Six dancers lunge in a circle on stage to the steady, mechanical beat pulsing through the auditorium. Choreographer Shay Kuebler is standing assertively nearby, observing.
Suddenly, he barks at them to get lower, and all six drop the several difficult inches closer to the ground, where they hover wordlessly without missing a beat.
The music stops and, just as quickly, the dancers break into the easy smiles of the oxygen-deprived and spin away to regroup for the next sequence.
Kuebler (of 605 Collective fame) and his new ensemble, Radical System Art, have been developing this routine the Norman Rothstein Theatre since December.
As the Chutzpah! International Jewish Performing Arts Festival’s 2015 artist-in-residence, Kuebler was given seven weeks of unfettered access to the 318-seat proscenium performance space in South Vancouver, and the result is GLORY, making its world premiere Feb. 21 at the festival.
Prior to that scene, Kuebler and two male dancers had been effortlessly pitching into handstands, cycling through poses that defy the steel it takes to execute Kuebler’s martial arts-inspired routines.
“This show has a lot of connection to me as a child growing up,” says Kuebler, 31. “I started theatre and martial arts when I was five years old. And when I was growing up it was the pinnacle of the action generation: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal and Chuck Norris – action movies were one of the biggest film genres at that time. So, as a kid, I was always creating these battle sequences and imaginary fight sequences in my backyard,” he recalls. “It was really the beginning stages of being a choreographer.”
Now grown, Kuebler has turned his fascination with action movies into a work that examines the complexities and glorification of violent behavior.
For most of his company, this residency marks their first time at the multi-purpose Jewish Community Centre, within which the theatre is housed. As part of the residency, all the artists in Kuebler’s company have access to the pool and gym facilities, and, of course, the cafeteria.
“Everybody here has been really warm and really genuine,” says Kuebler. “I have a great relationship with Veronica, who runs the cafeteria,” he laughs. “She’s been really supportive, telling us the best times to come in for food; giving us freshly baked goods, you know?”
“The last two weeks I’ve been here probably for 12-13 hours a day,” he continues, “so being able to have the pool, the sauna, the gym all under one roof is the ideal situation.”
“It becomes a home for them,” adds festival artistic director Mary-Louise Albert, who selected Kuebler for the residency. “They become members of this multi-generational hub.”
Ten years ago, after a 17-year career as a professional dancer with the Judith Marcuse Dance Company, Anna Wyman Dance Theatre, Karen Jamieson Dance Company as well as an apprentice with Les Grands Ballet Canadiens, Albert changed course with the help of the Dancer’s Transition Resource Centre, and took over the festival’s artistic and managerial direction. At the time, it was still a fairly fringe local event.
Since then – most notably in the past five years – she has succeeded in making the festival more international and more inclusive of the greater arts community.
Under Albert, the Chutzpah! Festival has supported new work by local artists such as Donald Sales, and sought out avant-garde acts like Israeli duo Yossi Berg and Oded Graf to work with local dancers Noam Gagnon and Justine Chambers, while also serving as an anchor date for breakout international artists to base tours around.
“The festival is supposed to be geared towards the Jewish performing arts,” says Kuebler, “but I think it’s really great that [Albert is] also willing to support and nurture the culture and the community that is around the festival as well. I can say for sure,” he continues, “if it wasn’t for the festival, [GLORY] wouldn’t be the show it’s going to be.
She’s been instrumental in making it come together.”
Yet, in addition to encompassing Albert’s passion for dance, Chutzpah also manages to be a hot-bed of world theatre, comedy, music, and some things, like Maria Kong, that can’t quite be classified.
Guaranteed to be a festival opener unlike anything Vancouver has ever seen, Maria Kong’s Backstage (Feb. 19-22) is an immersive 360-degree dance experience augmented with live rock, theatre, and video art. The kinetic Israeli team of team of dancers, musicians and technicians has built their internationally-acclaimed routine around photos and drawings of Vancouver’s Red Room, within which they’ve tailored pop-up performances that cater to the cocktail crowd. Site-specific but remotely designed, no two shows are alike.
And it also represents another milestone for the festival.
“We haven’t been off-site with a dance show before, so it’s a fun way to kick off the 15th anniversary,” says Albert excitedly. “[These are] ex-dancers of Batsheva Dance Company – top performers – and there’s a rock band, interactive media...
“It is a fun, fun show.”
Chutzpah! Quick picks
Zvuloon Dub System, Israel’s most popular reggae act, makes its Canadian premiere with a single show Feb. 20. Inspired by lead singer Gili Yalo’s Ethiopian roots (Yalo walked through the desert from Ethiopia to Israel with his family at age four) the band fuses thousand-year-old Ethiopian riffs, rare ‘70s grooves, and American soul into reggae.
Over in the theatre camp is the compelling Kafka and Son (March 2), adapted by Alon Nashman and Mark Cassidy from Franz Kafka’s Letter to His Father. As a 36-year-old failed artist and petty bureaucrat still living at home, Kafka – a “timid Jewish son” – was being ruined by his overbearing father. So he wrote the man a 50-page letter stating “all my writing was about you.”
LA-based repertory company BodyTraffic makes back-to-back Chutzpah! appearances, this year with Canadian premieres by the hip hop-inspired Victor Quijada, MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” recipient Kyle Abraham and the award-winning Joshua L. Peugh, plus new work by returning favorite Richard Seigal (March 5-8).
Last but not least, don’t miss Israeli actress and singer Ester Rada, May 2, as part of Chutzpah! Plus. A bit of Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin alongside Eryka Badu, Lauryn Hill and Jill Scott in one soulful package.
• The Chutzpah! Festival runs Feb.19-March 15. Tickets at ChutzpahFestival.com
