Drive
Drive
Premiere performance New Music New Dance festival 1987
Main Dance Vancouver
1987
About
Work with 4 women and one man, I was interested in exploring the relationship of energy and form and how energy can beget form. I began with an exploration of resistance, of going against gravity, of adversity and conflict. I was interested in investigating the energy of violence, but without violent actions. Simultaneously, I wanted to explore, in depth, the sense of life energy and joyous vitality that I felt were most fully realized in the traditions of African Dance. To this end I studied in minute detail and deconstructed the formal elements of African dance and reassembled the elements into new forms. The choreographic structure emerged from improvisational processes and through my collaboration with composer Kirk Elliot. Susan Berganzi brought in some inspired punky leather costumes that included padded brassieres as shoulder pads and elbow pads. The costumes contributed to the shaping of the work as a wild joyous battle of energies.
“Drive – Dancing on High Octane” was a performance that included recent pieces as well as classics from previous years.
The People
Choreography: Karen Jamieson
Dancers: Alison Crawford, Jean-Guy Cossette, Marie-France Lamoureux, Janice Ungaro, and Daina Balodis
Original Compositions: Kirk Elliott, David MacIntyre, and Bruce Ruddell
Musicians: Salvador Ferreras and Russell Shumsky
Reviews
“Karen Jamieson’s Drive runs on high octane. Slam-dancing road warriors shimmy across the stage and percussionist Russell Shumsky gets in some sizzling licks. Kirk Elliot’s composition is as breezy as the tunes of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra and a good ground for the dancer’s court and spark.”
- Michael Scott
The Vancouver Sun, November 5, 1987
“Drive, like Sisyphus, is full of kinetic energy and physicality. Dancers wearing knee and shoulder pads, throw themselves and each other into the air, leaping wildly one moment and crawling the next.”
- Renee Doruyter
The Province, May 8, 1988
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