An intimate back room, eight-foot-by-eight-foot stage and dancers performing to live music are the key ingredients in the next installment of Dances for a Small Stage.
Small Stage point 5 takes place at the Emerald, Vancouver’s newest supper club and lounge in Chinatown Nov. 29 and 30.
Julie-anne Saroyan, artistic producer of dance society MovEnt, which produces Dances for a Small Stage, couldn’t say no when Ryan Guldemond, lead singer of indie rock band Mother Mother, and choreographer and contemporary dance artist Jen Mcleash Lewis approached her wanting to collaborate for a Small Stage show.
Saroyan had been missing the melding of live music and dance that she recalls gaining prominence in the 1980s when David Bowie took Montreal’s La La La Human Steps on tour.
“I don’t know where we would be without that collaboration, actually,” Saroyan said. “It proved that you could popularize it and you could make it fit with rock stars and that rock stars were actually interested in dance.”
Guldemond’s touring dates didn’t coincide with scheduled Small Stage events, so Saroyan produced Small Stage point 5 as a focus for live music and contemporary dance.
Dances for a Small Stage typically happens on a 10-foot-by-13-foot stage. For this event the stage is even smaller.
“When you present artists with parameters, they take on the challenge and exceed your expectations,” Saroyan said.
Small Stage point 5 will feature five pairings of a dancer with a musician in front of an audience of up to 80.
“I didn’t imagine that Corbin [Murdoch of The Nautical Miles] would write a piece for three men singing a cappella. And Lina [Fitzner’s] dancing in front of these three guys — didn’t know that would happen,” she said. “I also didn’t imagine that Ryan [Guldemond] would be so bold and grab his guitar and sing with no band behind him and Jen climbing all over him. I don’t know how he’s keeping his hands on his guitar.”
Mcleash Lewis, one of the founders of Brief Encounters, which pairs people from a vast range of disciplines to create short performances, has co-curated Small Stage point 5 with Saroyan.
When they corralled experimental electric pop artist Stefana Fratila, Fratila told them she wanted to dance, too. So Karissa Barry, whose choreography credits include the Dancing on the Edge Festival and Dances for a Small Stage, created phrases of movement the two can perform together.
Hayden Fong will perform to music by CR Avery and Julie Chapple will dance to the cello sounds of Michelle Faehrmann, who will perform on a long, skinny instrument because her regular cello is too bulky for the small stage.
Rachel Zottenberg, co-owner of the Emerald, will emcee the event and patrons can come early for a prix fixe three-course meal.
More information at movent.ca.
