Moving moments

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This article was published 01/05/2024 (844 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jolene Bailie’s newest creation, Signals to Segue, is about the dance of daily life. The small ways we interact with the world. The vibes we give off. The micro-decisions that lead into experiences big and small.

“It’s about our responsibility to call and respond, in a way,” says Bailie, artistic director of Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers. “We always have to be either signalling or segueing; we can’t just peace-out and not participate.

“We have to do one or the other — or we’re just going to be stagnant.”

The 50-minute performance runs Friday to Sunday, capping off the dance company’s 59th season.

Bailie’s new creations have been a closing tradition for more than 20 years. Coming up with original work each season is a collaborative process between the choreographer and dancers.

“The beauty of creating with people (is that) we’re all different every single day and that allows us to consider lots of topics and ideas. The dancers reflect onto me, I reflect onto them, they reflect onto each other — and then, often, that synergistic response creates something that was never on the radar,” Bailie says.

The six-person ensemble — made up of dancers Reymark Capacete, Justine Erickson, Julious Gambalan, Shayla Rudd, Warren McClelland and Carol-Ann Bohrn — has been working on Signals to Segue separately and sporadically since last summer. The final iteration of the dance has sprouted from smaller movements brought together in recent weeks in the studio.

“It’s so interesting to watch how Jolene works. You don’t really see it happening until all of a sudden it’s there,” McClelland says.

For McClelland, the meta ideas behind the dance play out in real time throughout the performance.

“I really connect with the signal side of things. Looking at the other dancers, looking at the people I’m partnering with and really signalling to each other that we’re there for each other. Or sometimes it’s a bit like doggy dare: I dare you to do this, I dare you to do that better,” he says.

As a choreographer, Bailie is known for bringing abstract concepts to life in highly physical productions. With the dancers dressed in bright pastels, signals to segue starts as a slow burn that builds in intensity to a visceral crescendo.

Bohrn, who has worked with Bailie for nearly a decade, dances and provides narration throughout the piece. Her chair and the cables and cords of the microphone act as stage dressing for the otherwise bare set.

The text is meant to describe the dance indirectly and bring the audience into the action.

“I hope the audience will feel implicated,” Bohrn says of the fourth-wall-breaking dialogue. “It might be unsettling for some, but then for others it’s really exciting.”

For Bohrn, a multidisciplinary dancer and actor, signals to segue is an example of the wide array of ideas that can be communicated through contemporary dance.

“It’s surprising the things that you can think about while you’re dancing — like an interaction with a clerk. I feel like that’s the subject matter that’s of interest to Jolene, the stuff we don’t necessarily look at or think of,” Bohrn says.

“It’s not part of the photo album of your life — there’s your birthday and anniversaries and births and deaths — but then all the minutiae of your life is the majority of your life.”

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

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