Saturday, September 26, 2009

Cabaret Éclectique III

I've recently moved into the Coop sur Gènèreux, a housing collective in the heart of Montreal's Plateau district. We are a community of youth, based on cooperative principles including: open-communication, resource sharing, and challenging the present standards. All our decisions are reached collectively by consensus. We are an evolving project, coming together around our shared convictions of building a just and healthy environment. So alongside sharing communal space, food, skills and life, we host community dinners, organise arts events and initiate creative projects generally revolving around issues such social justice, environmental sustainability.

Tomorrow night we're hosting our third Cabaret Éclectique. The evening will include music, poetry readings, spoken word, experimental theatre, and more. The event will also see the launch of Yannick Bériault's poetry collection 'Bruissements'.

For more info check out the facebook event

women displaced, women trafficked…

Last week I stumbled across a weekly discussion forum called University of the Streets Café. With an attempt to draw people from diverse backgrounds and realities, the initiative aims to enable continued learning through public conversation. Community building in an ‘old fashioned’, face-to-face kinda style… And isn’t this something that is rapidly disappearing amongst the roar of cyber chatting, text talk and passive, mindless entertainment… Of course, this blog is a dead giveaway of my cyber advocacy, but I’ve come to realise nothing can completely replace the warm sense of connection found in a good ‘real life’ conversation.

The first conversation for the fall program was called Women Displaced, Women Trafficked: If art is political can it also be poetic?, and it stemmed from a public rehearsal of Columbian-born choreographer Carmen Ruiz’s multimedia performance À la limite.

Using inspiration from Columbian folklore, Ruiz’s performance wove a striking story of the emotional upheaval, despair and invisibility felt by the millions of women displaced by war and political conflict.

I found the opening, in particular, extremely powerful due to its play with ambiguity of form. As my eyes adjusted from the darkness of the start, I noticed a moving object silhouetted far stage left. It took me a while to realise it was actually the dancer. With her hands and feet close to each other on the ground and backside twisting and contorting in the air, the dancer had created an unidentifiable shape that seemed to be directly symbolic of women’s disempowerment and objectification.

For the first few sections of the work, the dancer didn’t show her face. And when she finally did – making direct eye contact with the audience – it was a strong moment… As though by crashing down the fourth wall of the stage, she was boldly regaining the power lost from women and reinstating their rightful place….

Drawing elements of both Columbian and contemporary dance, Ruiz shifted between different emotional states as the work progressed gradually moving into a more upright position. Heavy breathing, gunshots, news report samples and music juxtaposed the dancer’s movements, while images – silhouettes of women, wind swept grass, abstract shapes – intersected and enabled smooth transitions between each section.

As Ruiz mentioned in the subsequent conversation, she is interested in exploring the bridges between folklore and contemporary life. The Afro-columbian influence ‘gives it a context, a root into history, a certain reality, she said. ‘A part of me cannot create art away from this context actually’, she said. This history, it seems, is firmly a part of her identity.

The conversation moved on to explore the intersection and collsion between political and poetic elements of performance. As a group we pondered the way performance can be used to transform difficult, challenging and harsh themes to create poetic works of art.

The idea that dance can transcend language was one of myriad discussion points. This seemed particularly relevant in the context of a trilingual audience! Yet while we might be able to construct a dialogue with dance due to its abstract nature, the question arose as to whether a political work like Ruiz’s should be imposing a particular point of view or allowing the audience to make their own conclusions. Opinions were mixed. Ruiz mentioned that she doesn’t want to impose anything on the observer, but simply wants to communicate in a new way.

One speaker, however, pointed out that the news report samples provided a strong objective message and therefore her work did impose a particular message on the audience. Another speaker encouraged Ruiz to be more overt because dance allows us to communicate deeply about issues that are harsh realities in our everyday lives. Another pointed out that the role of dance – particularly in Africa – has traditionally been used to express violence present in society. ‘Don’t be afraid to sweat’, he said. Given this historical context, perhaps Ruiz might push the boundaries even further.

In true Montreal style, the bilingual conversation ebbed and flowed naturally between French and English with a dash of Spanish (the dancers native language). For monolingual audience members such as myself, whispered translations were established to ensure all our linguistic needs were met.

Rather than interview-style, the conversation was a two-way stream where the performer was invited to ask questions along with the audience… It was an interesting dialogue and along with learning more about the displacement of women, I left feeling inspired by the knowledge that art is creating social change and that initiatives like this are bringing people together to build connections and discuss important topics…

Carmen’s final work will be presented at the Montreal Art Interculurels in March 2010…

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Montreal is one of those places that seeps rapidly into your veins intoxicating you with its quirky character, creative buzz and general chaos. I’m addicted already. Every day the city reveals a new facet of itself, sharing with me another secret… I think I'm here to stay. For now, anyway. And now that I'm getting more settled, I hope to devote more time to writing on this blog...

There is so much happening here in the way of theatre, music, art, film etc... It's been almost two months since I arrived here, and I'm only just beginning to scratch the surface of the landscape.

I found my way to a night of storytelling last week: DeAnne Smith’s monthly storytelling night Tale Spin at Le Cagibi (Mile End). With a slightly different spin to the usual comedy act, four local comic’s shared personal stories on the night’s topic: hot! hot! hot! And being comedians, the performers told their tales with the kind of flair and humour that only they can conjure.

It was a cozy relaxed evening where audience members lounged on couches sipping hot chai and coffee while comedian’s tattled their tales with style and pizazz…

The concept is a simple yet effective one, highlighting the importance of storytelling as a means for connection, entertainment and art making. The theme this month is Balls. Acts include Dan Bingham and Jess. If you’re up for a funny story or two, I highly recommend strolling along to Le Cagibi (5490 St. Laurent) Thursday 24 Sept at 8:30 p.m.

