Saturday, April 28, 2007


Last night Rebecca and I attended the Arts Umbrella Dance Company Season Finale at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre. Because most people don't seem to know we were able to sit front row middle which is how we like it. From there we could notice all the details and hear the dancer's breathing. Hearing them breathe is part of the thrill of dance.

Both Rebecca and I know most of the dancers (we have observed them for the last four years) of the Senior Company and the Apprentice (sort of like the grade 11s). We both agreed and really liked Emily Molnar's (seen in top photo with dancer Alex Burton and Arts Umbrella's Dancer Director Arty Gordon) Opus featuring the Senior Dance Company and the music of Philip Glass. It was amazing to watch the dancers leap back and forth, specially Connor Gnam seen in the middle photo with Boys Only and Ballet BC dancer Edmond Kilpatrick giving him a noogie).



But we both agreed that we liked best the performances of the Apprentices because in all but one dance number it featured the five boys (how could the one Connor in the Seniors compete wiuth the five fabulous boys?). The boys are seen here with the flexible and graceful Nina Davies clockwise, Michel Issa Rubio, Jeremiah Kennedy, Jed Difhuis and Scott Fowler.



But Rebecca and I disagreed on which boys' number we liked best. Rebecca (would she be more romantic than her grandfather?) liked the ballroom dancing parts of Ballet BC's strangely named Lhaugs and Glieggs (with music by Gershwin) while I liked (loved) Roberto Campanella's (ProArteDanza, Toronto) Unforseen which featured the Apprentices with the five boys and a stellar performance by Alex Burton and Nina Davies.

Who would have ever guessed that this old man, with so many beautiful girls dancing, would ever see a performance through the eyes of a little girl? Those boys were really good! And through it all I could see why Rebecca has a fondness for Scott Fowler. He was a dazzling Puck-like performer who at 13 could fit into a professional dance company and still be noticed.