Dynamic, theatrical dance

CYNTHIA RAMSAY

“I love dance because movement is able to convey to the audience an enormous amount of subtext and information that text often cannot. We forget how much movement is a part of our lives and how we communicate to one another. Dance brings this to the stage.”

Choreographer Barak Marshall shared this and other insights with the Jewish Independent in an interview about his upcoming shows at Chutzpah! The Lisa Nemetz Showcase of Jewish Performing Arts. His work, Monger, which was commissioned by Tel Aviv’s Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance and Theatre and premièred in 2008 at the Tel Aviv International Dance Festival, will be performed on the Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre stage by members of the Los Angeles-based dance company BODYTRAFFIC. Also to be featured is local choreographer Noam Gagnon, performing his newest full-length work, Thank You, You’re Not Welcome, which is based on his 10 Things You’ll Hate About Me, which premièred in 2010.

The two performances should complement each other well, as Gagnon’s Compagnie Vision Selective assigns a similar importance to the role of movement in the way we communicate with each other. Its website reads, “Employing themes of vision and perception, Compagnie Vision Selective creates performances that explore the intricacies of human relationships and the dynamic tension that move us ... [and] reflects the intimate concerns, ideas and attitudes that shape our relationships to ourselves and each other.”

Thank You, You’re Not Welcome is described as a “madcap tale [that] walks the tissue-thin line between art and life, ushering audiences deep into a wild storybook world in the tradition of the Brothers Grimm.” The dramaturge and playwright working with Gagnon is another well-known B.C. artist, James Fagan Tait. Together, they have created a series of vignettes that may, or may not, be autobiographical, according to the publicity material, but which promise “fierce, hyper-speed movement that combines humor, pathos and absurdity to move the audiences by the recognition of a life lived.”

Monger is also described as being a physical work, sharp and fast, containing “ethnic-contemporary motifs and ... known for being highly emotive, visual and theatrical.” With an eclectic score – of Gypsy, Balkan, classical and rock music – Monger “tells the story of a group of servants trapped in the basement of the house of an abusive mistress.”

The promotional material notes that the narrative structure of Monger is drawn from sources including Jean Genet’s play The Maids and Robert Altman’s film Gosford Park.

“While I am influenced and guided by literature, I do not try and recreate a play or story in literal form,” clarified Marshall to the Independent. “I draw upon a wide variety of sources as inspiration in trying to create a new story. For me, building the narrative of the work begins with an idea. I start gathering music, reading as much as I can, and gathering images, and the idea starts ricocheting back and forth – connecting the dots and gathering around it characters, a sense of place, time and a raison d’être.”

Later in the interview, he explained, “Most of my work deals with the struggle for self-determination and the battle against the forces in life that try and silence one’s authentic voice. In Monger, it’s the servants revolting against a cruel mistress. Rooster tells the story of a silent man, so put upon by the cruel intentions of others that the only way he can pursue his dreams is while he sleeps. And my latest piece, Wonderland, is a story about 10 people trapped in a type of purgatory, struggling to find hope, love and acceptance.”

Marshall, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, is the son of Israeli dancer, choreographer, actress and musician Margalit Oved (who was born and raised in Yemen). Dividing his time between Tel Aviv and Los Angeles, he is not only a multiple-award-winning choreographer – creating works for several companies and festivals, being Batsheva Dance Company’s first-ever house choreographer (1999-2000) and helping to establish a partnership between the UCLA department of world arts and cultures, the university’s Centre for Intercultural Performance and the Dellal Centre, among other ventures – but a renowned singer as well. In 2006, he was invited to be a soloist in Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project, the L.A. Jewish Symphony commissioned composer Ariel Blumenthal to write a piece for Marshall in 2008 and, currently, Marshall is a guest vocalist with Yuval Ron Ensemble. For him, music and dance are inextricably intertwined.

“I cannot see a piece of choreography unless I hear it first,” he said. “I only begin the process of creating the movement when I have the soundtrack of the work completed. For me, music is where dance begins. As a choreographer, I work in the genre of dance-theatre and the music that I choose serves as the dramaturgical and emotional backbone of the choreography’s narrative arc.”

As a choreographer having worked with various companies, Marshall said he doesn’t find the experience of working with a more established company, like Batsheva, which was founded in 1964, and a relatively young company, such as BODYTRAFFIC, which was established in 2007, that different.

“In both cases,” he explained, “I am trying to create the best work possible. The real challenge when you are not working [with] your own dancers is that you have to both build the work and teach the culture of your dance language simultaneously. In both cases, the challenge for me is to respect the dancers while not allowing the work of other choreographers to seep into my process and product.”

