Alanna Fallis
Contributor
Nuit Blanche welcomes art in many different media, including the often-neglected dance. One of the night’s featured projects, The Endless Pace, brought at least one interesting concept to the night with the help of the York Dance Ensemble.
The Endless Pace consisted of 60 York dance and theatre students who, inspired by the theme of time, collaborated to present their performance as a representation of the face of a clock.
Time was represented in its entirety. The performer representing the second hand passed through the ring of dancers in, appropriately, seconds. The minute hand became a 60-second dance solo, and an hour’s passing was marked by the ending of the piece. The manifestations and manipulations of time were represented through flicking, circular and energized movements.
“Through dance, the seconds become fluid, the minutes become unique moments,” said Hannah Walter, a York Dance Ensemble member who performed in the piece.
Sixty chairs placed in a circle in Commerce Court formed the look of the performance piece, which was designed by Davide Balula. The performers faced outwards from the circle and were meant to focus on becoming the “face of the clock.” Meanwhile, Biba Bell choreographed unique time patterns to translate mechanical clock movements into creative improvisational dance.
The dancers endured a cold night and a new level of pain (dancing on concrete is not easy) but, overall, it was a successful initiative on the part of the fine arts students and the York Dance Ensemble.
