Drive-in dance Parking-lot performance a pandemic-friendly way to present new choreography By: Holly Harris Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Monday, Jun. 14, 2021 Last Modified: 2:59 PM CDT Wednesday, Jun. 16, 2021 Updates

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This article was published 13/06/2021 (1292 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers are taking their latest show on the road this month when they present their season-closer, Body and Light.

Actually, it’s technically a parking lot, and everybody gets a front-row seat when the 56-year-old company revs up its inaugural drive-in production. The 37-minute work, choreographed by artistic director Jolene Bailie, is scheduled for June 25-27 in the parking lot at 178 Market Ave., between the Manitoba Theatre Centre and Pantages Playhouse Theatre (a version filmed at the Rachel Browne Theatre is offered online to June 20).

The performance was originally scheduled for late May in the Cercle Molière parking lot, but a change to public health orders forced a delay.

“We were inspired to look at the possibilities of what we can do…” Bailie says of the production, her first full-length creation for the troupe since taking the helm last season.

“Audiences will get to see the dancers up close and personal, and have that same kind of intimate experience you would normally experience in a theatre,” she promises of the groundbreaking show.

A larger ensemble composed of six local dancers — Carol-Ann Bohrn, Mark Dela Cruz, Julious Gambalan, Helene Le Moullec Mancini, Shawn Maclaine and Warren McClelland — perform on a slightly elevated, seven-by-seven-metre white-painted stage, lit by WCD resident lighting designer and longtime Bailie collaborator Hugh Conacher. The choreographer’s silvery-grey costumes were co-designed with Wanda Farian.

Audience members peering through their windshields to watch the show unfold are encouraged to tune into Winnipeg sound designer Susan Chafe’s driving, electroacoustic score via their FM car radios — à la retro drive-in movie theatres — with her original score also projected through large speakers. Known for her highly visual, complex works staged across Canada and internationally, including 11 prior full-length contemporary works choreographed for her now-fallow company Gearshifting Performance Works, Bailie’s latest creation is inspired by her own thoughtful musings during this season of COVID-19.

“With so many questions encircling me daily, two things became constant,” she says. “We cannot escape the body and we need light. Whether that light is the light that is inside us, or it is experiencing a sunrise or a sunset, or it is finding light when there is darkness, or it is simply a concept that can assist to move forward.

“The idea that energy can never be created or destroyed is something that keeps coming back to me. We are from the earth and will return to the earth, this is a fact. We do not create energy ourselves; we are a vessel for energy to flow. The most important thing is that we keep the channel for flow open.”

Even performing al fresco, all dancers will be adhering to strict public health and safety protocols, including wearing face masks and maintaining physical distancing measures throughout the show, originally intended to be staged at the Rachel Browne Theatre, with Bailie pivoting to a drive-in performance in April.

The dancers have been taking everything in stride and are thrilled to be able to perform for a live audience again — honking in lieu of applause is optional — in a sea of ubiquitous online presentations.

“When you go to the store, you wear a mask all the time,” Bohrn says matter-of-factly during a rehearsal break when asked about the rigours of performing physically demanding choreography while breathing through layers of cloth. “A lot of companies have just cancelled their seasons this year, so wearing a mask seems like a really small ask in that context. It’s like, omigosh, of course I’ll wear a mask if I can still dance.”

“You have to change the way you breathe, and are a lot more in your chest,” Dela Cruz chimes in, explaining that dancers are often asked to push beyond their own physical comfort zones, including performing in slippery socks that’s a part of their trade; facial coverings are no big deal.

Rehearsals that began in earnest last December also included plenty of time for dancers to acclimatize to being separated two metres (or more) apart, at first using neon coloured traffic cones to get up to speed with the requisite spacing.

“It was actually quite challenging at first, but the more we did it, the better we got,” he says. “And now when we dance together as a group, we feel that we’re still connected emotionally and physically, even if we’re not touching.”

Any show with “light” as part of its title beckons with promise and even optimism — both much welcomed and badly needed commodities during these unparallelled times. When asked if her latest work is a “pandemic piece,” Bailie doesn’t miss a beat.

“Yes, most definitely,” she replies. “The pandemic has been absolutely devastating and we’ve never lived through anything like this before. The whole arts sector has been reeling since last spring and it’s amazing that some of us can even work.

“Body and Light is ultimately about hope. We are hopeful, and that’s why we’ve worked so hard to deliver this. I am so thankful to all the dancers, the board of WCD and staff that everyone said yes when I asked if they wanted to continue with this production or not.

“It’s even more important now to keep imagining and envisioning a way to do something, because we might be in this for quite some time,” Bailie says. “We need to keep pushing past our own boundaries of what we think is possible, because that will lead to new growth and take us further.”

For details on WCD’s drive-in and online shows, or to order tickets, visit wfp.to/bodylight. June 25’s performance is already sold out.

holly.harris@shaw.ca