Ever since I had Tío Pepe Martinis with Evelyn Hart at the
then Metropolitan Hotel I feel in love with dance and like a legion of others
with Hart.
I have seen lots of dance since. I have discussed dance with
many Vancouver dance critics of yore (not too many left now) and Max Wyman is
my friend. Wyman wrote a book on Hart which I have read many times.
In short I have
developed through the years an eye for dance, good choreographer and good
dancers. While I am a straight and heterosexual old man this does not prevent
me from admiring (tremendously) the many men who dance in Vancouver. Anybody
out there with a memory for what I have written might remember I feel hard for
Arts Umbrella Dance Company’s Albert Galindo. The powers that be in our city
did not seem to understand that a good dancer can be a good dancer but without
presence excellence will not proceed. A dance company in Israel saw this and
promptly hired the young man.
When I watched him dance he reminded me of the grace and
beauty of the films I have seen of the great bullfighter Manolete.
In this reduced pantheon of very good dancers with presence
there is Béatrice Larrivée who graduated from Arts Umbrella a couple of years
ago.
I was completely enthralled by this not too tiny but compact
ballerina who had that presence I am writing about. Backstage one day I watched
her cry as she had injured her ankle. She sat for a while. And when it was her
turn she got up and danced. This is the kind of pathos and emotion that our
cyan-blue and very cold city sorely needs.
Unfortuanately Larrivée is doing just fine in her hometown
of Montreal.
It is my hope that she will return to our city one day and
give us some more of that pathos, emotion, grace and style.
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| With Kyle Clark - Choreographer Lesley Telford - the work is Only |
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| With Justin Calvadores for Crystal Pite's Emergence |
