In Search of the Holy Chop Suey & Zhong Xin - Dance Review

By: Angela Guardiani

I've seen a lot of theatre from both sides of the stage. Musicals and Shakespeare, dramas and farce, opera and circus arts. But never dance. So when I was invited to watch a DanceWorks production at Harbourfront Centre, I really had no idea what to expect. I recruited my friend E., a former bunhead, (i.e. ballet dancer) to help me parse what I was looking at. 

“E.,” I said, “what is contemporary dance, anyway? Is it sort of 'this isn't ballet, or jazz, or tap, so we're just going to call it “contemporary” because we don't know what else to call it?”

“Well, some people categorize it that way,” said E. She thought for a moment, and said, “What I really like about contemporary dance is how expressive and emotional it is.  It's not as concerned as much with form or technique, as ballet is. There's no storyline to follow, no symbolism to process with the logical part of your brain. Just experience the dance as it's happening.” 

Okay, I thought. I can try that. I'm a story person; I like narrative. But there was something very appealing in just reacting to art on a visceral level, not thinking or analyzing. When I let myself go, I found myself appreciating the movement and intensity of the dancers. I didn't necessarily understand what I was watching at the time I was watching it, but putting it together afterwords, I could see themes and stories and yes, narrative. It was an exciting, adventurous evening, and one I'd love to repeat.

The show in question was a double bill of avant-garde contemporary dance created by Yvonne Ng and her company, tiger princess dance projects. Ng performs the first piece – a solo – herself, a semi-autobiographical playful piece called In Search of the Holy Chop Suey. The title is meant to be a bit tongue-in-cheek, I think, but it's also meant to give us a picture of the artist's life in quick flashes of memory. The piece is performed to a background of sounds – bells ringing, traffic, street sounds, the chatter of people speaking (I later read that Ng used field recordings from her native Singapore). Ng enters the stage with a remarkable contraption on her back, part set, part costume. As she enters, the object springs from her back like a pair of moth's wings. The same object becomes a tent, a nest, a playpen, an egg . . . it's like a visual poem, serving as whatever Ng and the audience need it to be. 

Ng's movements are playful, child-like in the very beginning, making faces and imitating more adult behaviour. Her movements are tightly constrained inside her tent/nest. As she shows us her development, she takes slow, cautious steps, reaching out, but always retreating back into her safe space until the last few moments. She turns her nest on its side, revealing an opening, and cautiously, thrillingly, steps through.

The second piece in the show is much longer, and although it's choreographed by Ng, it's performed by three other dancers. It's called Zhong Xin, which translates to “centre,” and it continues the idea of identity. Interestingly, the piece began with each dancer in isolation, working with Ng and interpreting her choreography with their own experiences and skills. The result is fascinating. Three dancers move across the stage, intersecting, moving in tight formation, and yet they do not touch. There's no lifts and very little contact until the final third of the show, and it surprised me how strong the feeling of release was to see these isolated, fragmented dancers at last merge and synchronize. 

E. pointed out to me how each dancer had a unique physical presence. Luke Garwood is lithe and muscular, with a lot of what E. called “isolation work” - moving a single part of the body while the rest stays still. His movements were tight, controlled. Mairéad Filgate moves more how what I imagine a “classical” dancer would, with deep lunges are wide, graceful arm movements – very expansive. Irvin Chow looks to me like his work is informed by street dance. He spins, jumps, and runs with spreed athleticism. Watching the three of them together was a very emotional experience. I can't quite put my finger on what those emotions were, exactly, but as E. put it, contemporary dance is kind of like a piece of modern sculpture. It does not dictate how the audience should feel; instead, it aims to provoke, to be a catalyst for whatever subconscious feelings the viewer has lurking around in their depths. It's definitely not Shakespeare – but I wouldn't want it to be. 

DanceWorks continues their 2016/2017 season at Harbourfront Centre Theatre as part of Next Steps, a collection of over 20 contemporary dance companies. Tickets are available at harbourfrontcentre.com/nextsteps/tickets. More information about tiger princess dance produtions is available at princessproductions.ca.

Photos by Cylla von Tiedemann.

