Chutes Incandenscentes @ the MAG

Chutes Incandescentes Promo Vid

I was going to write about Sulu from Star Trek, but then I went to see Chutes Incandescentes at the Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina. I was invited to attend by Traci Foster- an amazing clown, improvisor, and Fitzmaurice practitioner that I want to study with... if I could stop fan-girling around.

I was still not yet panicking about this assignment, and I kept seeing signs and invitations to see the show, so I figured it was meant to be- at the cost of some needed writing time. I feel like a jerk, because my poor professor may have to mark last minute- or may not mark this at all. This shows a lack of consideration on my part, and I am the only one responsible for this.

So in a blustery snow storm, I trekked to the MAG to watch some people dance. I did not know what to expect. I only knew that the work was a collaborative piece between two artists that identified themselves as choreographers, dancers and musicians. A small audience gathered outside the main performance gallery, as we entered, we saw an upright piano with the top removed and a long table that looked like the backing to a grand piano with it's curved back and hard surface.

The dancers entered in sneakers, jeans and tshirts and for the next hour created their own score with every part of the piano, from keys, to strings, to the hard shell of the stands. Using traditional harmonic lines, they paired their songs and text to the real sounds of the space (stomping their feet, dragging the piano and tables, scraping their hands on the floor) in a concert of sound that was matched by their extremely sharp physical motions.

It was beautiful, breathtaking, and I forgot I needed to pee for that solid hour.

The reason I've decided to switch to this performance as an annotation is because it represents inspiration through practice. Let me explain:

1) The piece has evolved and developed over the course of several years- formerly a solo piece, it naturally grew into a duet (artist's own words)
2) The artists use familiar mediums to communicate their story/performance (acting/singing/dancing/playing instruments) but do it in a different way to conventions
3) While performing this abstract piece, they utilize familiar tones, musical characteristics that help make the piece more palpable
4) They incorporate stylized text, written poetry by Rumi, ethnocultural specific images from South East Asia, and their own text to create something unexpected

Much of the information that I will be sharing is from the artist talk back session after the performance.

Several years ago, while travelling through South-East Asia, Benoit Lachambre was told stories from the Ramayana. From then on, he continued to have dreams about the stories, one of which was the vision of a flaming dog that ran through the palace and town setting things alight. At first the image was of destruction and flame, but then the perception came that it could perhaps be a purification.

Through his company, Par B.L.eux, Benoit choreographed what was then a solo performance piece for Clara Furey as part of an installation for a 'Night of Robert Lepage' in Montreal. Over the next several years, the pair would revisit this piece and Lachambre would take some and perform it, Fury would take some aspects and perform it (both as solo performances, exclusive from each other), and then finally coming to the discovery that it could work as a duet.

Lachambre describes the piece as "A singular hymn to the collective subconcious." (program excerpt). The piece is performed in English and French. Throughout the piece, the actors play with proximity to each other, taking turns manipulating each other, and moving the minimalistic set of piano and table. The duet transforms the performers each taking on roles/relationships: narrator-puppet, conductor-musician, lovers, etc. There is an almost invisible transition as the performers transform their characters from humans, to divine beings, to dogs and the piece is marked with jagged physicalities where they walk on the blades of their feet, and continually convulse in time and in contrast to the sounds from the piano.

Methodology-

Some specific/key observations of what they do and the devices they use:
1) The actors work within an essentially empty space with the exception of being framed by a grid of lights and two set pieces: the piano and table, and light props: two Asian masks representing God and demons.
2) They actors are dressed in similar, pedestrian garments (jeans and t's) and sneakers that I think purposefully grounds the characters into a sense of the mundane and real world
3) Instead of set choreography throughout the piece, they instead built upon a vocabulary of actions and stylized movements (walking on the edge for their feet, quick contractions and convulsions in the chest and torso, dragging the piano/table by slapping and sliding their hands across the top and sides of the set pieces)
4) Repetition of action. There were continual motifs of choreography- from how they moved over the piano, to transforming to Rama, or the demon dog, or musicians. With great precision they returned to each image/ transitioned to each character with strong and clear identifiers of what these were
5) THE BIG ONE- Lachambre and Furey spent MONTHS in rehearsal- playing with the piano and different sounds it could make, and MONTHS working together to see how they could communicate/move/build a vocabulary for performance

Inspiration and the Why

"The Absolute works with nothing.
The workshop, the materials
are what does not exist.

