Fall arts preview dance critics' picks: Troupes rock the stage

Nick Cave, Sarah McLachlan, and others inspire must-see shows this season

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      Seriously cool: this season, troupes will be rocking our stages with everything from an ode to Nick Cave to a menu of manga-styled mayhem. Add two tributes to beloved Canadian songstresses, and it looks like the dance scene here is tapping pop and indie culture like never before. Here are some of the shows that should be drawing hipsters, posthipsters, and wannabe hipsters out in droves.

      Underland
      (September 27 and 28 at the Vancouver Playhouse)
      DanceHouse kicks off its season in high style with New York City’s sleek, athletic Stephen Petronio Company. For Petronio’s acclaimed Underland, think cinematic video backdrops, fashion-cranked costumes, and the chilling musical horror stories of Nick Cave.
      The Draw: Beyond the dark allure of “The Mercy Seat” and “Stagger Lee”, Petronio is a craftsman like no other. The New York Times describes his choreography in Underland like this: “Legs whip round bodies with razor-edged ferocity; high, flying jumps erupt into the air; pelvises and torsos ripple through abrupt, unpredictable changes of direction.” Sounds good to us.
      Target Audience: Nick Cave fans? You have found your contemporary-dance show.

      Tilt
      (October 17 to 19 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre)
      Ballet B.C. opens its season with a cutting-edge lineup: a remount of inspired Swede Johan Inger’s darkly surreal Walking Mad, and two premieres by fab Finn Jorma Elo and artistic director Emily Molnar.
      The Draw: In-demand Elo’s whirling 1st Flash was a mindblower when Ballet B.C. nailed it in 2011; to have him now create a piece just for the company is a big coup.
      Target Audience: Contemporary-ballet hounds who like it fast.

      Running Sushi
      (October 31 to November 2 at the Scotiabank Dance Centre)
      And now for something completely different. Mash together manga, chopsticks, and social commentary, and you’ll get somewhere close to the idiosyncrasies of this duet by Austria’s Liquid Loft. The dancers move in exact, exaggerated poses that are drawn from Japanese Superflat style.
      The Draw: The big trick is that the audience determines the sequence of the 12 scenes—choosing the dance items like they’re morsels in a sushi restaurant—so that every evening has a different storyboard.
      Target Audience: California-roll cravers and anime geeks.

      Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
      (November 14 to 16 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre)
      As part of the Ballet B.C. season, Alberta Ballet brings its flowing, ethereal ode to the music of Sarah McLachlan to town.
      The Draw: Choreographer Jean Grand-Maître created this one for the sisters: the show celebrates women and their fumbles in love.
      Target Audience: Lilith Fair alumni and fans of other AB pop-ballet spectacles based on music by the likes of Elton John and Joni Mitchell.

      Jacques and James
      (December 4 to 7 at the Firehall Arts Centre)
      This double bill of dance-theatre solos from the plastic orchid factory and Grand Poney looks like a promising preholiday romp. In James, former Ballet B.C. dancer James Gnam performs a humorous solo about his conflicted relationship with the Nutcracker, while in Target of God, Montreal-based interdisciplinary innovator Jacques Poulin-Denis brings to life a doomed antihero struggling to carry on the show.
      The Draw: Gnam has performed the Nutcracker more than 300 times and has mined more than a few sugarplums of self-effacing humour out of the experience.
      Target Audience: The unlikely combination of holiday-ballet nuts and existentialists.

      Coalesce & Armour
      (January 8 to 11, 2014, at the Firehall Arts Centre)
      Science meets art in Peggy Baker Dance Projects’ companion pieces, which will feature the modern-dance legend and her troupe. The works draw on Lewis Thomas’s 1970s classic The Lives of a Cell, essays on the interconnectedness of insects and all living things.
      The Draw: You did notice Peggy Baker’s name just now, right?
      Target Audience: Biology majors and those who like to bask in the presence of a cultural icon.

      Danse Lhasa Danse
      (January 18, 2014, at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts)
      Extraordinary Quebec songstress Lhasa de Sela passed away from cancer on New Year’s Day, 2010, at just 37. But her driving, rhythmic, insanely danceable music lives on, especially in this tribute by choreographer Pierre-Paul Savoie.
      The Draw: The lush meld of sight and sound: seven dancers, four singers, and five impeccable instrumentalists (some members of Lhasa’s original band) join on-stage beneath lyrical video projections.
      Target Audience: World-music fans who don’t usually go to dance performances; dance fans who don’t usually go to world-music concerts.

      Usually Beauty Fails
      (January 28 to 30, 2014, at the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre at SFU Woodward’s in the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts)
      Don’t miss Frédérick Gravel’s exuberant, ironic dance performance–rock concert when DanceHouse helps bring it to the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival early next year. Dancers join live musicians on-stage (Gravel bouncing between both groups) to mash forms and mosh.
      The Draw: This is a show that quite literally rocks out.
      Target Audience: People who like to bang heads at dance performances.

      Northwest Dance Project
      (March 6 to 8, 2014, at the Cultch)
      Why Portland, Oregon’s hottest dance export has never visited here—let alone Canada—is beyond us. Suffice it to say it’s about time. On the program is work from our own Wen Wei Wang, artistic director Sarah Slipper, and Europe’s rising stars.
      The Draw: High drama meets exacting technique in work that’s bold and takes risks.
      Target Audience: All those people who visit Portland every year might just love the city’s dance as much as its food carts and cottage brews.

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