Collaboration is key in We all know Jane

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      For the three female dancers behind the new mixed program called We all know Jane, the title—like the simple yet iconic name—connotes many different things. It brings to mind strong, legendary characters like Calamity Jane and Jane Goodall; it suggests a woman who’s familiar and yet anonymous. But perhaps most of all, it refers to the camaraderie they feel amid the women in the dance community.

      Dance, especially in its solo work, can be one of the toughest and loneliest art forms, but what’s rarely ever talked about in Vancouver is what a supportive, friendly, and collaborative scene it actually is. “Even though we have such a solitary practice, that’s what makes us able to survive,” explains Ziyian Kwan, the artist-in-residence at the Dance Centre who has brought together two other, very different choreographers, at varying stages in their careers, for the show.

      Kwan, a well-known local dancer for the last 25 years, is an emerging choreographer and the artistic director of the year-old company called dumb instrument. She’s sitting at a downtown café with her collaborators, Vanessa Goodman, of the upstart troupe The Contingency Plan (TLC), and Anne Cooper, a veteran performer on the dance scene for various companies and the choreographer of 20 works.

      Their upcoming mixed program is a perfect example of what can happen here when dance artists put their minds to it, with a little help from the Dance Centre. These days, a lot of presenters push for full-length pieces, so it’s becoming a rarity to see short works by different troupes on the same bill.

      Though Kwan, Goodman, and Cooper are each creating a separate piece for the show, they’ve also been exchanging plenty of ideas. “We come into the studio and give each other feedback,” Goodman explains.

      “It’s just getting another lens on your work,” explains Kwan, adding: “Part of the process is going for a glass of wine afterward and really getting into it.”

      On the surface, the artists’ dance works could not be more different. Set to the music of local jazz innovators Dylan van der Schyff (drums) and Peggy Lee (cello), Kwan’s self-danced solo the neck to fall is an ode to Amelia Itcush, the pioneer of somatic, or body-centred (as opposed to brain-directed), movement. Goodman sets her the long indoors on Kwan and Jane Osborne, in a piece that uses dance to take the audience into the mysterious, myriad systems of the body. And with Jane, Cooper creates her most character-based work yet, drawing on the two main roles in the play Burn This, and exploring art and nonsuccess. It’s a work that was inspired by the lull she experienced after the end of a big, five-year project last year. “What it boils down to for me is a sense of failure, a sense of disappointment, where you have to work hard to move forward,” Cooper explains. “So it comes from that empty place, but also from a humorous perspective on that human quality of experience.”

      But aside from the fact they’ll each have a unique world created for them on-stage by lighting designer James Proudfoot, all the choreographers bring external props and stagecraft into their pieces. In Cooper’s work, look for domestic objects, while Kwan uses cardboard boxes to innovative effect. “She [Itcush] does all these exercises with chairs,” explains Kwan. “So I began working with chairs, and then I either digressed or evolved into using things that I could use as chairs.”

      As for Goodman’s work, it features a huge papier-mâché-like sculpture by her friend, artist Amelia Epp, hanging from the ceiling at centre stage—an installation that evokes the internal organs of the body. Says Goodman: “The piece is really based around the space within the body—with the space as a container of the body.”

      From trips into inner worlds to experiments in movement, each dancer’s piece has taken the choreographer on a separate journey. But fortunately for those looking for a night of new dance, their paths have met up at the Dance Centre.

      We all know Jane is at the Scotiabank Dance Centre on Friday and Saturday (June 21 and 22).

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