Moving Narratives: Contemporary Dance Meets Visual Art

(c) Mercedes Déziel-Hupé. Above: Julie Anne Ryan in Moving Narratives

I have had the pleasure of following bits of the creative process by Anik Bouvrette from Tara Luz Danse. Her collaboration with visual artist Reid McLachlan was an innovative one which gave birth to Moving Narratives. Guerilla Magazine's G-Gallery has given me the opportunity to report on this unique project. Enjoy the read and drop by the East End to see the show!

Article from G-Gallery:

Monday, March 14, 2011

Story and photo above by Mercedes Déziel-Hupé

What would happen if visual art were to meet contemporary dance? Would paintings come alive through a dancer's movement? Would dance affect our reading of a canvas? Such questions brought Ottawa choreographer Anik Bouvrette (founder of Tara Luz Danse) together with painter Reid McLachlan on a unique project marrying a fluid form of art with one typically frozen in time.
Moving Narratives debuted at the Ottawa School of Art gallery (Orleans campus) on Thursday, March 10, combining two choreographies based on an earlier Bouvrette work called Ludivine and more than twenty of McLachlan’s paintings.
“I was rehearsing in a space that exhibited Reid’s work and I fell in love,” explained Bouvrette. “I called him and explained ‘we have got to talk. It’s eerie how there are connections between our creations!’”
McLachlan’s paintings are introspective, exploring the human condition with recurring themes such as love, grief, destiny and faith. This appears clearly in the artist’s use of colour and in the facial expressions of the figures that he paints.
To echo Ludivine, Bouvrette and Tara Luz Danse created Sariana, a sister piece forged entirely within the gallery, involving the space as part of the creation. In both pieces, the dancers/sisters interact with McLachlan’s work through use of speech, the objects depicted on the canvases, and thematic use of paper.
Both sisters leave behind a trail—one a row of light bulbs, the other with writing on the floor and a paper airplane—showing kinship as well as difference. The audience appreciated humorous touches in Sariana as a marked change from the innocence of Ludivine.
Performed at opposite ends of the gallery, the choreographies created the impression that the sisters were facing each other, conversing. Music added context to the images and movement and framed the pieces. Both dancers, Jacqueline Ethier (Ludivine) and Julie Anne Ryan (Sariana) delivered poignant performances.
One quibble about Sariana: Though there was plenty of interesting movement in the piece, as a dancer and audience member, I wanted to see a bit more actual dancing.
“It is always exciting for me to engage in a choreographic process where I have the opportunity to work with artists from other disciplines,” said Bouvrette after the debut performance. “It challenges me to approach my work in a different way: in this case, I had to reflect on finding moments of connection between the characters in Reid's works with the movement and the women in Ludivine and Sariana.”
Upcoming performances of Moving Narratives are scheduled for March 19 at 3 p.m., March 26 and 7 p.m., and March 27 at 3 p.m. For more info on the show or on Ottawa School of Art visit http://www.artottawa.ca/.