From dancing on ice to dancing in trees
With dance recital season in full swing, the Guelph Dance Festival celebrated 18 years of innovative programming among the local arts community. The annual festival took place over four days, from June 2 to 5, and featured performers all the way from Hungary to Vancouver.
Coordinators of the festival aim to make the art of dance more accessible to audiences by bringing out unique performances and occupying unexpected spaces each year.
One of the most exciting events of the weekend took place at the University of Guelph’s Gold Ice Rink. Le Patin Libre, an ice dancing troupe from Montréal, treated audiences to an exciting and expressive performance, followed by an ice dancing party and workshop.
Le Patin Libre, which translates to “The Free Skate,” is comprised of five ex-figure skaters looking to push the boundaries of a highly conservative industry.
“Figure skating is about two things: either it’s about competitions or it’s about show business, so you want to sell tickets,” explained Alexandre Hanel, one of the performers and choreographers of Le Patin Libre. “What we do here is not about selling tickets or winning medals, it’s about expression, research, choreography, [and] innovation.”
The dancers performed their piece, Vertical Influences, in two parts. For the first part of the show, the audience sat in the stands, watching from above as the dancers carved patterns in the freshly cleared ice. The troupe moved effortlessly as a unit, but allowed each individual dancer showcase his or her strengths and talents.
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After a brief intermission, audiences were eager to get relocated to seating on the ice for the second act. The dancers re-emerged with a high-energy performance that spanned the entire rink and left the front two rows covered in ice shavings.
According to Hanel, some of the greatest challenges of ice dancing are getting time to practice on the ice and getting the dance world to accept that figure skaters can become interesting choreographers.
At the Guelph Dance Festival, however, Le Patin Libre was welcomed with open arms and open minds.
“It’s the dance world opening itself to new people and making the effort to reach out there,” said Hanel. “It’s all part of a beautiful effort that dance needs to survive.”
The Guelph Dance Festival has made a conscious effort over the years to reach new audiences by straying from traditional contemporary dances and offering programming for all kinds of genres and in all kinds of venues.
The festival’s annual In the Park series was set to take place at both Exhibition Park and Hanlon Creek Park, and also extended to the Guelph Youth Studios for its final performance due to inclement weather.
For the series’ stage manager and recent University of Guelph graduate, Amber Sherwood-Robinson, being adaptable is a prerequisite for any of the outdoor performances.
“It helps to be organized beforehand, but during the weekend you just have to go with the flow and be really open to creating new and adaptable solutions,” explained Sherwood-Robinson, who has been involved in the Guelph Dance Festival since she started performing with the Youth Dance Company.
This year, Sherwood-Robinson had the challenge of stage-managing a show that was designed to use a variety of unconventional spaces and techniques.
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While Mississauga’s Frog in Hand troupe combined medieval combat with dance in their piece Dragon, Vancouver-based Aeriosa performed their piece Birds Land, vertically among the trees.
“We’re always trying to find new and exciting ways to push the boundaries of what dance is, and I think that’s why [the festival] incorporates multiple styles of dance, not just contemporary dance,” said Sherwood-Robinson.
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Hungary’s Ferenc Fehér and Guelph’s Hidden Heart Collective also took part in the outdoor performances, telling stories through passion and motion and having the grass stains to prove it. On stage at the River Run Centre, the dances took a more familiar form, but were no less unique and inspiring.
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Choreographer Julia Sasso’s award-winning Sporting Life piece, first performed in 1995, brought a highly theatrical element to the stage, portraying the vulnerability and aggression of the five performers.
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Suzanne Miller and Allan Paivio Productions presented THIRST, a contemporary work of strength and intimacy using a mirrored surface and water as a metaphor to tell their story.
While many of the performers were veterans of the dance world, the festival offered multiple opportunities for enthusiasts of all levels to participate in workshops and dance markets, and ended with a showcase of youth dance companies from Southern Ontario.
As part of Guelph’s Fab 5 Festivals, the Guelph Dance Festival also partnered with the Guelph Jazz Festival, Guelph Film Festival, and Eden Mills Writers’ Festival to promote collaboration within the local arts community.