Dance fest offered new works to city

Valerie Alia, Special to The Daily News

Published: Thursday, December 03, 2009

Crimson Coast Dance Society and its artistic sirector, Holly Bright, hosted the 11th annual InFrinGinG Dance Festival last week.  Packed with premieres, the four-day event brought dance to every corner of Nanaimo - public and private spaces, studios, theatres, library and church.

One of the high points was Holly Bright's powerful performance of a new work by Susanna Hood, Costing Not Less Than Everything.  It is a poignant portrait of struggle and liberation - an awakening of body and spirit. At the beginning, the dancer crouches on the floor, like a broken bird stranded on the beach after an oil spill. All mangled limbs and angles, she struggles to escape the muck, only to collapse and crumple, again and again.

Her nude and isolated form underscores the theme of vulnerability and rebirth. Alongside Catherine Thompson's score, her vocalizations evolve from fear and frustration to triumph and celebration. Tentatively, hesitantly, she explores and embraces life. And finally, she soars.

Montreal choreographer, George Stamos premiered Klok, blending live performance, video, and an electronically filtered vocal score.

Butoh artist, Genevieve Johnson, showed two new works, Still Snowing and A Baroque Fear.

Along with a new piece by Daina Ashbee were works by Tripod Dance Collective, James Gnam and Peter Starr; a duet by Lynne Bowen and David Duncan; and contact improvisation by Chris Wright and Imogen Whyte.

The daytime hours were filled with a rich array of workshops and roundtables. The festival closed on Sunday with a lantern procession from Maffeo Sutton Park to St. Paul's Church, where celebrants enjoyed performances, a community sound circle, and dance films.

© The Daily News (Nanaimo) 2009

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