Xdance

When Marta and Marie take the ball

Le Devoir

June 10 2002

Isabelle Poulin

It's not at the NAC that dance hit to the centre of the heart on friday night as part of the 9th Canada Dance Festival. It is in a small theatre, the Nouvelle Scene, transformed for this occasion into a club, where a bunch of young avid audence members were squished together to see, vibrate and participate in a dance event like those they know well. Xdance, by Montréal choreographer Martha Carter and the company House of Pride, largely Concordia graduates, is much more than a club performance as it is a breathtaking mix of styles. It is a striking demonstration of the vitality of dance, proof that this art is resolutely engaged in a new stage of evolution. It is all there in this happening. In the space where the spectators circle the dancers, the DJ, VJ, and lighting designer each deliver, alone and as an ensemble, a series of electroshocks to anyone who approaches.

The movement, a fascinating fusion of street dance, hip hop, ballet steps, contemporary dance and martial arts is as inventive as you could wish for. The dancers, total bombs, devour the space with a rare urgency and intensity. As solos, duos, and groups, they are united by the same power and the same complicity as those created by the promiscuity of raves. The image and the music, as well as the cataclysmic rhythms, are all an integral part of this universe that, although it seems closed on itself, actually exhales a formidable liberty. Those that believe that modern dance is dead only have to go and rub shoulders with these unself-conscious kamikazes. The future is there.

Faithfully, Marie Chouinard returns to Ottawa to offer her most recent creation and invariably, it is a shock. After the earthquake provoked by her Cri du monde and Les 24 Preludes de Chopin in 2000, this year it is the solo form that is celebrated in solos created for two remarkable performers, Lucie Mongrain and Elijah Brown. Etude nº1 is an exploration in the sound of movement: tap shoes on a metal rug and live sound treatment by Louis Dufort. ALone on stage, Lucie Mongrain adds a dramatic tension that goes beyond what could have just been a stylisticexercise....the trembles and undulations of the torso, this hyper stimulation of the senses that she stops by taking off her shoes and looking around her with a stunned look are astonishing…