Four Quartets
Choreographed and Performed by Deborah Dunn
Voice: Sir Alec Guinness and Stacey Christodoulou
Dramaturge: Dean Makarenko
Music by David Cronkite, Dino Giancola, Diane Labrosse, Gaétan Leboeuf
Lighting Design by James Proudfoot
Costumes by Deborah Dunn and Josée Gagnon
Rehearsal Direction: Stacey Christodoulou and Sara Hanley
T.S. Eliot considered the Four Quartets to be his masterpiece. The poems draw upon three decades of study in philosophy and mysticism, each one meditating on the nature of time (theological, historical and physical) and its relationship to the human condition. Each poem begins with a rumination prompted by the geographical location in the title and each poem relates to one of the four elements: air, earth, water and fire. This work has allowed Deborah to develop her fascination for the relationship between movement and language. The choreography embraces Eliot's play of imagery and abstractions, its lyric and architectural style weaving through the musicality of the language to meet the grace and power of the words. The piece gives Eliot's meditations on time and being a new substance, and a humanity that is both modernist and contemporary. Eliot's imperfect life and WWII, the era during which he wrote the poems, have informed the piece. With this work Deborah has departed from the narrative interests that have dominated her work for quite some time. Four Quartets presents a contemplative, both modern and formal, while not letting go the humour and sensuality characteristic of her work.
"Deborah Dunn's Four Quartets inspired by the poetry of T.S. Eliot... is rich in meaning, magnificently crafted and exquisitely performed. I deem it a Canadian classic."
Paula Citron, The Globe and Mail
"...this interplay of movement and text is spellbinding. Her dance is both athletic and formal, a mixture of large steps and simple postures that interpret and amplify Eliot's words... she floats to the floor as if through water, or forms a herd of elemental animal forms. Even when she lies prone on the stage her figuration is full of points of interest."
Joan Sullivan, The Telegram Nfld
"The meaning of the lines is complex in Eliot's spiritual work, but Dunn's intelligent work with the poet's meditation on the cyclical nature of life and experience offered shifts and nuance that make for an inspired outing. (The first two poems are read by Sir Alec Guinness, while the latter two are read by Dunn herself). There's no exposition of the work, and Dunn seamlessly shifts between attachment and detachment. As she moves, she veers between fluidity and a beautifully crisp and meticulous dancing. With articulate elegance, Dunn is able to capture many aspects in her performance: fragments of beauty, comic moments and a languorous sense of contemplation. Her rich use of costume (she designs her own) adds another later of delight. Here, she shifts from a simple brown suit with red lining to a scarlet Elizabethan-styled full skirt."
Philip Sporor, The Dance Current
Elegant Heathens
Trial & Eros brings forth another theatrically outrageous work; witness the patriarchal implosion, watch the phoenix princess rise, behold the new disorder and laugh!
Five eccentric characters, a family of hedonists in the final stages of their glory, indulge their witty and absurd theatricality in both celebration and critique. Deborah Dunn has brought her dance theatre to new heights in this work, joining many veins from the body of her 15 years of choreography into one unified work.
Delving into an ironic yet compelling romanticism, the work unites the lyrical and the architectural in dances which hone Dunn’s musical and painterly style. Working with the sculptural and the ecstatic, the still and the moving, richly detailed, striking tableaux come to life in vibrant ensemble dancing. The quintet moves out of unison in complex spatial patterns or duos and trios come together in elegant partnering.
The characters house an immense passion, a brewing rebellious power, and an unabashed creative command of the stage. They are also hilarious. Theatrical scenes are seamlessly woven into the choreography giving the audience the full range each performers expression. Elegant Heathens has music by Vivaldi, Purcell, Chopin, Handel and Schubert. The costumes are as colourful and as sumptuous as the music, making the whole evening a sensually delightful experience.
Nocturnes
Nocturnes takes an ironic and romantic journey to the "other side," visiting the time-honoured idea of love beyond the grave. The musical inspiration for the piece was Chopin’s Nocturnes, which have been altered and deconstructed by composer David Cronkite. There are six performers, three women and three men; using Emily Brontë’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ as a guide and inspiration, we constructed characters through a collaborative creative process and put them in a dream-like symbolic world playing with desire, anger, love and revenge. The movement explores weight and flow as well as lightness, stillness and tableau. Partnering is woven throughout. The Nocturnes stage design is playful yet severe, influenced by the surrealist painter Magritte. The costumes are an imaginative mixture of Victorian and contemporary designs.
“In her dance landscape, Dunn is able to infuse her romantic vision (inspired by Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte’s sprawling tale of doomed love) with audacious irony, odd beauty and absurd sight gag… distant minimalism is not her domain… Dunn is able to enunciate the contrarieties of experience and delve into the excess of sensation.”
Philip Szporer, The Hour, Montreal
