Local Gestures
  • Home
  • Dance
  • Literature
  • Music
  • Cinema
  • Home
  • Dance
  • Literature
  • Music
  • Cinema
  Local Gestures

Local Gestures

Because the personal is cultural

Duels: A Review

12/9/2012

0 Comments

 
PictureDuels, photo by Damian Siqueiros
Fight your partner to the death. If you win, they can always be replaced anyway.

It’s a feeling that can come from living in a city with an endless supply of single people, or from witnessing a dance show with an unusually high number of performers: twenty-one of them in the case of Cas Public’s Duels, which includes the entire company, plus a few choice guests. Helen Blackburn and Pierre Lecours share choreographing duties for the twenty short pieces that make up the programme.

Despite the possibilities that such a high number of performers and pieces offer, the numbers are often repetitive. The opening prologue sets us up for what can be expected for most of the night: a man and a woman, the latter fragile, on pointes, needing the help of the man to support her. When she loses the duel, another man picks her up from the floor, less from compassion than opportunism.

It’s not the first time that Cas Public flirts with gendered violence. It was also at the core of Suites Cruelles, their last show not aimed at children. There seems to be a tension between wanting to deal with the world as it is, recognizing that sexism still exists, and wanting to transcend these confines.

Unfortunately, the latter happens too rarely, though it does offer Duels its most invigorating moments. In the second duet, Blackburn herself dances with Sébastien Cossette-Masse, a younger male dancer, and it begins and ends with her lifting him and carrying him a few steps across the floor. Beyond the pleasure of seeing Blackburn, who usually sticks to the role of choreographer, onstage, there is also the satisfaction of witnessing this reversal of typical ideas surrounding age and gender.

There is but one duet that involves two women (Geneviève Bolla and Daphnée Laurendeau) and one that involves two men (Lecours and Simon-Xavier Lefebvre). For better of for worse, they don’t look much different from the rest.

The most subversive moments occur in straight couplings, like when Daniel Soulières and Merryn Kritzinger both lift each other off the floor independently of their gender or age difference. Or in the duet with relative newcomers, choreographer Virginie Brunelle and dancer Alexandre Carlos, where the overall violence of the show finally lets up to give us something refreshingly gentler, with little physical contact. However, the duel ends with Brunelle being carried off by another man with her legs wide open as her partner goes on to dance with another woman. Like what women can always be replaced.

A couple of men do figuratively put themselves in women’s shoes as they pull off a few ballerina steps. Soulières, lifted by three other men, dances above the ground as if he were lighter than a feather. Cai Glover, in his duet with Laurendeau, has a few brief moments on the tip of his toes, as though on pointes.

After all the ass slapping that women in the show have to endure, each time with the sting of female objectification, it is also a mild compensation when actress Sylvie Moreau gives the same treatment to Carlos.

For the most part, Duels bathes in the themes that might be expected given the title of the show: couples, fighting, mirror images, and – though dance critics see sex whenever two dancers happen to touch one another – indeed, sex. As the motionless bodies pile up onstage, it becomes clear that, as Pat Benatar’s catchy anthem goes, love is a battlefield.

Duels
12-14 & 19-21 September at 8pm / 22 September at 4pm
Agora de la danse
www.agoradanse.com
514.525.1500
Tickets: 32$ / Students: 24$

0 Comments

    Sylvain Verstricht

    has an MA in Film Studies and works in contemporary dance. His fiction has appeared in Headlight Anthology, Cactus Heart, and Birkensnake.

