Dance

One year after its successful debut, Prairie Dance Circuit returns to Winnipeg on Oct. 28 and 29 with a second showcase of Western Canadian dance at the Rachel Browne Theatre. The annual production officially kicks off Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers’ 47th season before resuming a four-city tour that began in Calgary last weekend.
   
The mixed-repertoire show is the brainchild of five artistic directors: Brian Webb (Edmonton’s Brian Webb Dance Company); Robin Poitras (Regina’s Rouge-gorge; New Dance Horizons); Calgary’s Davida Monk (M-Body) and Nicole Mion (Springboard Performance), and WCD’s Brent Lott. Building on last season’s program — which highlighted emerging dancers from each of the four cities — this year’s show will feature a rare cornucopia of solos and duets choreographed by the well-established directors themselves.
   
"I think it’s pretty exciting that we have these five directors coming together to put together a show," Lott says over the phone.
   
"The offerings are diverse and yet there are things that link us all together. I’m excited about having an audience see that, within our diversity, there is so much that connects us in our artistic practice."
   
One of those offerings is the world premiere of Lott’s duet The Occasion of our Passing, performed with WCD company member Sarah Roche. The 12-and-a-half minute piece, set to music by Hauschka and Hildur Gudnadóttir, explores inter-generational relationships as well as the aging process — including, literally, one’s own passing from life.
   
The work will also be the first time that 49-year-old Lott will perform onstage professionally since his appearance at Toronto’s Older and Reckless series in March 2007.
   
Developing the piece with the twentysomething Roche, a graduate of the School of Contemporary Dancers and one of his former students, has been exhilarating, he says.
   
"We know the duet well enough so now we can start to play," he explains. "It’s captured something — that sense of knowing, or authenticity of the moment, that I thought I might not ever experience (as a dancer) again."
   
Another piece dealing with the ravages of time is Webb’s poignant solo 30% gone, choreographed in the aftermath of a heart attack he experienced last October. Lott calls the 20-minute work performed by the 60-year-old dance icon — who also just stepped down from his nine-year artistic directorship of the Canada Dance Festival this month — "bare-bones honest.
   
"Brian approaches the whole aging thing with lightness, and a little wink and a nod," he says (at one point, Webb struts down a model’s runway in defiance of age). "At other points, his candour becomes very, very compelling and touching."
   
The program also includes Poitras’ visually stunning soft foot, performed by Ziyian Kwan; Monk’s Under Cover of Darkness, performed by Hilary Maxwell; and Mion’s Quiver, performed by dancers James Gnam and Jenn Jaspar.
   
With such eclecticism on display, one might wonder whether or not a Prairie aesthetic even exists.
   
"I don’t think any of us have tried to officially define that yet, but I’m hoping that the discussion will begin about what is a modern dance Prairie aesthetic. Is there one? What are the elements that we share?" Lott asks.
   
"I think that’s what we’re trying to discover."
 

PRAIRIE DANCE CIRCUIT
Presented by Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers
Oct. 28 & 29, Rachel Browne Theatre