Text and voice

Some of my earliest memories of being a dancer are being in the audience of dance performances that inspired and evoked emotion by integrating the use of voice, text and other multimedia. If dance theatre in the 60s was improvisation; the 70s, antitheatrical; the 80s and 90s, spectacle and theatricality; then where are we now? In a review of Antony Rizzi's Snowman Sinking-a dance-theatre show that was on stage in the NAC studio this May-T.S. Warren notes, "Increasingly, contemporary dance-makers incorporate text and voice into a work, often with squirm-making results for the audience." In the late 90s, I went to see a performance by Belgium's Les ballets C de la B at the NAC in Ottawa. The show was set in an urban subway and the dancers took on various odd-ball characters that you might expect in such at setting. One male dancer, using a vocal projector, faked an orgasm for an uncomfortably long period of time. Initially, I felt awkward, but later while reflecting on the work I realized how effective it was at recreating the choas of the public domain. It is my belief that economic and political anxieties are inextricably linked with the need to create meaning through art-language enhances the expression of movement and creates a narrative through which the audience can relate to.