Tony Chong, Peter Boneham and Marilyn Lightstone
photo: Aaron McKenzie Fraser
Tony Chong's Revolver
Encounters with the inner beast
T.S. Warren
Tony Chong's Revolver penetrates our killer instinct
They shoot horses, don't they?Dancer Lori Duncan gallops in a crazed circle around the dance studio, violently rears back and lets forth an ear-piercing whinny.
To say that Montreal choreographer Tony Chong is unleashing his dancers' inner beasts is to hit the visceral core of Revolver, his new dance-theatre work created at Ottawa's Le Groupe Dance Lab. Six young dancers mine the killer core of murder-suicide in words and movement in a labyrinthine stage set at Arts Court Theatre, November 16, 17 and 18.
"It's just so bizarre that the school shootings at Dawson College should be a main topic of conversation these days," he says during a wide-ranging interview at Dance Lab. In fact, he found the seed for his disturbing new work several years ago in the December 6, 1989, École Polytechnique de Montréal massacre of 14 women - 12 of them engineering students - by Marc Lépine, who targeted the women then turned the gun on himself. The reverberations of the massacre included the suicide of two male students who had been on the campus that day and a public cry for gun control, especially from Quebecers.
"Being in Montreal, and reading the names of the murdered women in newspapers every year on the anniversary, it's been in my head for a long time," admits Chong, who arrived in the city from Vancouver in 1984 as a young dancer, quickly becoming part of the Quebec dance scene.
"There is [still] that whole controversy around the Polytechnique massacre, such as: 'Why did the men leave the room?'
There is such a lingering sense of abandonment and it's become such a sexist issue. Would we blame the women if they had abandoned the men? I don't know," he says shaking his head. "I can't imagine being in a room and somebody starts shooting and says, 'Get the fuck out of here!'"
An exploration of a killer's state of mind rather than a literal re-enactment of events, Revolver draws for inspiration on various sources, from Tennessee Williams' little-known one-act play The Municipal Abattoir to the ancient Greek myth of the Minotaur, the man-beast confined in a labyrinth and fed a diet of youths and maidens.
INSIDE THE MAZE
"The maze is to keep the beast from getting out, but it also represents the stuff we've built around ourselves to protect us as a society, like the Polytechnique," says Chong, whose work plays with that duality. Similarly, while the dancework features a Lépine-like character portrayed by dancer James Phillips, the choreographer believes everyone has the killer potential: "Evil is innate in all of us and either we try to kill it or let it become us."
Underscored by tense, pulsing music created by Montreal composer Nicolas Bernier, the new work requires the dancers to project shifting emotional states while moving precisely within a claustrophobic grid. For Phillips to find the murderer within himself is similar to, but far more difficult to convey than, the cinematic transformation of a man into a werewolf.
Revolver marks Chong's third Dance Lab creation, his first since becoming co-artistic director with founder Peter Boneham of the Ottawa-based choreographic centre almost two years ago. Seeded at Dance Lab, his I See Much Less Than Is to Come premiered last February at Montreal's L'Agora de la danse featuring Dance Lab dancers.
A critic of what he calls "the dumbing down of dance," Revolver was shown to students from two Ottawa high schools earlier in the week with no concession to censoring the material or pandering to a youth audience.
In his most theatrical work to date, Chong is pushing the contemporary dance envelope with the help of well-known Toronto film, stage and television actress Marilyn Lightstone, who came in as a drama monitor or "third eye" for two weeks of the arduous creative process with Boneham as dance editor.
Choreographers take anywhere from six months to two years, or more, to mount a new 50-minute work, but Chong, the dancers - aided by set designer Normand Vandal and lighting director Paul Auclair - and the two monitors have had less than three weeks.
"In the end, it's about whether the people on stage contribute to the intent of the creator," says Lightstone, neatly summing up the challenge. "And with such a limited time, having more than one eye looking at the work may speed up the process."
The Genie Award-winner also coached the dancers on delivering text and dialogue, since the marriage of dance and vocalization is not as commonplace in North American dance as it is in Europe, where dance-theatre has a long tradition.
"It's new for them, a lot to absorb and it's very difficult text, but they're working very hard." One difference between actors and dancers, she laughingly reports, is that "dancers listen and do what they're told, whereas actors are much more meddlesome, they tend to question and pick apart everything."
