Dancing in the park: Dusk Dances’ brings pay-what-you can live performance back to Withrow Park, with a few twists
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It’s time to grab the bug spray and head to Withrow Park. After two summers of online virtual programming, Dusk Dances is back live and in person.
First launched by dancer/choreographer/producer Sylvie Bouchard in 1993, Dusk Dances is now Toronto’s longest running annual outdoor performance event.
The basic concept is to present a program of short, accessible works suited to outdoor presentation. There is no fixed stage. Instead, an emcee introduces the event and guides the audience to various locations in the park. The emcee role is invariably a comic act in itself. This year the honour falls to multi-talented Fly Lady Di (a.k.a. Diana Reyes).
A large part of Dusk Dances’ enduring success is Bouchard’s determination not to allow it to become stale and predictable.
“It’s the same and it’s not,” said Bouchard. “I’d have trouble just repeating the same formula over and over again. So we’re constantly figuring out ways to keep it vibrant.”
Over the years, Dusk Dances has travelled to multiple Toronto parks, sometimes to underserved neighbourhoods. It has toured nationally, from Vancouver to Quebec City, and through a licensing scheme has spawned similar events in smaller communities.
As a curator, Bouchard has always thrown the doors wide open and given real meaning to the notion of culturally diverse programming, long before its importance was widely embraced. Even so, Bouchard is sensitive to the fact that she is of an older generation and that it’s time to inject Dusk Dances with fresh perspectives by inviting a guest curator to program the 2022 Withrow Park event.
This will not be the first time Bouchard has handed over the reins. In 2018, Michael Caldwell, a longtime veteran of Dusk Dances as a performer and choreographer, curated at Withrow Park. Bouchard has now deliberately stepped outside what night be called Dusk Dances’s inner circle with the intention of reinvigorating the event as it looks toward a future without her at the helm. Bouchard will step down after next year’s Dusk Dances to focus on the work of her own company, BoucharDanse.
The idea was hatched before the pandemic and, this year, after an open call and intensive interview process, contemporary flamenco artist Sofí Gudiño, founder of Inamorata Dance Collective, was chosen as lead curator in a pilot project that incorporates Bouchard and Caldwell in supporting roles. The plan is to continue with a three-person curatorial team with the lead position rotating annually.
“My approach is to champion dance artists who, for whatever reason, may have been excluded,” said Gudiño. “Dusk Dances must reflect everything this city has to offer.”
An objective of this pilot project is also to give opportunities to emerging curators.
“In the past, I’ve been more a producer than curator,” said Gudiño. “Dusk Dances has been such a treat because here I’ve been able to focus on the artistic side.”
As usual, a call went out to artists interested in performing and Bouchard, Caldwell and Gudiño reviewed them as a team. “Three Turtles in the Park,” a pandemic-postponed commission by Montreal’s Lina Cruz and one of the works in the five-item 2020 Withrow Park lineup was already confirmed. Throwdown Collective’s ever popular, acrobatic “Boxset” for three dancers and four large cubes is a recent addition. The remaining three slots are curated by Gudiño.
“Sylvie, Sofi and I had some great conversations and we gave her our feedback,” said Caldwell, “but the final choices were Sofi’s alone.”
As its name suggests, “The Tagore Project” is inspired by the music and poetry of Rabindranath Tagore, in 1913 the first Indian writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
In an unusual meeting of Indian classical dance styles — choreographed and performed by Tanveer Alam (Kathak) and Atri Nundy (Bharatanatyam) — the work is an immersion in personal memory and the richness of Bengali culture. On certain nights, Paromita Kar, a noted exponent of the Odissi form of Indian classical dance will perform instead of Nundy.
“To My Past, Present and Future …” is an intimate solo choreographed and performed by Black queer artist Nickeshia Garrick.
Gudiño describes “Earth — Synergy,” her remaining selection, as a dance quartet that will close the program on a high note. Choreographed by Shameka Blake in a style that draws on West African and Caribbean traditions, “Earth — Synergy” is billed as “a primordial origin story.”
“It’s very energetic and very percussive,” promised Gudiño.
On a practical note, Dusk Dances is a non-ticketed, pay-what-you-can event. You are encouraged to make a donation to help cover the considerable costs. It gets rolling at 7 p.m. with a participatory DJ-ed house dance workshop led by incandescent, Zimbabwe-born Raoul “Jiggy Man” Wilke.
As the sun goes down, the performance proper begins at 7:30 p.m. and lasts roughly one hour. Apart from bug spray, it’s a good idea to take a blanket or even a camping chair. Well-behaved, leashed dogs are very welcome, as of course are babes in arms and strollers.
Outdoor performances are always vulnerable to the elements, but Dusk Dances rarely cancels a show and then usually only at the last minute if the weather poses an immediate safety hazard (a.k.a. lightning). Still, if it’s pouring rain where you are when you plan to head for the park, perhaps you’d best reschedule.
Sylvie Bouchard’s advice is more succinct: “Prepare to be enchanted.”
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