Artistic Director | Deborah Lundmark

A Review by Presenter, Patti Kinghorn, THEOP (Deep River, ON)

On Friday, April 5, 2019 , I had the privilege of attending a performance of Teasing Gravity at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my outing and I concluded that the Northern Dance group has made an excellent selection for the 2019-2020 season.

 

UNHUSH

Choreography by Apolonia Velasquez

This piece was a joyful example of Apolonia’s work.  The movement is athletic, engaging, beautifully performed with a great blend of contemporary and street moves. The piece features all of the elements of great dance – ensemble, solos, duets, levels, variety of emotions, casual but engaging costuming and a development from shadow to light. The dancers are well trained and beautiful to watch.

I personally loved this piece.  A little part of me wondered about the complex aspects of the lighting in our small theatres!   This is certainly a piece that I would love to have in our presentation of the company.

 

Nine Person Precision Ball Passing

Choreography by Charles Moulton

This piece is an interesting visual presentation. For those of us who attended Fall for Dance two years ago, we saw this performed by a very large group.  The choreography is the same (or very similar) for this group of 9 performers.  They use brightly coloured balls and the timing is quite challenging and very musical at the same time.

My first reaction was to wonder if our audience would expect more movement at a dance presentation, but I did conclude that the colour, precision and variety of ball passing would be intriguing for an audience.  I did check with some people sitting near me- most loved it – one woman thought it was clever, but too long.  (I personally think that is half of the beauty – this group maintains the timing and intricacy for about 10 minutes.) Then I concluded that it is a nice contrast to the other pieces and should be considered for our program.

 

A Day of Light

Choreography and Direction by Hanna Kiel

For my dance presenter partners, I don’t need to say much about this one.  In a weekend of dance presentations, (Ontario Dance Weekend), this piece stood out as being filled with so much joy, light and beautiful movement that we loved it from start to finish. Costumes are youthful, flattering and attractive.  The quality of the movement is a delight from start to finish. This piece is a yes please and a key to our presentation next season.

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that infinite feeling

Choreography by Alyssa Martin

For those of us who are familiar with this choreographer, we know to expect the unexpected – and this piece was certainly fun.  Staring with bright pink youthful costumes, this piece was vibrant, humorous, and full of delightful choreography.  On the surface, it is a lighter theme than the others, but seems to hit on the teen angst and the need to find your power and go for it on your own terms.  The movement is every bit as complex and demanding as the other dances that we saw in the program. Young people in the audience really loved it, and they were vocally supportive throughout the piece. Older audience members just smiled a lot and enjoyed it.

If this piece were to be included in our presentation next season, I really would work hard to get a reasonable turn out of young people in the audience – the joy and delight coming from them in Burlington was contagious!