The Toronto Performance Review: SummerWorks’ The Moment
By Ross
It’s all about collaboration and engagement; inventiveness and detailed expansionism coming alive and embodied in this fascinating walk-about journey through dance and experimentation. Thanks to the continued partnership between Dance Arts Institute and SummerWorks, Toronto, these four new, compelling pieces of creative dance, brought to life most captivatingly by four emerging choreographers. They each, in their own way, activate our senses and our experience of theatre and dance as we are taken on a unique guided wander through Toronto’s beautiful Cabbagetown neighborhood, to give pointed meditation on the development and integration of dance and the spaces that exist around us.
I was taken on a journey through four spaces of movement, literally lifting and shifting my body up, over, and down to take in four different pieces of performance art in four different locations. This is the makeup of The Moment, and involvement that is both deliberate and expansive, delivering an energetic dynamic that captivated my limited experience with the world and dance, and expanding it beyond what I thought I knew about this art and medium.
Sometimes I like to challenge myself and broaden my exposure—try new things like dance, opera, and film. SummerWorks, most happily, exists to do just that. So I found myself, a full force theatre junkie, ready to dive into the four-storied, indoor/outdoor ambulatory experience of The Moment, and I was happily impressed. Drawn in from the first beat and party atmosphere of Path #2 (see map above), I was embraced and guided by expert hands through an experience of dance engagement that was totally unexpected and enlivening. It broadened my worldview of dance and creative processes, feeling the loving embrace of these creative dancers and choreographers from beginning to end. I don’t have a strong background in dance, not nearly enough to really discuss technique or experience through a strongly formed critical eye, but I will try to share my moments as I was ushered through SummerWorks‘ The Moment, and how I came out at the end of the tour.
First stop: Three + MeMeMeMeMe – Choreographed by Minuet Charron
Performed by Jenny Aplin, Rayna Bilous, Osvaldo Barreda “Ova” Buschmann, Joel Lawrence, and Roman Puccia, this energetic and thrilling piece, Three + MeMeMeMeMe, finds a pack of four revolving and evolving from “a thought about the power of three in relation to oneself.” It’s a dance party that embraces the mind, body, and spirit, spinning in a circular “Me, myself and I” creation that transforms and captivates, as if we are watching from the sidelines of a dance floor that spins forward and around, dissociating into singular moments of presentation and creativity. It’s a thrilling but also inviting exploration, giving space and movement to a framing that rocks and sways with meaning and utter delight, gifting us an involvement that I was happy to be pulled inside of and embraced by wholeheartedly.
Second stop: Recognize This, Remember That – Choreographed and performed by Harper Drzymala-Bokitch
Guided to the back of Jet Fuel Coffee, past a passed-out, hooded creation slumped by the window, a “recounting of moments” is physicalized in expendable repetition. Silence is what embraces us at first, by Recognize This, Remember That, as the singular figure takes over the space with a coat that won’t stay in place. It’s a contemplation of vulnerability, confrontation, and perseverance that provokes examination and introspection, on the deepest of levels and from altered vantage points. Determined to make our witnessing as expansive as our curiosity allows, the dance, as performed with integrity to detail and determination by Drzymala-Bokitch, draws us in and invests our souls in this expansive thought process, as we wander around in our own heads about what language it speaks to us in.
Third stop: The Running Project – Choreographed by Ranganathan Rajan
Led to a sidewalk, with blankets inviting us to sit beside a blocked-off road, The Running Project silently, with force, stares us down, unmasking the complex idea of start and finish. The piece’s engaging performer, Surej Surendra, engages with their physicality in a profoundly moving and sliding exploration of gravity and a working resistance to the ground beneath their feet. This solo piece digs into that body, with a series of embodied squats, lunges, and leanings that impact and enliven the space within the body and the ground that gives it resistance. It’s a piece that quietly overwhelms and pulls at our laboured experience, drawing us in with its powerful bodily integrity and the way it hypnotizes all that encounters it. It was almost as much fun to watch those who were strolling or driving by, as they pause, wondering, alongside myself and all the others, “What is this?” and “What does it all mean?” as the performer impacts the public space with slow, deliberate collision—an almost violent dance with and within the world.
Fourth and Final stop: In The Grip Of Us – Choreographed by Mackenzie Richardson
From an elevated catwalk, we are given a bird’s eye view of In The Grip Of Us, a hypnotic, atmospheric performance by two, Chloé Dominique and Rohee Uberoi, that explores a world full of turbulent movement in motion. The two arch and reformat the use of space, while manipulating space with escalating, disorienting gestures—and then they collide in a deconstructed alienation that sends ripples through the air. This work aims to disorient and activate the performance atmosphere with an eerie quality. There, they hold on and contort, pulling and pressing until cornered in deconstructed alienation. The force sends them back into their own singular spaces, evoking an emotional response that stays tingling just under my skin, as I realize my investment and involvement with The Moment has come to an expansive end, lingering long after the performance concludes.
As I emerged into reality once again, in the heart of Cabbagetown, Toronto, I could feel how SummerWorks‘ The Moment had lifted me up and altered my perception of movement, engagement, and involvement through creativity and physicality. The piece invigorated and expanded my sensibilities and thoughtfulness about dance and its overwhelming ability to foster connection through a physical representation of emotion and ideals, and I’ll be forever shifting my vantage point of the world around me because of it.
For more information on SummerWorks2025 and all the other offerings, click here.
Choreographers: Minuet Charron, Harper Drzymala-Bokitch, Ranganathan Rajan & Mackenzie Richardson
Dancers: Jenny Aplin, Osvaldo Barreda “Ova” Buschmann, Rayna Bilous, Chloe Dominique, Joel Lawrence, Roman Puccia, Mackenzie Richardson, Surej Surendra & Rohee Uberoi
Outside Eye: Heidi Strauss
Production & Producing Assistance: Tavia Christina & Kéïta Fournier-Pelletier
