Amour, Mort et Création | The Ottawa Dance Weblog

Carried out April 30, 2022

Gesù Theatre, Montreal

Kemal Payza tackles the philosophical themes of affection, demise and creativity in his new manufacturing, Amour, Mort et Création, which is a followup to his 2019 debut up to date dance present Mythologies.

Can we stay on after our demise, by way of our kids and thru our inventive works of magnificence, music, dance, he asks in this system. Can this sort of a legacy survive our demise?

The inspiration for his new dance work, says Payza, an area artist and musician, developed from his curiosity in historic Greek philosophers’ imaginative and prescient of affection (the God Eros), demise (separation) and creativity (artwork, music, dance, procreation).

Syrian dancer Ahmad Joudeh impressed “Dance or Die”

Six dancers discover these themes by way of a sequence of fifteen components, or vignettes, created by 5 choreographers, together with certainly one of Montreal’s foremost Latin choreographers, Cuban-born Julio Hong, who acts as inventive director for the manufacturing. Different choreographers embody Cuban performer and creator Yelda Leyva, internationally famend choreographer Eva Kolarova, Catherine Dagenais-Savard, a former dancer with Compagnie Marie Chouinard and one of many stars of Mythologies, and Cuban dancer and choreographer Niosbel Osmar González Rubio.

Maybe probably the most engaging characteristic of the one-hour present is the bizarre assortment of accompanying soundtracks, comprising not often heard devices, particularly in up to date dance, which transport the viewers to unique locales and historic epochs. The internationally acclaimed Montreal baroque viola da gamba duo Margaret Little and Susie Napper, often known as Les Voix Humaines, is featured in a number of of the dances. We additionally hear such unusual devices as the traditional Center Jap ney (an end-blown flute), the oud (a short-necked lute), the tanbur (a long-necked lute sacred in Central Asia) and the cimbalom (a hammered dulcimer designed in Hungary within the 19^th century) in addition to a chunk by Turkish jazz saxophonist Yahya Dai. Apart from Les Voix Humaines, many different Montreal musicians have contributed to the soundtrack, together with François Rainville, François Perron, Alexandru Sura, Sean Dagher, and French classical singer Hermine Revel.

Amour, Mort et Création opens to the whimsical strains of 19^th century Spanish composer Francisco Tárrega’s well-known serenade, Capricho árabe, performed by classical guitarist Alexandra Whittingham. The five-minute dance, choreographed by Kolarova, is carried out by Leyva, who seems to be just about boneless in her lyrical fluid interpretation of Tárrega’s poetic melody.

Earlier than the efficiency correct begins, Payza addresses the viewers, suggesting we assemble our personal story out of what we witness on the stage, if we certainly desire a story, or that we merely join our emotions to the music and the dance. “Think about what we’re seeing as a single set of ideas that are viewed from very different angles.”

The manufacturing begins with a disembodied voice who tells us she is the spirit of Diotima of Mantinea, the traditional Greek priestess/thinker in Plato’s Symposium whose concepts of Eros are the origin of what we name Platonic love. In an effort to at all times have goodness and sweetness in our lives, she says, we must stay without end. And but, in distinction, our lives move rapidly.

The voice continues into the primary dance piece, She dreamt that her life was a 3-minute dance, asking us to think about how demise, love and creation are associated. Eros is a seek for one thing we lack and want: data, companionship or immortality. And the way in which we try to immortalize ourselves is thru procreation or era of works of magnificence, music, or dance, for instance. Does this lead to an everlasting legacy, she asks.

Payza has taken his theme of whether or not or not artwork, or dance, can immortalize us, by presenting a short dance, Dance or Die, devoted to the spirit and braveness of Syrian dancer Ahmad Joudeh, who was threatened with beheading by Syrian extremists as a result of he dances, carried out dolefully by Keenan Simik Komaksiutiksak; and Reviens, carried out by duo Louise Gamain and Alida Esmail, which questions if a useless language (Previous Uyghur on this case, a language spoken in Central Asia greater than a thousand years in the past) could be introduced again to life by singing a track within the outdated language. It’s a track about looking. Whereas most of their duet is danced as if they're mirror photographs, they're typically out of sync, which presumably displays the disconnection that comes with separation.

Cleverly, a lot of the dances weave subtly into the subsequent, as dancers welcome or usher out the subsequent performers. Generally one vignette “logically” blends into the subsequent. For instance, the solo dancer Louise Gamain in Adagio accompanied by a Bach piano piece, offers technique to the duet A Marriage ceremony, as Hugo Pimentel enters the stage to hitch Gamain.

Different instances, a piece stands by itself, akin to Improvisation #2, a duet that performs to the spirited baritone saxophone of Yahya Dai, or the whole flip of phrase that comes with O, Maintenant, Je Dois Partir, accompanied by a French interpretation by Payza of a track by English Renaissance lutenist John Dowland to oud and bouzouki strains.

About midway by way of the efficiency, a vignette choreographed by Hong and Leyva referred to as Will You Bear in mind? is likely one of the extra attention-grabbing items. It's accompanied by 17^th century’s Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe’s Prelude in D minor, and textual content spoken by Hermine Revel that mixes a local American chant, and a mirrored image on the connection between the weather of water, earth, fireplace and air and the present’s themes of affection, demise and creation. 5 dancers, every with a person interpretation, play off harsh mild and dusky shadow, with sturdy again lighting. We hear a contemplation of our our bodies comprising the 4 components, which is able to finally return to earth. “I close my eyes and face the sun. This is the way I can connect to it the most . . . My life will be nothing but a memory. Will you remember?” Though narrated in French on stage, this system has the English model.

Eradicate the deep philosophy behind the manufacturing—and Payza says he has no expectations of his viewers in that regard—and the dances themselves could be loved for his or her fluid actions, and the bizarre accompaniment of historic devices, baroque music, up to date percussive harp and rhythms of south-eastern Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey).

An English model of this extremely contemplative manufacturing is deliberate for Ottawa and elsewhere in Canada within the close to future.