    s.verstricht [at] gmail [dot] com

    Categories

    All
    2e Porte à Gauche
    Agora De La Danse
    Ame Henderson
    Andrew Tay
    Annabelle Lopez Ochoa
    Anne Le Beau
    Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
    Anne Thériault
    Ann Van Den Broek
    Antoine Defoort
    Arthur Harel
    Arts Court
    Audrée Juteau
    Aurelie Pedron
    Austria
    Bain Saint-michel
    Belgium
    Benoit Lachambre
    Best Of
    Biennale De Gigue Contemporaine
    Bjm Danse
    Björn Schmelzer
    Boris Charmatz
    Brazil
    Brian Brooks
    Brigitte Haentjens
    Brigitte Poupart
    British Columbia
    Brooklyn Touring Outfit
    Cabaret Du Mile-End
    Caroline Gravel
    Carol Prieur
    Carte Blanche
    Cas Public
    Catalonia
    Catherine Gaudet
    Catherine Tardif
    Cayetano Soto
    Cecilia Bengolea
    Céline Bonnier
    Celine Signoret
    Centaur Theatre
    Chanti Wadge
    Chiara Frigo
    China
    Chris Haring
    Christian Rizzo
    Cindy Van Acker
    Cinema
    Clara Furey
    Compagnie Flak
    Conservatoire
    Dana Gingras
    Dana Michel
    Dance
    Daniel Léveillé
    Danse Carpe Diem
    Danse Cité
    Danse Danse
    Dany Desjardins
    Dave St Pierre
    David Lynch
    David Rancourt
    Deborah Dunn
    Dena Davida
    Dorian Nuskind Oder
    Ecole De Danse Contemporaine
    Elisabeth Kjeldahl Nilsson
    Emmanuel Jouthe
    England
    English
    Erin Flynn
    Estelle Clareton
    Étienne Lepage
    Evelina Dembacke
    Evenko
    Festival TransAmériques
    Finland
    Francais
    France
    Francis Ducharme
    François Chaignaud
    Frederick Gravel
    Fringe
    Gabrielle Marion Rivard
    Gai Behar
    Galerie De L'UQAM
    Geneviève C. Ferron
    George Stamos
    Gerard Reyes
    Germany
    Grand Poney
    Guilherme Botelho
    Guilherme Garrido
    Guilherme Miotto
    Halory Goerger
    Heine Avdal
    Hélène Blackburn
    Hiroaki Umeda
    Holly Bright
    In Jung-ju
    Institutet
    Interviews
    Isabelle Van Grimde
    Israel
    Italy
    Jacinthe Armstrong
    Jaco Van Dormael
    Jacques Poulin Denis
    James Viveiros
    Jamie Wright
    Jana Jevtovic
    Japan
    Jasper Van Lujik
    Jean Sébastien Lourdais
    Jody Hegel
    Jo Fong
    Jonathan Debrouwer
    José Navas
    Julien Desplantez
    Kaori Seki
    Karine Denault
    Katia Marie Germain
    Katie Ward
    Katya Montaignac
    Korea
    Kristel Van Issum
    (LA)HORDE
    La Sala Rossa
    Laurie Anderson
    Leanne Dyer
    Lee Su Jung
    Lemi Ponifasio
    Lia Rodrigues
    Lise Vachon
    Literature
    Louise Lecavalier
    Lucie Bazzo
    Lucie Mongrain
    Lük Fleury
    Maguy Marin
    Mai
    Maïgwenn Desbois
    Maki Morishita
    Manuel Roque
    Marc Boivin
    Margie Gillis
    Maria Kefirova
    Marie Béland
    Marie Brassard
    Marie Chouinard
    Marie Hélène Falcon
    Marilyne St Sauveur
    Marine Brutti
    Markus öhrn
    Marlene Monteiro Freitas
    Marteen Van Der Put
    Martin Messier
    Maryse Damecour
    Mary St-Amand Williamson
    Matija Ferlin
    Mau
    Mauro Bigonzetti
    Meg Stuart
    Mélanie Demers
    Michael Trent
    Michèle Anne De Mey
    Michèle Febvre
    Miguel Gutierrez
    Montréal Arts Interculturels
    Montréal Danse
    Montréal Nouvelles Musiques
    Monument National
    Music
    Nancy Gloutnez
    Natalie Zoey-gauld
    Netherlands
    New Zealand
    Nicolas Cantin
    Norway
    Nova Scotia
    Nya Rampen
    Offta
    Ohad Naharin
    Oh! My Life Movement Theater
    Olivier Arseneault
    Olivier Dubois
    Ontario
    Pamela Poulin
    Park Young-cool
    Patrick Lloyd Brennan
    Pauline Roelants
    Performance Art
    Perrine Valli
    Peter Trosztmer
    Philippe Meunier
    Pierre Lecours
    Pieter Ampe
    Piss In The Pool
    Place Des Arts
    Portugal
    Previews
    Quebec
    Rachel Harris
    Rachid Ouramdane
    Rebecca Halls
    Reviews
    Robyn Orlin
    Sarah Bronsard
    Sarah Chase
    Sarah Dell
    Sarah Williams
    Sasha Kleinplatz
    Shannon Gillen
    Sharon Eyal
    Simon Grenier Poirier
    Société Des Arts Technologiques
    South Africa
    Spain
    Spoken Word
    Stéphane Guignard
    Studio 303
    Susanna Hood
    Sweden
    Switzerland
    Tamara Bacci
    Tangente
    Tao Ye
    Teilo Troncy
    Teita Iwabuchi
    The 605 Collective
    Thea Patterson
    Theatre
    Theatre Jean-Duceppe
    Theatre La Chapelle
    The Choreographers
    Thirst/Clarity
    Trajal Harrell
    T.r.a.s.h.
    United States
    Usine C
    Videos
    Virginie Brunelle
    Visual Arts
    Wales
    Wants&needs Danse
    Wayne Mcgregor
    Wildside Festival
    Yukiko Shinozaki
    Zohar Melinek

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly