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Love of movement

Whistler Arts Council kicks off annual performance series with Motus O Dance
1542dance
Mo' Motus O Company members preform scenes from Variations In Love, Motus O Dance company's latest production. Photo by James Croker

What: Variations In Love

When: Friday, Oct. 24, 8 p.m.

Where: MY Millennium Place

Admission: $19 adult, $16 WAC members, $10 children

What do a sheep shearer, gymnast and figure skater have in common? Dance. Well, more specifically, a love of movement.

You see, the three artistic directors of the Ontario-based Motus O Dance company, James Croker, Cynthia Croker, and Jack Langenhuizen, come from very different backgrounds; James was a sheep shearer, Cynthia, a gymnast, and Langenhuizen, a figure skater.

Cynthia began to dance when she was five years old, studying ballet, tap, jazz and modern. But gymnastics was one of her first loves.

“The interesting thing is that we’re all sort of sports fanatics,” she said, adding that their interests touch on everything from cross-country running to rugby. “We’re… really physical in our expression.”

It’s clear that they all appreciate diversity, drawing inspiration from street theatre and stage performance. James, who has quite a bit of experience in street theatre, brings the element of Laban movement to the table.

“We have kind of a wide breadth of dance training, but other training, as well,” she explained.

The three met up at a performing arts school in the early ’90s and, inspired by the creative, internationally influenced environment, developed a vision for their own company. They pooled their money and purchased a house in Stoufville, Ontario to live and work out of.

“We wanted to start our own company because we were very interested in communication ideas through dance,” Cynthia explained. “Most dance companies back when we started… were submitted to a certain form of dance, and everything was sort of submitted to that. We work a little differently. We’re very character-driven, so all the movement is submitted to a character or an idea.”

Their diverse backgrounds have led to a very different approach to a dance company — their focus isn’t strictly on dance itself. Motus O, literally translated in Latin, is “the method of movement.”

The dance choices and all physicality within their performances are a direct product of the underlying story.

“Then it becomes a much more diverse expression,” she said, adding that while this was an innovative approach when the company first started in the early ’90s, this is now commonly labeled as physical theatre.

The visionaries behind Motus O Dance believe that the key to engaging an audience is not only through movement, but also by drawing them into the story using the proper rise and fall of conflict and resolution through the underlying story.

“So we spend a lot of time with that aspect, which I think is quite different than most ‘dance companies,’” she said.

“We’re very much interested in creating an experience where they leave the theatre different. I feel I have succeeded if, when they leave, they’re thinking about something differently than when they went in.”

The artistic directors are also involved in every single aspect of the shows they create, from the storyline development, to costumes and props. They even perform in the shows.

A book of prose written by a psychiatrist in the early 1960s inspired their first production, entitled Human Knots.

“We found it very interesting, because it was all about how you get in a relational knot,” she recalled with a laugh.

So, they created an entire show based on the concepts found within the book.

“That was our very first show, and we spent a lot of time just trying to figure out our strengths and weaknesses as a group,” she said.

Since then, the team has created 11 unique productions, interpreting books and classic plays, like A Christmas Carol and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and perfecting the craft along the way.

“We can kind of predict the art, and the creative process is never really foolproof — you can’t really put it down to a formula, but we have sort of found a system that works for us, so that’s been really honed over the years,” Cynthia explained.

They’ve even adopted the habit and practice of storyboarding their performances before they even begin to rehearse, which is, again, a unique approach to dance.

“Most dancers don’t do that — that’s more done with film,” she said. “But we find that, especially if you’re doing a story, the arc has to really be working for you, and that’s a major problem dancers have, because they don’t necessarily think ‘story,’ so many times they’ll get stuck in this aesthetic for quite a long period of time, and lose the audience.”

Now, the company is getting ready to embark on a tour of British Columbia, bringing their latest show, Variations In Love, to a number of stops throughout the province, including Whistler. Their latest show is something of a continuation of their first performance piece, Human Knots.

“We’re all interested in relationships, and so again, this show, we wanted to do short vignettes — anywhere between three to 12 minutes in length — but they’re all around some sort of theme of love, or not…” Cynthia trailed off with a laugh.

While some scenes are quite poignant, like a vignette with an old man reminiscing about his dead wife through an old film, dancing with her image, the production is also riddled with social commentary and humour. Seven dancers perform during the 90-minute production, which features dance, music, and multimedia aspects.