Quick, fun and funny contemporary dance at Dancemakers Centre for Creation in Toronto
It seems that most people view contemporary dance as a fairly dramatic and serious performing art. It isn’t often that you hear laughter in a contemporary dance audience, either because the work is very serious or because the audience isn’t sure if they are meant to laugh. Well let me safely say that Pollux Dance’s current show, Heterollectual: Love, and Other Dumb Ideas, playing at the Dancemakers Centre for Creation, is meant to make you laugh.
It seems appropriate that my date on Wednesday night was one of my closest single girlfriends. The one I call when I need a partner in crime on a Friday night, but also when a boy has broken my heart and I need someone to commiserate with. Actually before the show that’s exactly what we were doing: talking about love. I think we really needed a good laugh about it.
Dancemakers creates an organically inspired piece with their latest dance work in Toronto
I tend to avoid reading program notes before seeing shows, but when I opened the program for Dancemakers’ newest work, loveloss by Michael Trent, the first thing I saw was a section entitled “notes on notes.” Out of intrigue I began to read the section before the show began. The thing that resonated was Dancemakers’ statement that they work hard to not give anything away in their program notes. So this has left me feeling very torn about how to write this review because, I too, don’t want to give anything away.
Liberate your love for theatre with Final Savage Land, playing at Toronto’s Oz Studios
You know when you go to a show that you enjoy so much that it leaves you speechless? If you don’t then you might want to check out Final Savage Land presented by Sore For Punching You (Alison Cummings) at Oz Studios. These are my favourite, yet most challenging types of reviews to write: the ones for shows that I enjoyed so much that I don’t know what to say. I will do my best though to describe what I witnessed on Thursday night.
Holiday cabaret cheers Toronto theatre audiences in Christmas with Hi & Lo
What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘cabaret’? Crooning love songs, cheesy jokes and a touch of a story line to string it all together? Throw in a dash of Christmas cheer and that is exactly what you get at Christmas with Hi & Lo playing at Gallery 345 and featuring John Alcorn and Kyra Millan.
Ballet Creole presents refreshing and engaging tap sequences in Soulful Messiah at Toronto’s Fleck Dance Theatre
I was really excited to go see Ballet Creole’s Soulful Messiah at the Fleck Dance Theatre on Friday night. I have a lot of respect for artistic director Patrick Parson. I was thinking that it would be a great way to start the Christmas season. Sadly, I didn’t find the evening as enjoyable as I had hoped.
Soulful Messiah is a combination of African-Caribean dance, ballet, jazz, contemporary and tap dance. The full-length work is set to Handel’s Messiah – A Soulful Celebration. Parson’s movement is meant to express and compliment the joyous nature of the music.