And speaking of hot: if you’ve never seen DeAnne perform make an effort to get to Theatre Ste. Catherine this Friday night. DeAnne is hosting a comedy/burlesque show featuring comics Melissa Morse and David Pryde (Comedy Now, Just for Laughs), stripper-types L. Diablo, The Fabulous Miss Vigneault, and Dom Castelli and the contortionist extraordinaire, MiMi! Doors open at 8pm. I’m heading there so join me for a beer after!

Oh and check out DeAnne’s blog here.

Friday, July 17, 2009

New AMC website!

I took a snoop to see what's been happening in down on Australian cyber shores. I notice the Australian Music Centre has finally launched their new website. Hoorah! The inside scope is that they've already tripled web traffic with now around 1,000 unique users a day. Now that's success!! Well done AMC... You can read more about the website here.

I have to admit I'm sad to see the end of resonate as a standalone magazine. Seems a pity that it got swallowed up into this new website, particularly when it was slowly growing to be a hub for informal online discussion. On the upside, however, there seems to be a rapidly growing interest from music writers. Very exciting times for Australian new music!!

Oh, and I've just discovered the site spits out a list of my resonate articles. Yup, some shameless self-promotion. Oh yeah!

spring cleaning

The Canadian spring is almost over so a little hummingbird is spring cleaning. She's decided that all non-artsy (whatever that means!) stuff is cluttering up her nest. Silly fusspot. So if you're keen to follow the travel adventures and random happenings of her creator take a peak over here.

Friday, June 26, 2009

montreal

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three days + two nights + greyhound bus + bad food + muscle cramps + gorgeous prairie fields + surreal adventure = destination Montreal!!!

Stay tuned for musings on the scene here...

Monday, May 11, 2009

raging grannies and protest songs

With the Provincial elections rapidly approaching, I knew that my chances of running into election campaigners was high. But what a delight to hear the Raging Grannies strike up a tune as I entered the market area. The Raging Grannies - groups of older women who dress up mockingly and sing protest songs - began in the eighties in Victoria but are now considered an activist organisation with splinter groups all over the world. They sung politically-charged lyrics set to well-known folk songs. Quite a sight indeed!

activist theatre: velovixens

Since arriving in Canada, I've been aching to hit the road on my bike with panniers full of camping goodness. All roads leading out of Vancouver beckoned with promises of beautiful scenery and adventures on the road. To the east, roads wound their way through thick coastal forest and up into the silvery, snow-capped mountains. Beyond the mountains lay the rugged prairies. The coastal mountain range, lakes, inlets of the Sunshine Coast were just north west of Vancouver, while the rolling hills, rainforests, old growth forests (well, what was left of them!), and scenic coastal lines of Vancouver island were just a short ferry ride from south Vancouver... so many choices! what to do?

But when I heard about Victoria's 2009 Bike Prom, my decision was made. Who could resist an event that not only celebrates bikes, but promises to lure you back to the wonders of your high school graduation. hmmmm I was a tad curious....

So my plan evolved into a month of cycling up Vancouver Island and back down the Sunshine coast to arrive back in Vancouver around the beginning of June. But first stop: Bike Prom!

Bike Prom is an annual event hosted by bike-loving extraordinaires in Victoria - a city on the southern most tip of Vancouver island, the capital of British Columbia.

Held over three days, the event included bike races, art shows, moonlight mystery rides, bike polo games, bike films, and culminated in a massive masquerade-themed ball that seemed suspiciously similar to my high school prom (or 'formal' as we'd call it in Australia) only on bikes. One highlight of the evening was the pre-ball mystery ride which saw over 60 dressed-up cyclists weave their way through the streets of Victoria, whizz along the southern coastline of the island and scamper up a small hill to watch the sun go down where we were serenaded by local gypsy band Orkestar Slivovica.

Another highlight of the evening was seeing a performance by the Velovixens - a local bike-themed physical theatre group. Using theatre, dance, music, and imagery, they performed a simple yet effective and provocative piece called the 'rat race', which provided commentary on society's obsession with materialism. With an astounding stage presence, these girls were an absolute hit with the audience who cheered and screamed wildly when they finished their number. It was so clear that the performers were enjoying every minute of being on stage and this enthusiasm, fun, energy and focus trickled back to the audience. We felt it. And that's what the Velovixens are about. They aren't interested in producing slick, polished high end art; they're out to have fun, with a mind to educate and inform their audiences about varying 'sustainability' issues as they perform.

And so this was my introduction to Victoria. A sneak peak into the bike/art/activist scene. Quite a fun scene too.

Friday, April 17, 2009

a little hummingbird in flight...

Almost a year has past since I've popped in for chat... many twists and turns, adventures and new beginnings. A year of self-discovery and rest...

Besides hanging quietly in my blue mountains retreat (playing in my vege garden and exploring creative projects), I've spent a lot of time hanging out with the kids at The Otesha Project and ended up cycling on one of their tours from Brisbane to Newcastle late last year... amazing stuff!

But today is a new day... and with a rustle of feathers and deep breath I'm spreading my wings to head to the land of grizzly bears, beavers and maple syrup: Canada...

It's been a while since I've traveled overseas and my feet have been super itchy of late. So with a working holiday visa in one hand, an over-stuffed bag and a head full of dreams and adventures I'm off on a flight late tomorrow afternoon. Yikes!

I plan to spend some time rambling and reflecting here as I wander through Canada, so stay tuned!