Choreographer Linda Garneau has made it her life’s work to create full-length, jazz dance shows with serious themes.
Her new show Unearth is about the search for self-liberation. By digging deep inside our hearts and minds, we will find self-love which will, in turn, help us to unravel the tangled knots we carry inside us.
The piece is in three parts, Unearth, Unravel and Unveil. Garneau’s metaphor is pieces of cloth, both short and long of various colours, which stand for the tangled web of our psyches. The freeing of the knots at the end of the piece presents the dancers unencumbered.
As always, Garneau’s dance language is highly controlled, filled with off balances, high kicks, and lunges. But there is also fluidity as the dancers give themselves over to the emotions of the work.
The eight comely and talented young women of the company are a joy to watch.
Helix Dance Project’s Unearth continues at the Betty Oliphant Theatre until Jan. 8.
Unearth
Choreography by Linda Garneau
Helix Dance Project
Betty Oliphant Theatre
Jan. 6 to 8, 2012