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March 2, 2007
Much more than a swan song
Modern dance pioneer returns to stage, looks to future.
KATHARINE HAMER EDITOR
When Judith Marcuse first arrived in Vancouver in 1977, the city's
dance scene was a mere shadow of what it is today. There was no
Ballet British Columbia, only a handful of modern artists and no
major studio space for professional dancers.
That space, the Scotiabank Dance Centre, opened in 2001 and it's
where Marcuse has her offices and rehearsal studios.
"I think [dance in Vancouver] is in a healthy state right now,"
she said in a recent interview with the Independent. "I
think there's a lot of interesting work bubbling up at the moment.
I'm quite excited by what's going on. It's changed a huge amount,
there's much more work going on, yet some of the pioneers, some
of them are still working, still producing good work – and,
of course, I've seen the evolution of people I've worked with.
"[Vancouver is] most definitely [on the dance map] and for
a wide variety of reasons. There are good dancers, a lot of mixed
discipline work. People would love to be touring more in the province
and across the country – that's still a very big issue here.
And it's still a big issue that we don't see enough coming in from
outside. That makes it difficult for the public to have a high level
of dance literacy."
That literacy – and its transformation into a socially active
context – is something that Marcuse has promoted throughout
her career. She has always been at the forefront of dance innovation,
winning Canada's two most prestigious choreographic nods, the Chalmers
Award and the Clifford E. Lee Award, early on.
Marcuse, who studied ballet as a child and performed with the Royal
Ballet, Ballet Rambert and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, among others,
founded her first company, the Judith Marcuse Dance Projects Society,
in Vancouver in 1980. Four years later, she launched the Judith
Marcuse Repertory Dance Company, which, in 1990, became Dance Arts
Vancouver – a nod to the multidisciplinary type of work Marcuse
had begun to explore.
"I think the more clear languages you have at your fingertips,
probably the better chance you have of having a richer mix,"
she said of Dance Arts pieces that meld video, music, dance and
theatre.
The group has been involved in two major initiatives. The KISS project,
launched in 1995, is an annual festival of new works by playwrights
and choreographers – each five minutes long and containing
at least one kiss.
Then there are the collaborative works staged with youth, like ICE:
Beyond Cool, which explores teen suicide, and FIRE: Where
There's Smoke, in which youngsters express their feelings about
societal violence.
Marcuse comes from a tradition of social activism. She grew up in
Montreal with parents who were deeply involved in the peace movement.
For her, using dance as a tool for social change was a natural progression
– one she's about to take even further with the launch of an
international centre for art and social change.
She's also about to take to the stage for the first time in 20 years,
with a piece commissioned for the Chutzpah! Festival.
"It's been quite a journey," she reflected of the experience,
"really, really interesting. First of all, I had to get into
shape. I've been choreographing and staying somewhat in shape as
a civilian choreographer, but I have injuries, I have a very bad
knee and I've got back injuries ... but I'm just loving it. It's
just like going home. I'm very grateful to be doing this. It seems
like the right thing to be doing right now."
The 18-minute piece is a variation of Four Working Songs,
which Marcuse created for Ballet Rambert in 1976. This latest version
features five songs, "everything from Bach and Handel to Nina
Simone and an Ethiopian piece and a crazy mambo by Yma Sumac,"
she said.
"It's been an exploration of different aspects of my life,
dancing and creating and producing," she said. "It's another
transition point in my life ... and I turn 60 the week after the
show, so it's just a time to look back and look forward."
She said her family strongly encouraged her to perform again. Her
mother, who's 87, still plays piano for dance companies, "so
the fact that I'm going back on the stage is exciting for her, because
I had that long, long performing career," Marcuse noted. "She
kept saying to me, for many years, 'You should go back! you should
go back!' My husband's been saying the same thing, so has [her daughter]
Rachel – so I finally capitulated."
Marcuse performs at the closing night of the Chutzpah! Festival,
Saturday, March 3, 9 p.m., at the Norman Rothstein Theatre. Tickets
are $20. Call 604-257-5145.
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