Watching Estelle Clareton describe the band member that
inspired her new dance piece for Mocean Dance is like attending a show
in itself. The petite choreographer from Montreal stands on the Dunn
Theatre steps, hunches her shoulders, spreads her arms in the act of
holding an accordion and thumps her left foot on the next step.
Hard.
“He has this makeup with this big, big smile, you know?” she says in
her French accent, dropping the air accordion and spreading her hands
from the middle of her mouth to the exaggerated corners, imitating a
clown smile. “He’s crazy, that guy.”
Clareton’s describing the lead singer of the Tiger Lilies and the
songs behind one of Mocean Dance’s pieces being performed this weekend
at Live Art Dance Productions’ presentation of their main stage show.
Clareton’s premiere piece, titled Sorrows, plays on the Tiger
Lilies’ carnivalesque music with a vaudeville costume flair, while the
reworked second piece, Toronto choreographer Susie Burpee’s Rescue
Left her to her Plight, is more emotional than theatrical.
The local dance troupe’s members—co-artistic directors/dancers
Carolle Crooks and Sara Harrigan, dancers Melanie Ferro, Sarah Rozee
and newest member, Quebecer Tania Jean—are particularly looking
forward to this show because it’s part of Live Art’s subscription
series.
“They [Live Art] bring a lot of artists in from across the country
and internationally, so we’re feeling pretty lucky to be a part of that
season—it’s a pretty big deal for us,” says Crooks.
Not that Mocean isn’t a big deal on its own. As Halifax’s only
full-time, contemporary dance company, Mocean’s been raising the
national profile of the east coast dance scene, setting standards for a
business that can sustain itself even in Nova Scotia. Crooks, Rozee,
Harrigan, Alicia Orr MacDonald and Lisa Phinney founded the troupe in
2001 by setting up a business plan and a board of directors before even
placing one toe on the studio floor. Eight years later, the current
dancers and members are benefiting from the founders’ foresight.
Harrigan is taking a bit of a forced hiatus—a growing baby bump
isn’t easy or safe to dance with—but says she’s enjoying the role of
rehearsal director for this show. Even with Harrigan helping offstage,
the dancers admit Clareton’s piece has been pushing them into places
they didn’t know existed.
“The characters in the piece are extreme parts of human nature,
exaggerated,” says Crooks. She adds that this performance is more
theatrical than their regular dance pieces—each dancer is her own
character, in a performance within a performance.
“Another challenge with this piece is that we were going into some
theatrical things that were kind of ugly and almost—not grotesque,
but we’re going into some ugly, dark things,” says Crooks. “I’m not
pretty in this piece.”
Ferro agrees that Clareton’s clown-like dark-humoured piece doesn’t
make for an easy performance. “Starting the piece is so scary because
you know you have to go through this rollercoaster of emotions and
different people and ideas in your head—it’s emotionally and
physically exhausting…by the end,” she explains.
After Sorrows is finished, the lead ladies have 15 minutes to
change out of their showy, vaudeville garb and prepare for Burpee’s
piece. Crooks describes Rescue Left her to her Plight as a
performance dealing with themes of rescue, survival and desperation.
It’s not as theatrical as Clareton’s work, but challenging
nonetheless.
When asked how the dancers shift from one piece to another, there’s
an almost unanimous shrug. “There’s something magic that happens
backstage,” says Ferro. “When you put the costumes on, put your hair
up, you have those two minutes before you go onstage and there’s a
moment where you can transfer yourself into another place. So,
hopefully it happens!”
Clareton has faith in the dancers’ abilities to adapt. “I wanted
something darker but also funny, you know? And this clowny aspect I
wanted to work with—there are a few clowns here,” says Clareton with
a laugh, singling Crooks and Ferro out as most “clown” potential.
“Oui, I think it’s the start of something.”
Mocean Dance, January 22-24, Sir James Dunn Theatre,
Dalhousie Arts Centre, 6101 University, 8pm, $16.50-$23.50, 464-3820,
liveartproductions.ca.
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This article appears in Jan 22-28, 2009.