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| Melissa Oei |
Last night I went to the opening of Carmen Rodriguez’s Fire Never Dies: The Tina Modotti Project. I was sitting next to a man with a lovely smile. He looked familiar but at my advanced age of 83 I had to ask him. Kevin Kerr, he was and I immediately made his connection with the Electric Company Theatre.
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| Kevin Kerr uncharacteristically not smiling |
There was a ghost sitting not far from me. She was Vicki Gabareau whom I had photographed sitting at the Cultch Theatre many years ago when she had returned to her Vancouver home town.
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| Vicki Gabareau |
A third ghost was sitting next to me. She was my Rosemary, who died five years ago and accompanied to most of the shows at the Cultch and the York.
Nor far was my Chilean friend Carmen Aguirre and costume designer Carmen Alatorre. I almost felt at home.
Why almost? In years back I was an amateur music, dance and theatre critic with my blog. After a performance I would go straight home, download my photographs and write. This time around, there was the relief that I did not have to anything and just go home.
It was not to be, because I noticed in the credits: Choreography: James Gnam. I never did photograph him (I did his brother Connor Gnam) but I saw him as a stellar performer many times.
Looking at Kevin Kerr it immediately came to me that many years ago an Electric Company Theatre had staged a production that involved choreography by Crystal Pite in which even the opening and closing of the theatre curtains was choreographed. I wrote about that here.
Studies in Motion with Crystal Pite
Watching all the performers dance and move, and especially Melisa Oei as Sagradz Corazon (lovely costume on her by Carmen Alatorre, as you can never go wrong with fishnets) it seemed that every movement, not only the dances were choreographed.
Because theatre can be choreographed I also know that dance can be theatre. The proof I saw in August 2023 when Béatrice Larrivée & Noa Lee Ashkenazi in a performance at the Arts Umbrella Dance Company’s theatre dancing the method Gaga (Batsheva Dance Company) was how their facial expressions and their movements when they were close to each other was all acting, all theatre.
I will leave others to write about Carmen Aguirre’s fine play. For me I was moved by all that movement. But I must thank Aguirre for having Tina Modotti and Sagradx Corazon dance to some spectacular Ástor Piazzolla.
