The 2012 Bouge d'ici Festival ends with a bang
January 26th 2012
Article of The Bouge d'ici Cabaret.
- Oliver Koomsatira
Photo of Cindy Lopez.
To close the Bouge d'ici festival on a high note, the organizing committee presented the Bouge d'ici Cabaret last Saturday evening. Hosted by the hilarious Vanessa Kneale, the show zipped by with 12 very entertaining pieces created by mentors and other members of the festival's planning committee. Who ever doubts contemporary dance can be funny and entertaining should have seen this show.
Most of the choreographies presented were either snippets of longer shows or works in progress graciously shared with the evening's sold-out audience. To contribute to the event's friendly atmosphere, the show was interspersed with dance games involving the audience as well as raffles and stand-up-like routines from the host. Who ever doubts women can be as good stand-up comedians as men should have seen Vanessa Kneale.
A lot of the pieces presented served as appetizers for shows that will be presented soon. For instance, Lynsey Billing shared a sneak peak of Scary Tales and Broken Hearts which will be presented at MainLine Theatre from February 22nd to the 26th. The piece showed 3 very strange dance duos. In the first you saw 2 happy kids playfully dancing together as though they were in a fairytale. The second duo took a dark turn and showed a friends' fight that quickly degenerated into a psychopathic murder scene. The third duo went even further and showed a couple dancing together, one alive, one dead… http://www.mainlinetheatre.ca/en/spectacles/scary-tales-broken-hearts
Another sneak peak, choreographed by Andrew Tay from Wants&Needs dance company, showed a few of the choreographer's ideas from Short and Sweet that will be presented February 16th. At first view, this show will surely be quite interesting as the concepts shared were absolutely mind-warping. Picture yourself contracting all your muscles while being on your back, eyes closed, and being propped onto your feet by someone else while remaining in the same exact position, eyes still closed. Want weirder concepts? Picture a few dancers chanting the words of a song as though they were all on LSD and slowly break into a basement techno dance party…
http://www.wantsandneeds.ca/sas.html
All the pieces were unique and interesting, taking the audience from one universe to the next in the blink of an eye. This type of event could probably do the local dance scene a lot of good if it happened on a more regular basis, say once a month. Have a dozen choreographers show 5 to 10 minute pieces of their work in a friendly atmosphere. No better way to expand a community especially if you make sure you have a few hilarious acts like that of Vanessa Kneale and Marc Rowland, that of Robin Henderson performed by Holly Greco, or that of Patrick Lloyd Brennan, for Beyoncé fans…
The night wouldn't have been complete if it didn't have some pure contemporary dance, of course. Luckily, there was the work of Dana Gingras performed by Karen Fennell; the work of Stephanie Morin-Robert performed by Amélie Pouliot which will also be presented at the Fringe Festival; a piece created and performed by Allison Elizabeth Burns; another choreographed and performed by Lael Stellick as well as the festival director Amy Blackmore's short dance film So There's This Girl.
To close the show and introduce the party, Lynsey Billing presented her eye candy piece Mannequin with 7 of her elegant dancers. DJ Chris Gidziuk then took over the night and span tunes while the party people danced the rest of the night. To catch the next projects of Bouge d'ici, check out their website.
http://www.bougedici.com/
Most of the choreographies presented were either snippets of longer shows or works in progress graciously shared with the evening's sold-out audience. To contribute to the event's friendly atmosphere, the show was interspersed with dance games involving the audience as well as raffles and stand-up-like routines from the host. Who ever doubts women can be as good stand-up comedians as men should have seen Vanessa Kneale.
A lot of the pieces presented served as appetizers for shows that will be presented soon. For instance, Lynsey Billing shared a sneak peak of Scary Tales and Broken Hearts which will be presented at MainLine Theatre from February 22nd to the 26th. The piece showed 3 very strange dance duos. In the first you saw 2 happy kids playfully dancing together as though they were in a fairytale. The second duo took a dark turn and showed a friends' fight that quickly degenerated into a psychopathic murder scene. The third duo went even further and showed a couple dancing together, one alive, one dead… http://www.mainlinetheatre.ca/en/spectacles/scary-tales-broken-hearts
Another sneak peak, choreographed by Andrew Tay from Wants&Needs dance company, showed a few of the choreographer's ideas from Short and Sweet that will be presented February 16th. At first view, this show will surely be quite interesting as the concepts shared were absolutely mind-warping. Picture yourself contracting all your muscles while being on your back, eyes closed, and being propped onto your feet by someone else while remaining in the same exact position, eyes still closed. Want weirder concepts? Picture a few dancers chanting the words of a song as though they were all on LSD and slowly break into a basement techno dance party…
http://www.wantsandneeds.ca/sas.html
All the pieces were unique and interesting, taking the audience from one universe to the next in the blink of an eye. This type of event could probably do the local dance scene a lot of good if it happened on a more regular basis, say once a month. Have a dozen choreographers show 5 to 10 minute pieces of their work in a friendly atmosphere. No better way to expand a community especially if you make sure you have a few hilarious acts like that of Vanessa Kneale and Marc Rowland, that of Robin Henderson performed by Holly Greco, or that of Patrick Lloyd Brennan, for Beyoncé fans…
The night wouldn't have been complete if it didn't have some pure contemporary dance, of course. Luckily, there was the work of Dana Gingras performed by Karen Fennell; the work of Stephanie Morin-Robert performed by Amélie Pouliot which will also be presented at the Fringe Festival; a piece created and performed by Allison Elizabeth Burns; another choreographed and performed by Lael Stellick as well as the festival director Amy Blackmore's short dance film So There's This Girl.
To close the show and introduce the party, Lynsey Billing presented her eye candy piece Mannequin with 7 of her elegant dancers. DJ Chris Gidziuk then took over the night and span tunes while the party people danced the rest of the night. To catch the next projects of Bouge d'ici, check out their website.
http://www.bougedici.com/