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Culture Theatre

SummerWorks review: A Room to Perform

A ROOM TO PERFORM choreographed and performed by Katie Lyle and Shelby Wright and YES created and performed by Linnea Swan. At the Theatre Centre. Aug 16 at 5 pm, Aug 17 at 7:15 pm, Aug 18 at 6:30 pm. See listings here and here. Rating: NNN (Room) NNNN (YES)

Unintentional or by design, a satisfying double bill can be more than the sum of its parts. In the case of these two dance works, both in development, a meta-commentary on modern dance emerges from two distinctly different concepts.

In A Room To Perform, creator/performers Katie Lyle and Shelby Wright work with a kind of shed built of simple framing and drywall pierced by square and rectangular windows.” The dance takes place in and around the structure, with the audience invited to switch vantage points in order to capture views from different angles.

Some of these hard-earned glimpses there is one window that reveals only the feet and lower legs of the pair are enchanting or cinematic, others banal. The choreography itself is minimal, with lots of right angles and tracing and measuring space with the body.

It is almost the perfect setup for YES, in which performer Linnea Swan devises a comic, yet also heart-pinching, rebuttal to Yvonne Rainers notorious 1965 No Manifesto (which condemned everything from virtuosity to emotion in performance).

Swan uses works from the dance canon Rainers own Trio A, Nijinskys Rite Of Spring, even Marie Chouinards early pee in the bucket performance piece to comment on the difficult relationship even a modern dancer has with modern dance.

A crusty veteran, she takes some potshots at the profession, the naivete of young dancers, the ubiquity of falling down as a choreographic staple and what that has done to her aging body.

Staying right on the edge of bitterness and hilarity, Swan is a treasure.

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