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Culture Dance

Glenn Sumi’s top 5 dance shows

Tanztheater Wuppertal/Luminato, June 11 to 14

After an absence of nearly 30 years, Pina Bausch‘s Tanztheater Wuppertal made a triumphant return to Toronto for Luminato with this classic work, a veritable dance of life set in a dance hall/schoolroom and featuring the company’s gloriously diverse ensemble. A profound and moving look at what it means to be human.

Canadian Stage/Circa, November 12 to 16

Circus and acrobatics can be exciting and funny, but the Australian troupe Circa proved it could do so much more. Yaron Lifschitz, his jaw-droppingly talented troupe and the Debussy String Quartet – playing three Shostakovich quartets onstage – provided stunning scenes that went beyond virtuosity to create sublime art. Dance or theatre? Doesn’t matter. Just genius.

Abraham.In.Motion/World Stage, February 5 to 8

In retrospect, Kyle Abraham‘s 2010 show, inspired by the urban radio stations of his youth and his father’s dementia, might seem a touch lightweight. But beneath those impeccably danced sequences to soul and R&B songs is the idea that hope can and must survive even amidst brutality and unfairness.

Fujiwara Dance Inventions/World Stage, March 19 to 22

Denise Fujiwara and a versatile team of performers (Lucy Rupert, Claudia Moore, Miko Sobreira, Rebecca Hope Terry and Gerry Trentham) helped bring Christian Bok’s book – featuring poems using the same vowel – to playful life in this beautifully designed one-of-a-kind show.

Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie, May 21 to 31

Laurence Lemieux‘s piece about the King didn’t feel fully formed, but what a treat to watch James Kudelka‘s C&W-influenced ode to Johnny Cash. The piece was cute when it premiered on the National Ballet of Canada’s stage a few years ago. In the intimacy of the Citadel, performed a few feet away from you by modern dancers, it rocked the house.

Skylar Campbell and Francesco Gabriele Frola are, respectively, a second soloist and a corps member at the National Ballet of Canada. But both were given huge opportunities this season and triumphed: Frola was Lescaut in Manon, and both shared the demanding title role of Nijinsky with Guillaume Cote, proving that the company has future stars in its midst.

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