Dine Magazine's 10th Anniversary

By: Sari Colt

When you want to find out where to enjoy a delicious dinner in South Beach or what it's like to travel through Tuscany to sample the best Italian wines, Dine Magazine is your go-to resource. The publication is known for its stunning photography and insightful profiles in the areas of food, wine and luxury travel. 

Dine Magazine recently celebrated its tenth anniversary issue with a wonderful reception at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto. Cheryl Hickey of ET Canada is featured on the cover.  At the reception, editor-in-chief, Sara Waxman spoke eloquently about the hard work and perseverance it took to get the magazine off the ground and was grateful for the encouragement by her late husband in becoming a food writer. 

And as befitting the theme of the evening, there were delicious dishes to taste (catered by The Four Seasons)  accompanied by fabulous wines. We enjoyed: gnocchi pasta with bison short ribs ragout; sweet potato puree baby spinach and tonka bean jus; oven roasted Ontario beef sirloin  with marjoram buttermilk zucchini and grilled asparagus; quinoa and black kale with Szechaun jus; an artisanal cheese board with quince jam, house made pickled vegetables, toasted sour dough bread, walnut raisin crisp and pate en croute, and pate de campagne charcuterie board. 

Some of the noteworthy guests attending the event included  Jeanne Beker, Liona Boyd, Robin Barker, Jaymz Bee, Jenninfer Holness, Sudz Sutherland, and Robert Deluce. 

Congratulations Dine Magazine on the past 10 years!

Photography by Allan Tong.

One Of A Kind Show & Sale

Every year, I always look forward to attending the One of a Kind Show & Sale. I love browsing the stalls filled with exquisite products that are all handmade. It's a wonderful event where you can find special gifts for your loved ones. I enjoy meeting the artisans and learning about their unique products. From handmade jewellery to clothing to furniture and more, the One of a Kind Show and Sale has it all! You can also sign up for DIY workshops, such as decorating holiday cookies or creating greeting cards. 

Date:        November 24 – December 4, 2016
Place:       Enercare Centre, Exhibition Place, 100 Princes’ Blvd., Toronto
Times:      Weekdays & Saturdays: 10:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.; Sundays: 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. 
Late Night Shopping:      December 1,10 a.m. – 11 p.m.
Tickets:      Adults $15; $13 ($2 savings purchasing online); Seniors/Youth (13-17) $7.50; Children (12 & under) free. Buy tickets at the door or online. 

The Enchanted Loom - Theatre Review

By: Paul Lewkowicz and The Charming Modernist

The Enchanted Loom is a play that tenderly portrays the effects of war on a person’s psyche. Written by Suvendrini Lena, a neurologist, the play focuses on the painful struggle of Thangan, a Tamil political activist from Sri Lanka living in Canada with his family. He suffers from – and seeks to address – the scars left from being subject to torture during the Sri Lankan government’s mass offensive to obtain control of the Tamil Tigers' territory. The effects of Thangan’s struggle have a profound impact on his family, as they too, struggle to deal with memories of the war that have ravaged their minds, bodies and relationships. 

The memories of war have an impact on both those who experienced it and their descendants who have never lived in the conflict zone. The play poignantly situates itself in the context of a diaspora working hard to highlight inequities where the Canadian populace is generally unfamiliar with the plight of minorities in Sri Lanka. 

Thangan and his wife, Sevi (Zorana Sadiq) had to make difficult choices and the way in which they grapple with the consequences is heartbreaking. Sadiq plays the matriarch with grace and steadfastness. As we learn more about Sevi, Sadiq is able to break through her tough exterior and we see how the harrowing effects of war have changed her. So often, the mother is the glue that holds the family together, and Sevi is no exception. She also does not have much of a choice and strives to put her family's needs ahead of her own. Sevi is haunted by the choices she has made in the past and buries her passions to try and forget. But, with Thangan's post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis, forgetting and burying the past is futile. Kawa Ada's portrayal of Thangan and Sevi's sons Kanaan and Kavalan is superb. He is able to play the precocious son with ease and transforms into a child soldier that commands attention. 

Although there are many scenes with the characters spouting verbose medical jargon and the play can be slow to build its story, The Enchanted Loom has powerful performances from its cast and a tremendous second act. The sparse, sterile set serves as a canvass for the characters to paint their rich, colourful and complicated story. And, it's is an important story that needs to be told, as PTSD and other mental illnesses have been and continue to be stigmatized, especially in minority communities. Furthermore, the play serves to create awareness of Sri Lanka's brutal civil war, the post-conflict struggles and the injustices that many have faced.

