Montreal’s Daniel Léveillé has been creating dance works for over 35 years, and has recently begun to incorporate costumes other than complete nudity into his works. That being said, the dancers of Solitudes Solo were wearing very little. Taking turns performing alone, the four male dancers and one female wore only underwear for most of the show as they performed Léveillé’s physically demanding yet slow-moving choreography.
Set to a soundtrack of Bach, the fluid, calming music was juxtaposed with short, stilted movements that looked like quite a strain to perform. There were many moments of silence in between the calming classical sounds, but this only served to draw more attention to the increasingly tedious repetition of the movement.
As each dancer took the stage in turn, they seemed to perform almost the exact same sequence, if not the same movements in a slightly different way. The tours en l’air that began and ended in a completely stationary position were impressive, along with the jetés that looked as if the dancer was jumping from rock to rock, trying not to fall into the water. The choreography required an impressive amount of control, balance, and flexibility to repeat the demanding moves over and over again.
In this way, the show was striking. Other than being a physical feat, though, the repetition was banal. The dancers’ expressionless faces did not help to enliven the performance either, though I suspect that Léveillé would have had a calculated reason for creating this starkly emotionless work that seems to go on without end, even while the last dancer repeats his moves as the lights fade to black.
Seemingly dumbfounded by what they had just seen, the audience sat in the dark for what felt like an eternity before slow applause began. While I wasn’t able to understand what the motivation or significance behind this piece was, I applaud the dancers for their valiant efforts and Léveillé for his bold, distinct choreography.
