Zack Martel and Santiago Rivera, Photo by Bruce Zinger
Fall for Dance North’s Heirloom series seeks to bring dance into unconventional spaces. This year’s entry, In Blue Rooms, presented at Evergreen Brick Works, combines dance, juggling and live music.
Choreographed by Zack Martel and Santiago Rivera, the movement fixates on experiences of isolated individuals learning to co-exist together in shared spaces. Originally coming together in pairs, Basile Pucek and Phillipe Dupuis (jugglers), then Daniel Stefek and Clémence Dinard (dancers)—the four eventually inhabit the space as a group.
The outfits are stylized athletic wear: sneakers, shorts and windbreakers in vibrant, clashing colours—orange, purple, pink green and blue. This weirdly retro-modern aesthetic adds counterpoint to the classical music, arranged here for three instruments by Daniel Hamin Go and Michael Bridge. The mood set by musicians Hamin Go (cello), Bridge (accordion) and Brad Cherwin (clarinet) is melancholic yet also whimsical and rousing.
This does have a very distinct concert vibe. The performance is divided up into six segments defined by the music. Though the show I saw was at Evergreen Brick Works, a very scenic part of the city, the actual performance was indoors, which feels like a missed opportunity.
In Blue Rooms has performances scheduled for Orillia (September 23) and Peterborough (September 25). If you love live classical music and modern, high-concept dance, it’s worth checking out.