Dans les bras de morphée - A Conversational Review
Emry-Waven Côté really likes going to the École Montessori Magog where he is in the sixth grade and is “good at math and English, likes history and social studies, and science.” He takes dance classes, fences, plays the flute, and impressively, is currently writing his first book.
Performed at Agora de la danse, We All Fall Down Creations’ Dans les bras de morphée is aimed at a young audience, and so I sat with Emry after the show to get his response to the vision and imaginative choreography by the brilliant Helen Simard. The conversation was a joy, as I was curious about a twelve year-old’s perspective for a performance described as “…a surprising and whimsical group piece in which the boundaries of reality are perpetually redefined” by a dance company that is “on the forefront of contemporary dance” and “co-produces avant-garde projects.”
Having moved here from Atlanta, where I lived for fifteen years, theatre and dance performances fall second to film and television by many objective measures. Because of that, live performances tend to be commercial ventures and of little interest to me. It was exciting to experience work that is more exploratory and born of authentic artistic vision. I love feeling like a beginner, having more questions than concrete interpretations, and getting a “little lost.” In my early performance career, I sought to break rules and do what you were “not supposed to do.” It’s a principled approach that has stayed with me over the years, however in some ways my lens for Helen Simard’s work was not dissimilar to a twelve-year-old’s, and I am grateful for that. It was great. It was reinvigorating. It was needed.
The conversation with Emry was fascinating as he is obviously bright and insightful. He parsed out themes and elements framed by his positionality born of being a pre-teen student curated by a cultured life full of dance, theatre, literature, and movies. It’s young men like him who allow us old curmudgeons to feel at ease with putting the future into the hands of coming generations.
Photo: Do Phan Hoi
Interpreters: Aurélie Ann Figaro, Brianna Lombardo, Cai Glover, Kennedy Henry, Rodrigo Alvarenga-Bonilla
So, let’s get started. Let me ask you just one big general question to start off with. What did you think?
Well, I thought there were many visual aspects, like one guy had shiny clothes and the masks were like “mascots.” That was a very interesting part.
(Masks, some crafted by Forget The Box Creative Director Andrew Jamieson, played a significant role in not only character commitment in macabre moments but also as a playful tool as dancers performatively and joyfully “commented” on their own use of them. Stark relationships were defined by robust and pristine white Larval masks devoid of details except eyes, smiles, grimaces, a duck bill. In a puppetry interlude, one of these white masks were used to provide movement when attached to the right glute of the performer, which was funny because, well, it was his butt. The atmosphere would shift ominously when predatory and scavenging animals were introduced: bears and, presumably, crows with long beaks. These low-poly masks, with extreme angles and edges, were cold and uninviting.)
How did you feel when you were watching the masks?
It felt like each mask was like a different emotion. One was almost mad, and [another one] happy, and there was one that was in despair. Well, I liked the [despair mask]. Especially the animals, the fox masks were square and there weren’t any curved edges on the masks. They had colour and the other ones were white and they had curved edges, so it made like a balance. Masks were a pretty big role in the dance.
What was your favourite part?
I really liked the part with the whistle. They were on these rolling boards. That was really interesting to look at. Cause it was as if they were rowing a boat. So, yeah, that was super cool. It made it as if they were almost floating. Like when they were pushing with their legs and smoothly moving [across the stage].
The music too. There was the guitarist that was right there. It was really great. I liked the way the movements changed with the music. Like when it was more like the techno part, the movements were more square and triangle. And when it was more smooth and continuing music, there were more flexible and extended movements.
Photo: Do Phan Hoi
Interpreters: Cai Glover, Kennedy Henry
And how did you feel overall?
Okay, yeah. So, at first I was expecting a different kind of dance because I'm not used to this kind. I was excited to watch the show. It was a feeling of anticipation. And while watching, it was, like, interesting to watch because depending on which mask it was, [that’s how] I felt. One of the masks was, like, joyful and it made me happy to look at that scene.
The smiling mask made you happy! Did you find any of it scary?
There weren’t really scary parts, more like “dark parts” though. But then there was also the “glitter” part that balanced it out which made the performance something between happy and dark. Like when the lighting came and went.
And after the show, well, first of all, I was happy to get off my bench. But not because I didn't like the show. I really liked it!
It was so good, right? If you could ask the director anything, what would you ask?
I would have asked what was the inspiration for the dance and the masks? The masks played a pretty big role in the dance and the dance used a lot of wide movements. I would like to know more about that. And the choice of music. I expected more of a classical style of music.
If you had a question you could ask the dancers?
If it was extra challenging. Oh my God. If it was overwhelming. No, not overwhelming, but challenging. Yeah, challenging. There were some parts where they were doing so many spins and jumps and dance moves that it must have become exasperating and exhausting. I would ask them if it was very hard to do or if they were already used to doing that kind of dance. And if it was demanding for them to come to the final product.
You said that this was a different kind of dance? How so?
I don't know what word to use. In my dance class everybody does the same dance, so we all have to be coordinated with everybody else. They were not always doing the same [dance moves]. I mean probably because I'm in 6th grade and they're, like, professionals.
(Repetition was used to create visceral responses to moments that were especially quirky. For instance, performers would cross the length of the stage with multiple urgent passes multiple times while holding statuesque poses and isolating movements to flickering fingers or dabbing hands.)
There was lots of repetition. What do you think of that? What part did you think that played in the performance?
Your brain was like, oh, this again, this again, but it’s like a reflex to think about it like that. It was really a beautiful thing. If you see the same movie three times you feel like you can just pause, and you could say the whole scene. You could explain the whole scene. I think the role that it played was it helped me to maybe hook on, maybe? I don't know, I'm not exactly sure. And it was almost like in a song: you have the chorus and the verses and sometimes there's a bridge. It was almost like the bridge of a song.
Nice. The bridge of a song. I like that. So that was the last performance. What did you see that made it worth performing?
Well, the fact that it's different and it might not be [a mainstream] style of dance, like, compared to break dance and ballet. For people like me who've never seen this kind of dance before, it's like “ooh, I want to go see it again.” And of course, there were the puppets [masks] that made it unique from other dance performances. It was like a mix of theatre and dance.
[They should perform it again] since there were like four seats left when we arrived. Obviously helps to encourage the Choreographer.
Photo : Do Phan Hoi
Interpreters: Aurélie Ann Figaro, Brianna Lombardo, Cai Glover, Kennedy Henry, Rodrigo Alvarenga-Bonilla, Roger White
I bet. So, what was it about? For you, what was it about?
Yeah, I was also thinking about that. At one point, there was like one person in red, and there were four people in white uniforms, that they were representing, like, maybe an emotion. Like part of the dancer. Like it was different parts trying to take over parts of his brain. Like the movie Inside Out. It's, like, almost the same thing. [In that movie] there's one [emotion]that wants to lead, but then Joy says, “I'll try to lead,” and it's a conflict. So, there's a…there's a struggle. Yeah, there's a struggle.
Sometimes they were screaming. It was like somebody's identity. Almost. They were touching their faces as if they were, like, peeling off an identity and putting on another one. That’s what I enjoyed.
What if I give you a little bit of context? What if I told you it was about dreams?
Yeah, that could make sense if you think about the masks. So, yeah, it does make sense.
It was as if the guy in red was thinking of what was happening around him, kind of. And maybe visualizing things that, like, maybe didn't exist, like irrational fears. It was new to me, so yeah…
Did you like that it was new to you?
Yeah, I did like it.
It's exciting?
Yeah. It's exciting to see new, different stuff. Yeah, exactly. It's like a new thing.