Live dance is back!
Actually, dance (like other performing arts) never stopped. It morphed. While COVID-19 prevented the live presentation of arts, artists adapted and continued to create. And as dancer-choreographer Lina Cruz’s novel new work Morphs will show when it debuts in Toronto at the Fleck Dance Theatre on March 31 and April 1, the shutdown impeded neither creativity nor inspiration.
Led by the multi-award winning Cruz, Morphs interweaves dance and music into a new work by Fila 13 Productions that is presented by DanceWorks. A leader in innovative storytelling, Cruz specializes in stories that reveal unexpected worlds through movement. In Morphs, she has focused on dreams experienced both while asleep and awake. Long fascinated by this idea, she conceived of morphs, which are “zany, humanlike creatures living in the spectrum of dreams”. She describes the playful morphs as “enigmatic and mysterious… evasive creatures that are tireless and compulsive labourers of imagination, engineers of the black-box machinery of illusion”.
Within her long, dynamic career, Cruz has explored all styles of dance, both classical and contemporary – as well as extensive martial-arts training – all of which have influenced her movement repertoire and body language. She developed her career as a dancer initially in Spain, with brief but important periods spent in other European countries and in the United States. Now based in Montreal, she is known for a signature style that is inventive and evolving on the margins of mainstream dance.
Such fertile creativity means that the performers who convey Cruz’s vision must possess a technique as refined and nimble as hers, as well as a strong theatrical presence on stage. Five such Canadian dancers are bringing Morphs to life: Elinor Fueter, Abe Mijnheer, Geneviève Robitaille, Alexandra Saint-Pierre, and Antoine Turmine. Composer and musician Philippe Noireaut will also join them onstage.
Morphs premiered in Montreal, a coproduction of Fila 13 Productions and Agora de la danse. The Toronto premiere of the work provided a welcome opportunity to speak with Cruz about the genesis and evolution of Morphs, the adjustments necessary due to the COVID-19 restrictions, and what audiences should expect to experience.
1. What a fascinating idea for a choreographic work! How did you conceive the idea of Morphs?
I have always been fascinated by dreams, and my works tend to have a dreamlike quality. I’m inspired by the freely associated images, the freedom with which characters are composed in dreams and how they behave, always so seemingly “unreal” and yet all so tightly embedded in the reality of human nature. With Morphs, my focus was mainly on personifying the “dreamweavers” themselves, presenting them as tireless and compulsive manufacturers of dreams and altered perceptions. When I was thirteen, I dreamt of this little creature inside my head tapping around with a hammer, moving along the concave surface of the inside of my head, like a sculptor working the inside of a dome (cupola). That dream had an impact on me, I loved it and kept wondering who that little creature was. It is somehow part of my inspiration for creating Morphs, I imagined being able to spy on these busy labourers, looking through a keyhole, catching a glimpse of their daily lives.
2. What would you like us to know about the piece and what audiences will experience?
I’d like to say that the morphs are strange and may seem unpredictable, but they are essentially very tender and caring… no need to doubt them, they are loving creatures! The piece is a compound of scenes that blend very contrasting intentions and moods, shifting from playful to sentimental, from just a tad eerie and sarcastic to warm, cuddly and funny. The stage is the living quarters of the morphs and as such it is a factory of emotions of all sorts.
3. What has Morphs‘ developmental journey been like, especially given the pandemic shutdowns and restrictions? Is there something about it that you would like to share?
It’s been difficult to organize the work, there have been several adaptations during the creative process. This means that with every adaptation, the work had to be redirected in its entirety and therefore sort of started from scratch. But, honestly, given the circumstances, we cannot complain, we’ve pulled through and, compared to so many people, we have not suffered any major pandemic consequences. We are happy and grateful to now be able to share a little fantasy with the audiences.
4. Having viewed the trailer for the work and some photos, the music and the costumes are arresting and unique. Would you like to speak about these aspects of the show?
Oh, thank you for those comments. In general, I am highly attached to costumes and props. They are usually present from an early stage in any creative process, they complete each character of a piece and contribute to giving a special touch to actions and dance sequences. I work on choreography, costumes and props simultaneously. For this piece, towards the end of the process, I had the assistance of Cheryl Lalonde, who has extensive experience in the field of costumes/props.
As for the music, it is also composed progressively along the creative process. It is a mix of recorded tracks and live music. The composer, Philippe Noireaut, has been a collaborator for many years now. In this piece, he is on stage and plays instruments as well as different objects. He also interacts physically and theatrically with the dancers.
Then there’s the lighting and the sound amplification that make all this work together. For Morphs, the lighting is in the hands of Thomas Godefroid. And, of course, there are the dancers, who abandon themselves joyfully to embodying the morphs, and I find each dancer so unique!
5. What question didn’t I ask you that you wish I had (and what’s the answer)?
I would have liked for you to ask: “Are there any poems and songs in Morphs?” And then I would have answered: “Yes, poems and songs are at the heart of Morphs, at the heart of the characters themselves, they can’t operate without them!” Morphs was originally created with a francophone audience in mind. Some of the poems and songs have been translated to English for the Toronto performances, some have remained in their original French version. The piece includes poems by French authors Baudelaire, Victor Hugo and Robert Desnos. There is also a poem by Quebec poet Claude Gauvreau, a fantastic text written in invented language. There is a song written by Léo Ferré and another one by Philippe Noireaut. There are also playful references to Ravel, Bizet, Handel and Puccini, vocalized by Philippe Noireaut and/or the dancers. All these sung or spoken voices are intertwined with dance and actions that design the daily life of Morphs.
Tickets to MORPHS can be reserved here.
© Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2022