Performing in Revolver along with Duncan and Phillips are resident Dance Lab dancers Alanna Kraaijeveld, Marie Claire Forté, newcomer Donald Taruc and Mexican guest artist Alberto De Leon.
CURIOSITY AND HUNGER
"I couldn't do what they do, I don't have the patience," Chong admits. "These guys are constantly at the whim of a choreographer they haven't chosen. I come from a place and background where I chose whom I wanted to work with."
Indeed he did, dancing for Quebec's most dynamic choreographers at a time when Montreal was the undisputed world capital of trailblazing dance. As well as performing for La Compagnie Marie Chouinard, Carbon 14 and the legendry Jean-Pierre Perreault, to name but a few, he danced with Dominique Porte's Systeme D and José Navas's Compagnie Flak. On the international scene, he danced with Germany's Steptext Dance and with Belgium's Ballets C. de la B., which arrives at the National Arts Centre next weekend.
The route to the dance stage included detours in visual arts, but it was a ballet class in downtown Toronto followed by modern dance at Simon Fraser University, where his teacher was one of the original La La La Human Steps dancers, that was to seal Chong's fate.
"I took one class and got addicted. For years, I didn't think I was lucky because it's such a hard-knock life - there's no money - but I found a passion and a lot of people don't have that."
His family is back in B.C., but his heart is in Montreal where he thrives on the creative "curiosity and hunger" and tries to return each weekend.
"I can see three shows a week, there's always something going on. You may not always see fantastic work but at least people are trying."
Still, he found it hard to refuse when Boneham asked if he would be interested in helping to run Dance Lab.
"Peter's this huge icon, so it was hard to turn him down, and I believe in the concept of the Lab, it's such an amazingly unique service. There's no money for arts, especially for dance, so just how are we going to make better choreographers if we don't challenge them?"
The Lab forces a choreographer to take ownership of his work, he believes, because after each presentation he or she must respond to the public's questions and observations.
"Dance Lab audiences are really curious and observant. Some of the questions are right bang on so you'd better know what you are putting on stage and what you're saying politically."
Revolver
Tony Chong at Le Groupe Dance Lab
November 16, 17 & 18 at 7 p.m., $25
Arts Court Theatre |
Susan Hickman
The Ottawa Citizen
The grey afternoon sky didn't dampen the spirits of nearly 100 supporters of dance who gathered in the intimate garden of arts patrons Barb and Glenn McInnes yesterday.
A duet by Alanna Kraaijeveld and James Phillips, two of Le Groupe Dance Lab performers entertaining the standing-room-only crowd, elicited delightful chuckles when they pulled off a smooth Cha Cha on the wet grass, to the accompaniment of the Doris Day number Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps.
Smitten by the track on an old recording, Ms. Kraaijeveld suggested to Mr. Phillips that they base their duet on the once-popular song.
Mr. Phillips, the Lab's newest "funky" addition, also performed a spontaneous solo on the flagstone walk, in the shelter of an old Norway maple tree, in front of the McInnes residence, to greet some of the later arrivals.
Marie Claire Forte and Lori Duncan performed a humorous interactive piece on and around a box placed on the lawn, accompanied by LB's techno version of The Rolling Stones's Angie.
The pair wanted to present a "fun, simple, entertaining piece" to potential dance patrons, who might otherwise find the type of choreographic experimentation that goes on at Le Groupe's dance laboratory inaccessible, said Ms. Duncan.
Throwing in such recognizable movements as the Charleston , Ms. Forte explained that she wanted people attending the garden party to learn that the dance lab is not just about abstract dance.
The party was a fundraiser for Le Groupe, a company of dancers Mr. McInnes believes are "incredibly dedicated." After raising $10,000 last year, the McInneses threw their second annual event at their Elmdale home "to open people up to going to a performance."
"Artists and creative people enhance our lives," added Ms. McInnes, "and this particular dance form is very difficult to raise money for."
The upcoming Le Groupe Dance Lab season opens with Emmanuel Jouthe, with performances slated for September 22, 29 and 30 at Arts Court .
© The Ottawa Citizen 2006 |
