CriticalDance Forum

<BR> <BR><small>Dancers: Anne Barry, Anna Riede Photo: Benoit Aquin</small><P>O Vertigo have been coming to London for more than 10 years with their distnctive, innovative apporach.<P>Here are the calendar details from the <A HREF="http://www.danceumbrella.co.uk/menu.htm" TARGET=_blank><B>Dance Umbrella website</B></A>. Click on the coloured dates for programme information and on the venue name for theatre details. <P>Here is our existing <A HREF="http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum5/HTML/000221.html" TARGET=_blank><B><BR>thread on the Company</B></A> <P>And here is the <A HREF="http://www.overtigo.com/html/home.htm" TARGET=_blank><B>company website</B></A> <BR>

<B>GINETTE LAURIN: THE HUMAN DIMENSION</B><P>WHO: O VERTIGO<BR>WHEN: TUE 23 - WED 24 OCT<BR>WHERE: QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL<BR>TICKETS: 020 7960 4242<P>In Luna, Ginette Laurin's latest adventure with her Montreal-based company O Vertigo, nine dancers orbit round in a dreamy, subtly sensual galaxy of gently explosive colours, whispered breaths, eclectic burbling sounds, hymn-like chanting, string suites and spoken scientific text. Their movements are tender and swinging, languid and pulsatingly athletic. They gesture and signal, taking each other's measurement and drawing lines with the limbs. Some stand behind magnifiying glasses which enlarge and distort faces and bodies, while others sweep round in billowing hoop skirts upon which their own images are projected.<P>Laurin trained as a gymnast before studying modern and classical dance in Montreal and New York. She founded her company in 1984, since when it has gained an itnernational reputation for the exhilarating, reflective quality of her kinetic explorations.<P>Donald Hutera: Tell me about the origins of the piece. What sort of research<BR>was involved, either within the studio or outside it?<P><B>Ginette Laurin:</B> My concern was to get closer to the body in movement, to be<BR>able to show the tiniest details and focus attention on specific segments. I<BR>used large magnifying glasses to blow up hand movement, arms and facial<BR>expressions. I was allowed into the dancers' intimate space, and discovered<BR>it was possible to read the choreography in a totally different way without<BR>losing the human dimension. My wish with this exploration was to play with<BR>the spectator's perception and, in some way, show the hidden side of dance.<P>Donald Hutera: What was the dancers' contribution?<P><B>Ginette Laurin:</B> I am very directive regarding movements, and also very precise in all<BR>that surrounds the choreographic discourse and concepts. The dancers can<BR>greatly influence the process through their interpretation or translation of<BR>the choreographic material. Some sequence were transmitted verbally, without<BR>me demonstrating, and each dancer was free concerning his or her way of<BR>carrying out the movement while respecting the rhythmical score.<P>Donald Hutera: What does the moon symbolise for you?<P><B>Ginette Laurin:</B> The closer I was getting to the body of the dancers, and the more I was<BR>approaching the infinitely small, the more the infinitely grand would impose<BR>itself. The roundness of the objects that were used (such as the magnifying<BR>glasses) referred to images all related to planets, to the universe and to<BR>the moon for all the mysteries and poetry that's in it.<P>Donald Hutera: What's the appeal of living in Montreal as artist/human being?<P><B>Ginette Laurin:</B> It's a very dynamic city for dance because we do not really have a dance<BR>tradition and there is no such thing as a 'dominating school.' That's why<BR>choreographers here feel so free to create our own language. Within this, my<BR>roots and preoccupations, my observations about my own society and the world<BR>in general are being forged with my creations.<P>Donald Hutera: In what ways is Luna a departure for you?<P><B>Ginette Laurin:</B> I have used live videography for the time. My idea was for the coherent<BR>and harmonious integration of this medium into my work. Luna is also a<BR>meeting between science and art, as I called upon an astrophysicist during<BR>our explorations of the infintely small and large.<P>Donald Hutera: Who do you make your performances for?<P><B>Ginette Laurin:</B> I am speaking to those who want to take part in a sensorial experience<BR>rather than an intellectual one.<P>Donald Hutera: Why do you dance, and make dances, and what keeps you going?<P><B>Ginette Laurin:</B> I don't dance any more, but my experience as a dancer is still very<BR>useful. The human body fascinates me. I believe that it is still the most<BR>extraordinary machine that exists. I have always loved to move and make the<BR>body speak. This is my place. The more I go on, the more I discover new<BR>fields to explore. I sincerely love what I do.<P>Donald Hutera: Anything you think the audience should keep in mind when they come to see Luna?<P><B>Ginette Laurin:</B> They have to appropriate dance with their stomachs, hearts and muscles,<BR>not with their heads!<P>

Another favourite for many at Montreal's Festival International de Nouvelle Danse. <P>Thanks very much for the interview, Donald. I agree with Laurin that you need to allow yourself to react emotionally to what you see on stage, but I think it's not a bad thing to toss it around in your head for awhile either--the head is a part of the body after all.

Luna - O Vertigo Dance - Queen Elizabeth Hall - 23.10.01<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><BR>"My dance" she says "is about vertigo, the allure of the abyss, exhilaration, free-falling emotion."<BR>Quote from Ginette Laurin, documented by Rober Racine, 2000<BR><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>O Vertigo Danse from Quebec are a company that seem to combine the look of effortlessness and clean lifts with a great deal of athleticism and strength. They are also a very emotive company that need to be approached on an individual and sensual level. Luna constantly defined space both personal and between human beings with the dancers continually assessing the different ways in which space and connections could be made between pairs and groups of human beings. The company highlighted this through many entwining lifts and shapings, often complemented by the score which was at times resonant of electric currents - connections made, but not seen or tangible to the eye.<P>The moon was obviously significant from the title and the many clever technical and visual aspects of the performance highlighted this theme well. The large magnifying glasses appearing, as the programme notes describe, "like phases of the moon," enlarged the dancers faces in a grotesquely beautiful way reminiscent of the sort of fantasy and mystical qualities of a man in the moon - a singular face separate from the world and anyone surrounding it.<P>The moon and the many cyclical design elements both in the the dancers movements (rounded, almost balletic arms at times, dancers rolling and wrapping around each other) and in the artistic design of the costumes (large hooped skirts and large round magnifying glasses) triggered from a feminine perspective the many associations the moon has with female cycles. Images such as the camera placed underneath one of the female dancers hooped skirts which then projected images of the dancers moving body onto a screen behind reminded me of the foetal pictures of child in the womb. The same dancer then appearing with projected images of natural elements - earth and fire, onto her hooped skirt, like a giant mother nature, reinforced this connection. Whether this was just a connection I made it seems that the piece is succeeding in its' aims to explore the darker zones that make up the inner self.<P>This is a production of great interest. Technically I felt towards the end there needed to be some more variations in movement but thematically I feel it is successfully awakening a fascination with the human body as one and other.<p>[This message has been edited by Joanne (edited October 23, 2001).]