In a crisis, in the midst of extreme anxiety, where and how do we find the calm needed to confront the situation?
Choreographer Quijada explores change – the many elements that lead to it and the breaking point – with 10 dancers at the top of their form (Amara Barner, Jean Bui, Daniela Jezerinac, Sydney McManus, Dana Pajarillaga, Brontë Poiré-Prest, Jerimy Rivera, Zack Tang, Ryan Taylor and Paco Ziel), a DJ and live music composed and performed by multi-instrumentalist Jasper Gahunia and violinist William Lamoureaux, for a production filled with delicacy, finesse, brutality and potent movement.
With lighting design by Yan Lee Chan, liquid bodies and live music result in a high-voltage production on steroids, directed by a choreographer whose mastery captures the energy of urgency, revolt and flight from danger.
View a 1:30 min excerpt for Ever So Slightly at
Read an interview DanceWorks conducted here with RubberbanDance Group Artistic Director Victor Quijada:
http://www.danceworks.ca/article/interview-with-rubberbandance-groups-victor-quijada/
Says Quijada: “Dancing with RUBBERBANDance Group requires a certain knowledge that comes from contemporary, classical, and acrobatic or athletic movements like capoeira and b-boying. Because there is not a specific technique that prepares a dancer for a skill set that covers those three fields of study, the RUBBERBAND Method was created to fill the gap… Company members (…) have performed my repertory works and been able to test and use the RUBBERBAND Method in performance. This is why I am able to create Ever So Slightly in a more collaborative way.”
Ever So Slightly is co-produced by Danse Danse, Place des Arts and Corporation Hector-Charland and benefits from the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec and the Conseil des arts de Montreal.
CHOREOGRAPHER’S BIOGRAPHY
Victor Quijada eloquently re-imagines and deconstructs choreographic principles to integrate them into the Hip-Hop ideology of his beginnings to then examine humanity through a unique fusion of different aesthetic approaches. In the subversion of commonplace reality, his creative tools range from theatrical interpretation and improvisation to the visual imagery of film. A polyvalent, prolific dancer, at the age of 26, he moved from the Hip-Hop clubs of his native Los Angeles to a career with the finest post-modern dance and ballet companies, notably THARP!, Ballet Tech, and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal. Since the founding of RUBBERBANDance Group in 2002, Victor has created 24 pieces of varying length, some for RBDG and others for commissions, and has taken his work all over North America and Europe, as well as to Mexico and Japan. He participated in the making of a dozen films, either as choreographer, director or dramaturge. Victor Quijada received the Bonnie Bird North American New Choreography Award and the Peter Darrell Choreographic Award in 2003, the OQAJ/RIDEAU Prize in 2009, and a Princess Grace Awards Choreographic Fellowship in 2010. From 2007 to 2011, he was artist in residence at the Cinquième Salle of Place des Arts de Montréal. In 2017, Quijada received Montreal Arts Council’s $10,000 Cultural Diversity Prize to honour his democratization of contemporary and street dance forms.
DanceWorks began as a collective of independent dance artists in 1977 and has grown to become Toronto’s leading presenter of independent dance. DanceWorks offers seasons of eclectic, exhilarating choreography programmed to intrigue, challenge and enthrall. DanceWorks adds to the theatrical experience with Carol’s Dance Notes and post-performance conversations with artists. http://www.danceworks.ca
Report by: Jaison Mathew | CMN News
