August 24, 2004
The good, bad, and ugly at fFIDA
By Paula Citron
Artistic director Michael Menegon decided to hold the entire 14th annual fFIDA International Dance Festival in Toronto's Distillery Historic District because he wanted to create a buzz, and his gamble has paid off. The Studio Series, Grand Scale Event and Urban Matinees attracted large crowds, while the fFIDA dance weekend lured hundreds of spectators to both the outdoor performances. It was a leaner festival, fielding 75 choreographers, a number down about 25 percent from 2003, but, more to the point, every nook and cranny of the Distillery was awash in dance.
The most startling aspect about this year's fFIDA was the presence of men. In fact, there were probably more real live, honest to goodness male dancers on stage than in all the previous 13 years combined. Humour made a welcome return, even to the point of bizarre, and surprisingly, solos, usually the fFIDA mainstay, were almost equally matched by duets and ensembles. Angst-ridden, navel-gazing choreographies were on the wane, while abstract, philosophical and/or cerebral subjects reflect a new trend.
While eerie, electronic music dominated the dance scores to the point where they all started to sound the same, Bach was the classical composer of choice. Mercifully, there was a shortage of embarrassing works, and while craftsmanship is certainly to be applauded, there wasn't a lot of dash and sparkle either. In other words, the dance smiths at the 2004 fFIDA were more interested in refinement than radicalism.
What follows is an alphabetical stream of consciousness describing the festival's highlights and lowlights. All choreographers are from Toronto unless otherwise noted.
Beyond Wacky: Allison Rees Cummings for her dysfunctional bumblebees (We Fall Apart); RT Ficial muTaTions for their insane vampires (Sanity is the Price of Genius); Jane Townsend for her dancing cows and cowboy (Secrets of the Arena); San Francisco's Capacitor for their off-the-wall props including bungee harnesses, juggling balls and flaming reindeer antlers (Connectivity, Remote Sensing and Hothead).
Brilliant: Japan's Mari Osanai, in collaboration with Toronto's Xing Bang Fu, for her disturbing, metaphorical duet about nature's power run amok (Sea-Watching).
Clever: Samara Thompson for her delightful fusion of animation with live dancer Jesse Dell (See Through Me); Jen Johnson for her witty, but troubling, solo dance theatre about a traumatic summer-camp experience (Sounding).
Courageous: Montreal's Andre Fairfield, who is blind, for his searing Holocaust dance/opera (Kristallnacht), and his poignant performance with New York's Richard Daniels in the latter's moving duet about physical and emotional challenges (Vistas); the zaftig, solo flamenco dancer Goshka Folda (stage name, La Perla), for putting herself in a festival with thin dancers half her age and giving her all (Al Mar); Spain's BelVella for the paunchy and aging Ramon Oller and the not-in-her-first-bloom Thérèse Lorenzo for investing Oller's hokey choreography about a troubled relationship (Pecado Pescado) with passion and integrity.
Deep: New Mexico's Helen Myers, Monika Mojica and Fred Bugbee for their intriguing, music-text-movement exploration of aspects of panic (Panic); Japan's Crustacea for Yumiko Hamatani's provocative and explosive duet with Masako Sugimoto about mind games (Rassel).
Disappointing: Goodness Gracious Fire Dancers who do great things with flaming batons but are dismal at choreography (Untitled); Whiz kid Matjash Mrozewski and his underdeveloped movement for a quartet of female fencers (No One Dies); Val Calam for her ugly costume and her one-trick pony choreography to depict animal/human identity (Molt). Mrozewski and Calam have both done much better work in the past.
Feminist Chic: Gdalit Neuman for letting Eve put Adam in his place (Adam's apple); Montreal's Valerie Buddle for her witty dissection of a one-night stand (It Can't Happen Here/Sexual Misadventures); Bracebridge, Ont.'s Kaitlin Clipsham for her bloody but unbowed party girl (Waving or Drowning).
Innovative: Susan Kendal for trying to make the body take flight (The Amelia Project).
Meaty: Matthew Kwasnicki for his reflective solo about the creative process (Interrogation); Tracey Norman for her challenging quartet that explores the meaning of home (14 stairs; 1 window).
Ones to Watch: Montreal's Teoma Nacccarato and Stephane Gladyszewski for their sensuous partnering (Just Friends); Jasmine Inns for her street-wise, savvy movement (Jack); Tina Fushell for her touching and well-thought-out portrayal of emotional baggage (Abundance).
Polished: Naoko Murakoshi for her gentle ensemble about women and their inner voices (Her Silence Softly Breaks); Andreah Hunt for her intricate duet about the ideal versus reality (Spiralling In).
Watchable: Clinton Draper and his bevy of jazz-dance beauties (Brink); Sarah Johnson and her moody, prairie sextet (Terrain); Junoesque Malgorzata Nowacka on point shoes, performing with Irek Muchalski in a sexually tense duet (Drawing the Line of The Hidden Spot); Esmeralda Enrique Spanish Dance Co. and their crisp and gorgeous stage presence (La Capitana).
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