However, Marshall said, “Each company brings its own culture to a work. The Israeli cast brings their own loud and self-assured culture to Monger, while BODYTRAFFIC brings a disciplined physicality that is something I love about American dancers. While I do create all of the movement in my work, I leave an enormous amount of room for the dancer to interpret the ‘text.’ One thing I do not appreciate in dance is the anonymous corps-de-ballet, where dancers are reduced to forgettable and interchangeable bodies on stage. In my work, the dancers are like actors, they have to bring themselves and their personalities into the work. I hope to set the piece on as many companies as possible.”

Marshall’s work includes the music production Symphony of Tin Cans, with Oved and Balkan Beat Box’s Tamir Muskat, and the aforementioned Rooster, commissioned by the Dellal Centre and the Israeli Opera, which premièred in 2009, and Wonderland, which premièred in December 2011 at the Dellal Centre. In 2012, he will be creating several new works, including commissions for Ballet Jazz de Montreal and for BODYTRAFFIC.

About the prominence of the Dellal Centre in his career, Marshall said, “The Suzanne Dellal Centre is the main reason I am working again as a choreographer. I left dance after severely breaking my leg in 2000 and I could not find work for eight years. In 2008, I founded a choreographic exchange program between Los Angeles and Tel Aviv [which is mentioned above] and, in the first summer workshop, I presented a minute of material. Yair Vardi, the director of Suzanne Dellal, liked the material and told me, ‘I think it’s time for you to come back to Israel and create.’ Suzanne Dellal provided the dancers, studio and budget and that’s how I returned to dance.”

But he returned a changed man.

“When I first started to dance, I was young, passionate, naïve and insecure,” he said. “Dance is such a small field and the competition is so great and ferocious and I allowed it to consume me. Breaking my leg and not being able to dance put things in perspective and gave me time to return to other things I love – stories, music, film. Most importantly, dance became part of my life and does not define me, and I think that this allows me to bring more freedom, curiosity and purpose into the work that I create.”

Monger and Thank You, You’re Not Welcome will be performed on Thursday, Feb. 23, at 8 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 25, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; and Sunday, Feb. 26, at 2 p.m. For tickets, call 604-257-5145 or visit chutzpahfestival.com or the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver.

More Chutzpah! dance

The Chutzpah! Festival’s dance offerings, which all take place at the Rothstein Theatre, not only feature talent from across the world, but internationally renowned local talent and promising local up-and-comers.

Established in 1997 by the Dutch Ministry of Culture, Noord Nederlandse Dans (formerly known as NND/Galili Dance), based in Groningen, Holland, is known for its athleticism, musicality and virtuosity. Under Stephen Shropshire’s artistic direction and choreographic leadership since 2009, the company has built a repertoire of intellectually and emotionally challenging works. Though they have toured extensively, this is their first visit to Canada. They will be here for shows on Feb. 15 and 16, 8 p.m.; and Feb. 18, 2 and 7 p.m.

Closer to home, during their six-week Chutzpah! residency, dancers and choreographers Donald Sales and Cherice Barton created a new work – about a lawless frontier where survival is ruthless and human emotion magnified – for which they will be joined on stage by dancers Lara Barclay, Leon Feizo-Gas, Jennifer Welsman, Cori Caulfield, Kevin Tookey and Billy Bell. As well, Sales and Barton will perform a new duet created for them by Barton’s sister, choreographer and dancer Aszure Barton; called Chapter Three: Collaboration, it has an original score by Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin. These shows will take place on Feb. 19, 7 p.m.; and Feb. 20 and 21, 8 p.m.

More local talent will be featured in the Community Dance and Music Show. Taking to the stage on Sunday, Feb. 26, 11 a.m., will be Or Atid and Or Chadash, dancers in grades 7 through 12, who celebrate Jewish and Israeli culture through music and dance; teen Israeli performance group Hora Goel from Kiryat Shmona, who first visited Vancouver in 2005 as part of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s Partnership Together Gesher Chai-Living Bridge initiatives; JCC Shalom Dancers, the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver’s adult performing group, who share a passion for Israeli dance, have worked with choreographers from Mexico and Israel, and are part of an Israeli/Bhangra collaborative project with the Surrey India Arts Club, who will also be performing; and ShowStoppers, a group of young performers directed by Perry Ehrlich, who have appeared in concert, on TV and radio, and at numerous events throughout British Columbia.

For more information and tickets, visit chutzpahfestival.com. The festival takes place from Feb. 11 to March 4.

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