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Provocative, lush and romantic
Kinetic movement, highly versatile dancers and ingenious soft-sculptured costumes will be combined in this inventive and totally unique Chamber Ballet show called, TIMBER/Timbre.
Event promoter Qimin Wang calls the show a fast-paced, intensely physical and boundary-pushing work.
This dance production is structured around soft-sculptured costumes created by visual artist Alice Mansell.
“We want the growing multi-cultural communities particularly from Asian nationals like Chinese, Filipinos and Indo-Canadians to come and watch this show for them to experience a different kind of performance,” Wang told the Asian Pacific Post.
Exploring the engineering of the body, these functional costumes will further extend the possibilities of the body, echoing the ingenuity and invention of the Baroque era.
As the body carves itself into an edifice of fleeting perfection, so too do great empires. Only this time, it’s a Chamber Ballet, disrupted.
Louis XIV founded the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD). Artistic director Joe Laughlin sees the ballet world as a microcosm of royalty, the court and the state.
In creating this piece, he is explores nationalism and empire building.
“Baroque dance and costume was about presenting the individual in space in a very elaborate yet very controlled mannered,“ says Laughlin.
He explains, “that period in time strikes me as representing the perfect marriage of beauty and image to ingenuity and invention. The Baroque era was about surfaces and appearance, yet also about clever invention.”
Laughlin said that this is where the collaboration with the visual artist comes in; the costume pieces in this work will be beautiful and unexpectedly functional.
“Our innate fascination with objects and novelty will inform this work,” he adds.
Simone Kingman, Tara Dyberg, and Robb Beresford, three highly versatile professional dancers, bring this work to life.
This creative process further develops Laughlin’s choreographic language through a detailed research into the physical articulation of the body and its presentation in space.
Described as “wickedly sophisticated,” “unusual,” and “daring,” dance company Joe Ink speaks in a language entirely its own.
Balancing major works at home and projects in partnership with local, national, and international organizations and artists, the Vancouver-based company is well known for its versatility.
Led by its artistic director and choreographer, Laughlin, the company has built a reputation for creating provocative, witty and lyrical work since its inception in 1995.
TIMBER/Timbre, in association with The Vancouver International Dance Festival and The Dance Centre’s artist-in-residence program, will run March 14 through the 18 at the Scotiabank Dance Centre on Faris Theatre (677 Davie St.).
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