 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The Mortality Songs “An elegant, classic and sensitive study of life’s final transition” Daniel Collins “ A blazing expression of youthful ardour” Louis Hertzman “ The most satisfying piece on both a spiritual and visual level was Toronto’s D.A. Hoskins exquisite The Palace at 4AM (excerpt from The Mortality Songs). Performed with intense conviction by Sean Marye, David Pressault and Sasha Ivanochko, and set to the emotionally-charged third movement of Gorecki’s Symphony #3, the haunting simplicity of the piece centered around the repeated movements of two men clinging to each other, almost buried in each other’s bodies, and being gently separated by the women, a series of images that evoked feelings of despair, loss, and ultimately, death. One could not help but think about AIDS and its devastation as the elegiac choreography unfolded like petals of a flower past its time.” Paula Citron “Elegant and sculptural” Robert Everett-Green “Potent” Diane Dakers “stunningly beautiful” Renee Doruyter D.A. Hoskins was a visual artist in his hometown of North Bay before
a modern dance company came through town. Like the dreamer who is
swept up by the traveling circus troupe, Hoskins took off to Toronto
to study ballet and modern dance. ‘I’m so obsessed with my craft,” says Hoskins, catching his breath as he takes a seat on the studio floor. He and his 14 dancers have had exactly two weeks to build the first movement of The Mortality Songs. “ I’m always pushing and I’m always searching for the next gesture that’s going to hit someone in the heart.” When, to the passionate rising of strings and songs in Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony No.3 13 dancers form a human staircase for “the mortal one,” Danny Wild, to climb, such a gesture is achieved. Gorecki, the contemporary Polish composer, created his “Symphony of sorrowful songs” as a response to the Holocaust. In a TV documentary on the making of the symphony, Gorecki told an interviewer on a visit to Auschwitz how he had the sensation of walking along paths made of human bones. In The Mortality Songs, Hoskins has Wild walk down a path created in a flow of rolling bodies on stage. Unknowingly, he recreated another image from the Holocaust in the staircase. The last to survive the gas chambers would be those who climbed on top of the other bodies to breathe the air at the top of the room. Like Gorecki’s music, The Mortality Songs is not all darkness. Hoskins was also aiming for an image of transcendence when he created the human staircase. “It is like climbing a mountain and being able to look off it.” he says. The second movement depicts the loss of a loved one. Hoskins choreographed
a duet for Wild and Sasha Ivanochko that is quiet and private, in
contrast to the high impact first movement. The Mortality Songs, Hoskins says, was not meant as a requiem.
It is meant to take us beyond the grave, to a sense of relief and
an element of joy. Susan Walker • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Configurations of the Body “Clifford E. Lee Award winning choreographer D.A. Hoskins, represented by his work Configurations of the Body, joins other similarly honored dancemakers such as Andrew Giday, Wen Wei Wang and Crystal Pite as a choreographer of lucid imagination and sensitivity. Ostensibly created to reveal the individuality of the dancers, Configurations is more a sombre and complex exercise in implied intimacy and missed opportunity – the recurring motif of the cheek-to-cheek averted kiss, for example, or the stroll-by followed by a perfunctory but beautifully executed lift or fluid draping movement. It’s also a sad story of the ongoing struggle for contact, told through a classically based vocabulary of gesture and movement that at times seems almost as deconstructed as the frequently ponderous industrial soundscape it sets, but at other times, very moving – such as in the final, tableau-like scene where grief is juxtaposed with detachment and a fractured sun is pulled down and worn like a tutu, as if to say, ‘The dancer, not the dance.’ You couldn’t hope for a better performance of a beautiful piece.” Bob Clark Amidst a grid-like backdrop and the sound of deconstructed electro-classical
music, a ballerina stands on display before the audience. Before
you can say plie, the dancer’s tutu is removed and is transformed
into a giant, sunburst-like landscape. ‘This piece is about dancers,” Hoskins says. ‘The
grid allows the audience to look at then in a mathematical fashion,
but what we get is often fluid, romantic imagery. It’s become
my mandate as an artist to express dancers’ individuality
– their voices, their histories and nuances.” “I often find myself going back to themes of connection and disconnection,” says Hoskins. “When you’ve been repressed, it becomes a part of your existence. The disconnection comes from my history, and the connection comes from my exercise in dance. It’s integral for me to nurture others to become assertive and active in my work. I think that’s not always done – there’s often a conformity that happens where dancers are simply told what to do and do it.’ Hoskins’ doesn’t seem to have that concern with his current ensemble of 12 dancers who appear to be totally on-board in creating each of Configurations of the Body ‘s six movements. Each piece contrasts the other, beginning with a solo that transforms into a duet before moving into other solos and group work. For six weeks, Hoskins had been cautiously listening, examining and observing, always trying to keep himself open to new energies and ideas. He often taps into the dancers’ classical training, exposing sculptural form before dissolving it into something less rigid and more humane. “I see dance as interactive, an open playing field,” says Hoskins. ‘By creating this concept I can play more and come up with intrinsic responses from the dancers. In the end, I am really hoping to present them as individuals. I often feel like choreographers don’t want you to see the dancers as much as their choreography. As I have told these dancers, this is an experience of six weeks that we will only have once. We have to live it, own it and celebrate it.” David King • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
|
|
FATHERWHOART As for Fatherwhoart we’d be tempted to rename it Dada Knows Best. It’s hard to say whether this bit for six characters in Search of a Choreographer is a joke (dancers imitating humping rabbits) with a serious point to make, or a serious message about disconnected sex underscored with humour. Either way, Hoskins’ effort to return to reality-based dance can only be viewed as brave but over risky. Susan Walker …is Hoskins at his most bizarre. Paula Citron … for a guy known for his sculptural, formal moves, it signaled
a different aesthetic. Utilizing everything from a video monitor
about body image to a plastic baby doll, Fatherwhoart was unabashedly
theatrical. Sure it snaked around themes of sexuality and repression,
which he Glenn Sumi • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Woodpecker A highlight was D.A. Hoskins’ Woodpecker, a stylish, sexy duet for Danielle Baskerville and Alison Denham. Strutting to an addictive electronic score, the two showed off their muscularity and technical strength. They blended the Toronto choreographer’s quick, fractured motions and swiveling, feminine gestures with fluidity and precision. Gail Johnson Woodpecker, D.A. Hoskins’ duet for Danielle Baskerville and Mike Moore put one in mind of Woody, the hyper Looney Tunes character. Dancing to music of Matmos, Baskerville, in a saucy maiden outfit with highlighted crotch and behind, and Moore, stripped down to fushia briefs, court and spark like tow birds diving at each other. Their neatly fashioned duet, an electronic minuet was the highlight of the program. Susan Walker • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Paris 1994 I’m not sure D.A. Hoskins’ work is accessible, but
it makes up in audacity what it lacks in easy comprehensibility.
In Paris1994, set in a sound environment by Gilles Goyette, dancers
Danielle Baskerville and Mike Moore co-inhabit a slightly surreal
space in bohemian languor. AS in any foreign country, familiar objects
are unfamiliar. Rebecca Todd • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Fertility Rights Hoskins’ Fertility Rights, performed by two impressive dancers – Danielle Baskerville and Mike Moore – makes a cheeky mating dance out of what’s known in the animal kingdom as “presenting”. Moore’s masculine preening and Baskerville’s coy response is set to a brilliant score by Christos Hatzis that combines Inuit throat singing and marimba music. It’s a duet for pure pleasure. Susan Walker • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
|