I have discovered that there is a massive gap between me and popular culture, and I admit that freely. Take, for example, refracting giants, a show produced under the auspices of Toronto Dance Theatre.
Billed as a physical theatre performance, and produced, curated, directed and choreographed by Leelee Oluwatoyosi Eko Davis, refracting giants is the culmination of Eko Davis’ two-year “expressive residency” at TDT. Now, obviously, TDT artistic director Andrew Tay granted residency to Eko Davis because, as he says in his program note, that he has a deep respect for them, particularly because they invest their work around the idea of rigour and care.
For this hour long show, Eko Davis gathered five emerging artists to work with – isi bhakhomen, brawk hessel, Anna Malla, Merlin Simard and STARLIGHT (aka Jordan Campbell). Each performer had a distinct personality with backgrounds in storytelling, performance art and the “fag” and drag scene. Suffice it to say, diversity and inclusivity were in full evidence. I should also point out that two ASL interpreters were incorporated into the performance. For their part, Davis describes themself as a disabled transgenderqueer, whose background is contemporary dance and intermedia creation. Their artistic goal is to merge performance and life to reveal the human condition.
I absolutely believe that refracting giants was created within a nurturing environment, and in working carefully and lovingly together, the cast and curator formulated the ten vignettes that made up the program. But this is where I refer back to that massive gap between me and popular culture. While the packed house of mostly youngish people seemed to enjoy the program (they could not have all been friends of the cast), it did not meet my standard of substantive art. There were also a few of the vignettes that I did not understand at all. Amateur is too harsh a word, but this physical theatre performance was too much like a group of young artists having fun getting together and doing their own thing. In short, I didn’t see a lot of creative development.
There were some moments that connected with me and they came from bhakhomen. In one case, it was them singing the moving Afro-Peruvian song Santa Libertad about the wish for freedom, but that was them just singing a song. I also enjoyed their poignant vignette Jesus, with bhakhomen’s voiceover describing how they thought one of their Christmas presents was actually from Jesus, but it was really from their grandfather whose name was Jesus. Her movement, limited though it was, expressed the sadness of the child for making that mistake.
Three pieces had potential but just didn’t go far enough. Simard opened the program with Trusting Giants. Using augmented reality/virtual reality goggles and mitts, she drew patterns of colours on a screen, and that was it. Her body supposedly gave us choreography as she gave us her designs. Malla put herself into the German wheel (a human size hamster wheel), but nothing really happened. It wasn’t a routine at all. As for Bag Trio, bhakhomen, Campbell and hessel battled three giant green garbage bags, but did little beyond shake them and squish them. Where was the creativity or originality in any of this?
The more imaginative work, for lack of a better word, involved either Campbell and hessel separately, or the whole cast. Whether playing with vocalise, or filling water bottles with something fizzy, or maneuvering oranges around, or reciting a poem that was repeated as a song, or changing into glitter costumes, these vignettes seemed to be random without cause. Some of the audience seemed to find meaning, but I did not. I should point out, however, that both Campbell and hessel have quite charismatic stage presences, particularly Campbell.
Which brings me to artistic director Tay. I remember his words at the first concert he organized when he first took over TDT. It was something to the effect of, “Let’s have fun!”, and I thought to myself, “Oh, oh, is this the end of choreography?” While I applaud Tay’s reaching out in new directions – for example, the show last season that was choreographed by someone from ballroom – or supporting a residency for Eko Davis – I feel that TDT concerts for grownups have disappeared. And yet, Tay has attracted packed houses and a coterie of enthusiastic fans, so he must be doing something right.
Over these last few years, Toronto has lost virtually all its permanent dance companies. TDT is practically the last one standing. I’m counting on the company being a home for choreography. I live in hope.