NUDITY. DESIRE created and performed by Benjamin Kamino as part of dance: made in Canada/fait au Canada at Betty Oliphant Theatre (404 Jarvis). Wednesday (August 14) and August 17 at 7 pm, August 15 at 9 pm, with William Yongs Steer. $20-$25. 416-533-8577, princessproductions.ca.
Every other year Yvonne Ng sets aside her busy performance career in order to present dance: made in Canada/fait au Canada (d:mic/fac), a mini-festival of contemporary dance. She started the series in 2001, inspired, she says, by the talent that was out there in the community.
Ng and her guest curators (this year Cylla von Tiedemann and Serge Bennathan) strive to present a snapshot of the Canadian dance scene, programming veteran artists alongside hot up-and-comers such as Benjamin Kamino – at d:mic/fac for the first time this year with Nudity. Desire.
“There aren’t a lot of people in Toronto who work the way he does,” says Ng of the Montreal and Toronto-based artist. “Benjamin pushes the boundaries of what live performance is.”
As the title of his work suggests Kamino does indeed get naked in his solo, inviting the audience to gaze upon him and returning that gaze for long minutes. Kamino uses philosophical and historical ideas about nudity, knowledge, identity and language to explore stripping down (and also covering up). Among other things, it’s based on his research on the writing of Erik Peterson and Giorgio Agamben.
“I work with Peterson and Agamben’s ideas about veiling the body’s nudity in movement and finding nudity’s true expression in stillness,” he says. When I ask how the research resolves itself in the dance, Kamino mentions that the investigation is ongoing.
“The performance of the work is also part of the research.”
He’s not even sure he can call the work choreographed.
“I’m still thinking about that,” he says. “It’s not what I’m calling it.”
Kamino is a generous, curious performer who floats easily between presentation platforms – a gallery one week, then a theatre stage, followed by a dance festival. (He’s also working on Sook-Yin Lee’s How Can I Forget? which he performs with her August 9 to 15 at SummerWorks.)
He’s aware of (but not too worried about) the semantics of categorization. What concerns him more these days are practical problems such as how to present an intimate work like Nudity. Desire within the formal proscenium confines of the Betty Oliphant.
“There’s quite a large space between me and the audience,” he points out dryly. “I’m curious to see how that plays out.”
This year’s d:mic/fac lineup also features Toronto favourites William Yong, Louis Laberge-Cote and Michael Caldwell (with the world premiere of a duet exploring the couple’s relationship), aerialists Femmes du Feu and Lucy Rupert. Mocean Dance from Halifax make their Toronto debut with Tedd Robinson’s Canvas 5 X 5, and Prairies represent with Jolene Bailie from Winnipeg.
“There’s also a late-night series [chosen by lottery], a visual arts exhibit and lots of free community happenings,” adds Ng. “It’s big!”
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