War.Requiem uses music, powerful imagery and brief storytelling to weave together an interdisciplinary performance
War.Requiem is a physically and emotionally demanding contemporary dance piece that focuses on the negative psychological transformation that evolves out of war. Taking a fresh approach to the spring dance performance, SFU’s School of Contemporary Arts uses dance, music and digital art to portray the harsh effects that war can have on the individual psyche.
This collaborative is composed by a myriad of choreographers (among them 605 Collective, Shawna Elton, Vanessa Goodman and Rob Kitsos) who have used their own experiences and perspectives of war to create individual dances that are shown as a whole.
Inspiration for War.Requiem first emerged from Rob Kitsos, whose stepfather worked as a journalist at the National Public Radio in the United States. During this time, Kitsos’ stepfather wrote many articles that focused on posttraumatic stress disorder — a disorder that greatly influenced Kitsos’ creation of War. Requiem.
The idea of the performance flourished even further with the contribution of music composer Gabriel Saloman, who recommended the book Trauma and Recovery to Kitsos. This book discusses how war distorts a soldier’s sense of reality, specifically how they are unable to differentiate between love and hate, right and wrong, resulting in a loss of a sense of reality.
War.Requiem uses music, powerful imagery and brief storytelling to weave together an interdependent movement of dancers who draw on their own personal emotional experience to create a moving masterpiece.
Throughout the show, a female dancer wrapped in paper walks at an easy pace across the stage. As the performance progresses, she slowly unwraps the paper around her body. By the end, all of the paper is gone and she stands there in a nude leotard.
There are multiple interpretations of this female dancer and the change she undergoes, contingent on the audience’s understanding of war and personal experiences. This, along with the interdisciplinary element, is what makes the piece so multi-faceted.
Kitsos hopes War.Requiem will inspire audiences, and that through this the psychological side-effects of war can be
broken. Through reintegration into society, victims of war can learn how to become human again.
War.Requiem is “For everyone who loves dance and everybody who isn’t quite sure,” says dancer Akeisha de Baat. Do not miss this moving and imaginative production by the SFU School of Contemporary Art. The effect it has is transformative.
War.Requiem will be on stage April 4 – 6 at the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre at Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 W. Hastings. Tickets are $10 for students and seniors, and $15 for general.
