Ferenc Fehér
The Vancouver International Dance Festival presented a diverse line up of artists this year, and offered many free shows as well as ticketed events. Hungarian choreographer and performer Ferenc Fehér’s work, Tao Te, was one of the free shows at the Roundhouse Community Centre.
Along with Balázs Szitás, Fehér’s choreography was full of deliberate movements that had the two dancers running and tumbling around the stage, throwing and pushing themselves off of each other without losing momentum. It was striking to see how well his performance conveyed the speed of traveling through life on our chosen path.
The structural device of Fehér’s dance theatre piece is represented in the program by a quote from Martin Heidegger: “The lasting element in thinking is the way. And ways of thinking hold within them that mysterious quality that we can walk them forward and backward, and that indeed only the way back will lead us forward.”
Philosophically and physically complex, Tao Te was both a beautiful study of Heidegger’s concepts and an impressive piece of choreography. With limp limbs, the dancers’ vigilant, stilted movements were intriguing and thought-provoking as they moved through various sequences, including an aggressive wrestling bout.
Fehér says that, to him, “thinking and choreographing are mirror-images of each other since they refer to the same secret.” His unique combination of freestyle dance and martial arts, coupled with his interest in philosophy, made for a multifaceted work of art.
Out Innerspace and 605 Collective
Another double bill show featured two local dance companies who have grown together over the years, Out Innerspace and the 605 Collective. They both presented works-in-progress that highlighted their strengths.
Out Innerspace’s style is cinematic, dark, and full of complex facial expressions. The seven dancers in this piece stayed in a tight group and moved as one being during most of the piece. The work was choreographed and performed by company founders David Raymond and Tiffany Tregarthen, in collaboration with Laura Avery, Ralph Escamillan, Elissa Hanson, Arash Khakpour, and Renée Sigouin.
With animalistic intensity, they slinked around the stage in aggressive, complex formations. What I love about this company is their ability to create complex characters and narratives through their unique movement. One particularly innovative moment was when a few of the dancers formed a large talking mouth from a combination of different body parts.
The group of dancers seems to be fighting and avoiding some outside force during the piece, while also dealing with some parallel internal conflict. The work is a comment on the oversimplification of good and evil, and begins with a short monologue which says “you are good” and “we could not do this good without you.”
The 605 Collective has long been one of my favourite dance companies, and I am looking forward to seeing the full length version of Vital Few next year. Choreographed by Lisa Gelley and Josh Martin and performed along with Hayden Fong, Jane Osborne, Odile-Amélie Peters, Jessica Wilkie, and Sophia Wolfe, this work-in-progress explores the theory that it only takes a small number of people in any group to effect change.
Playing on the constant codependence and interrelationship between the dancers, this work was a fascinating study of how one small change has a much larger ripple effect. They dance as a collective while also allowing each dancer’s distinct style to shine through, and there is no leader as they all lead the group at some point.
The dancers are highly aware of each other throughout the piece, knowing exactly when to pick up where another left off with impeccably smooth transitions. They were autonomous from the group while also being highly dependent on them. The 605 Collective has always created movement in a collaborative way, and this work explores this concept beautifully.
