Rubberband

How does change actually happen? With this question in mind, Victor Quijada pondered his first choreography for a large cast – after 14 smaller evening fillers and numerous short pieces. Then, at the end of 2018, in the company’s home town Montréal, Canada, he brought out EVER SO SLIGHTLY; the French version rhymes, “Vraiment doucement”.

In pandemic times, the unravelling of emotions and the dissolution of once fixed position help to recognize the status quo. The ten dancers form a kind of society that sometimes moves together and light-footedly masters balances, sometimes frays into groups, finally into individual elements that lose their footing. This is contrasted by gentle tones in the encounters, the willingness to help, the release of airy centrifugal forces. The action is musically accentuated by Jasper Gahunia and William Lamoureux, who play an impressive selection of electronic and amplified instruments on one side of the stage. EVER SO SLIGHTLY earned huge cheers when it ended Vancouver’s long theatre closure in October 2021.

VICTOR QUIJADA grew up listening to hip hop in Los Angeles and, after dance training and engagements as a dancer, developed his own method, which he named RUBBERBAND after the ensemble he founded in 2002. It combines floor-based urban dance with partnering and contemporary ballet.

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Choreography: Victor Quijada

Dance: Jean Bui, Daniela Jezerinac, Emma Lynn Mackay-Ronacher, Jessica Muszynski, Jovick Pavajeau-Orostegui, Brontë Poiré-Prest, Jerimy Rivera, Adèle Ross, Ryan Taylor, Paco Ziel

Music: Jasper Gahunia, William Lamoureux

Lighting design: Yan Lee Chan

Original music: Jasper Gahunia

Costumes: Cloé Alain-Gendreau

Dramaturgy: Mathieu Leroux

Technical direction: Yan Lee Chan

Production: RUBBERBAND

Co-production: Danse Danse, Société de la Place des Arts de Montréal, Théâtre Hector-Charland and Global Arts Live. With the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Conseil des arts de Montréal and the Ontario Arts Council.

Supported by: Danse à la Carte and the residencies at Place des Arts, Salle Pauline-Julien, CCOV – Centre de création O Vertigo and Théâtre Hector-Charland.

www.rbdg.ca

FOKUS CANADA is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Canada (Embassy of Canada) and the Quebec Government Office.