Kendra Guidolin, Contributor
Featured image courtesy of AMPD at York
For the first time in its many years, the York Dance Ensemble presented a piece of genuine representation and tribute to the tragedies of the missing and murdered indigenous women of Canada. As the most significant piece of the show, YDE presented a powerful and shocking finale, created in response to First Nations playwright, Yvette Nolan’s The Birds, a collaborative interdisciplinary production to be featured in March. The show, building up anticipation for The Birds, was an evening of various talents and forms of dance that exceeded many previous YDE performances.
In memory of Grant Strate, the founder of York’s dance department in 1970 and Canadian dance pioneer, the YDE members and MFA candidates presented a vast collection of choreographic works titled New Light/Ancient Light. Running from February 10 to 12, the performance illustrated dance cultures from Western, European, and South Asian genres, as well as from modern and vintage styles.
In addition to the YDE, the MFA candidates chose other guest artists from the Toronto area to perform their choreography, many of whom are York dance department alumni, back to perform on the proscenium stage once more.
Among the youngest choreographers was Kierra Shaw, a BFA student and YDE artist, who choreographed a favourite among the audience, The Maze. Originally having choreographed the piece for three dancers as a previous project, Shaw was invited to re-choreograph for seven dancers.
“Material-wise, we started from scratch, but it was highly informed by what we discovered in working with the cast of three,” Shaw says.
Its transformation was seamless and very informed by the original dancers in the piece, which translated into the movement of the others. Overall, its aesthetic was pleasing with various levels of height and dynamic movement.
The most successful of the MFA pieces was one choreographed by Nikolaos Markakis, informing the audience of a traditional Greek dance form and an original combination of contemporary and traditional Cretan. Past York alumni, such as Miles Gosse and Justine Comfort performed the more contemporary style, which Markakis mentioned was “contemporary dance … influenced from Ancient Greek urn art and modern movement, which was more free in spirit.”
The free spirit and contemporary feel was well versed by the dancers’ personal styles, whereas, the traditional Cretan dance was performed by Markakis himself, along with his sister Kleanthi and their father, who are all experts and performers in this form.
Especially to an outside eye, all of the elements of this piece, such as the traditional costume, impressive footwork and jumps, and expressive nature of each of the artists, made this piece accessible and enjoyable for the audience. The music and liveliness of the performers had audience members clapping and cheering along with the piece, creating an entirely unique environment.
The final piece of the evening was the highly anticipated version of The Birds, after being previewed in an earlier draft. In its final form, the YDE presented the themes of injustice and cruelty of the acts against indigenous women in Canada through the symbol of birds. The piece included the use of spoken word, as well as names of women representing those who were missing and murdered. The piece turns to directly depict the indigenous women being dragged down and led to their deaths, where they are laid on the floor.
Although some scenes left audience members shocked and frightened, the piece spoke the truth about the injustices being done. The YDE dancers took on a difficult role, but truly did the piece justice. I applaud both the strength of the dancers to take on such a challenging theme, as well as the choreographer, Susan Lee for choosing a difficult but necessary message to convey.
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