The Enchanted Loom is certainly dense and difficult to digest, but the small space provides for an intimate evening for the audience to get up close and personal with the characters and be transformed by the story. 

The Enchanted Loom plays at the Studio Theatre (125 Bathurst Street) until November 27, 2016. Tickets are $25 - $35 and are available for purchase at factorytheatre.ca/tickets.

Photos by Dahlia Katz.

Acquiesce - Theatre Review

By: Angela Guardiani

November always makes me think of Margaret Atwood. I know that seems like a non-sequitur, but bear with me. In Negotiating with the Dead, she writes that, as a child, she hated having a November birthday because of its grim symbolism. No sunny summer flowers or Valentine's hearts for her! But as an adult, she “discovered that November was, astrologically speaking, the month of sex, death and regeneration, and that November First was the Day of the Dead. It still wouldn't have been much good for birthday parties, but it was just fine for poetry.”

Fellow Canadian and playwright David Yee has a new play at the Factory Theatre, and in keeping with the season, it's also about death and regeneration. Like poetry, it's deeply symbolic, complex and nuanced, and like Margaret Atwood, it engages with ideas of Canadian-ness and otherness. Beautifully staged and elegantly structured, Acquiesce will give you plenty to think about.

It's hard to summarize the story of Acquiesce in a quick synopsis. The play unfolds like a flower simultaneously forward into the future and backwards into the past, revealing its truth slowly and deliberately. To tell you the whole story is to strip the experience of its power. But I can tell you that the play centers around Sin Hwang, a Canadian novelist coping with his father's death with anger and bitterness. As Sin carries his father's body back to his native Hong Kong, we are shown that he carries other burdens, both visible and invisible, that affect his relationships with his girlfriend (the cryptically named Nine) and Kai, his strangely resentful cousin. As events move forward and Sin is given a monumental task to complete, we learn more about his past, and why he faces the world with such self-loathing disguised in sharp-edged wit. 

It's impossible to talk about this play without mentioning how strongly it features Asian voices. Acquiesce is a dual production of fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre and Factory Theatre, whose season this year is – for the first time – completely made up of artists of colour. The entire production is dedicated to exploring Chinese and Canadian identity. The Canadian-ness of it comes through in the mundane, the everyday, like Sin's Mountain Equipment Co-op backpack and smartass backtalk. The Chinese-ness is evident in images and symbolism. The set – beautifully spare, designed by Robin Fisher – features leaning pillars that look like joss sticks and delineate spaces not just geographically but in time, too. The pieces of baggage Sin carry hold shirts and underwear, but in brief, wordless scenes, they also hold water, light, ancestry, history. Scars – another form of baggage – are an important plot point in the second act, and instead of being portrayed realistically, they take the form of Chinese characters written across the body. Everything contributes to the visual poetry of the production.

There are only four actors in this play. Like the set, it's minimalist. Yee does double-duty as Sin Hwang; I have to admit, at first I didn't care for his brash acting style, but as his character evolved I found myself really enjoying his hilarious but bitter take on the character. Rosie Simon and John Ng are remarkably versatile actors, filling a variety of roles – a nosy fan, a bubbly funeral attendant – but also taking on Nine and Tien Wei, Sin's father, with power and gravitas. I think Kai is the most important character in the play. Both in the way he is written and in the way he is played (by Richard Lee), Kai explodes Asian stereotypes. He is funny but not a caricature – he has real depth, an identity beyond that of just being Chinese. He guides Sin on his journey and makes his own too, a mirror image of Sin's long, slow path of ignorance to enlightenment. In the end – which is also the beginning – Sin and Kai acquiesce to the injustices and pain they have carried and let go. 

There's so much to see and experience in Acquiesce – it's dense, with a lot to say crystallized into an intense two hours. If you feel like exploring poetry, death, and rebirth, then a visit to the Factory Theatre may be the best birthday present you can imagine.

Acquiesce, a fu-GEN and Factory Theatre production, plays until November 27 at the Factory Theatre. Tickets are $30 to $45 and are available at factorytheatre.ca.

Photos by Dahlia Katz.