Try and be a sheet of paper with nothing on it.
Be a spot of ground where nothing is growing,
where something might be planted,
a seed, possibly, from the Absolute." Rumi

Is a quote/poem that Clara recited during the talk back. She recounted the experience, and some of the inspiration and reasoning behind the work was that for both Lachambre and Furey, it was to create a space of expression where they could collectively interact with the subconscious.

What does that even mean? Bringing in personal narrative through familiar practices (Furey has been playing piano for years and music is deeply rooted in her identity and practice as an artist and dancer), so she wanted to bring that expression to the forefront of storytelling. Offering these skills and ideas/stories of her life through her contributions to the writing, she met Lachambre in a liminal space where he brought his choreography, and dreams, and personal stories of travelling Asia to create a performance.

Chutes Incandescentes represents where dreams, experience and practice meet.

With Spitting Too Close, if I had more time- I expect that the creation process would be similar. The process is about creating a space where artists bring whatever they have to offer and see how a piece can develop. SPC used my personal writings as a through line for the piece- so no matter where the scenes explored, it could connect back to these repeated moments. The actors talked about their experiences, commenting on society and how they connected with it, and through sharing and playing- they brought out dreams, and stories that we enacted out and reframed in a new way.

Perhaps the most powerful moment that I can share is from one rehearsal. A major part of my practice in the process of discovering a character is walking. Through guided meditation and directed action- I lead myself and actors through a space and imagine different possibilities for how we carry our bodies through space. Once we establish a character or body, we begin to interact and see where that takes us.

On this one night, I was able to lead the actors through time, reliving childhood physicalities and projecting into future bodies. As children and youth- it was moving and fascinating how much they touched and interacted in a game of tag, how they became more aggressive and violent in their games as young teens, and how competitive and limited in physical contact they exemplified as teens... and how humorous and misconceived they were about the body of a 30 year old, let alone a 60 year old man.

Through the offerings in their games, we tried playing relationships from close friends, to new friends, to conflicts, to bullying. After the experiment, we debriefed and discussed how difficult it was and how resistant they were to playing bullies. Perhaps the comment of the night, as many of these men faced some sort of bullying as youths, "I never had friends like this before." They were resistant because they didn't want to be the oppressors they faced, and through communal experience (without talking about it prior) they found and discovered commonalities with each other which quickly formed strong bonds in the ensemble.

Through the guided walk, we also played with layers of identity. I will say that I think the cast was perfect, even though I was limited in options. These men were the right fit for this production. That said, the majority of the cast identified as white, heterosexual men, in their early 20's, living in Canada. So in our guided walk, we explored status and power, and deconstructed the possibilities of what it means to be them, and what they present vs. what others see, and some of the challenges faced by those who are not... top of the social foodchain.

The discoveries here were around how everyone faces some social challenge in some way. The achievement in this process was redefining what was unique about these actors and how they also grew beyond identifying markers like age, race, orientation, etc.

Deeply personal were the stories and experiences they shared, and how this connects to Chutes Incandescentes is that they were able to communicate these stories in entertaining and artistic ways. Ways that for them, were as important to their identity as their skin color.

I need to spend more time exploring what it means to use an established practice in performance (i.e. music theatre) and marry that to genuine experiences in story telling without it becoming either cathartic, or satirical- perhaps it can be both, but I need to maintain the honesty within those moments to honour what is shared.

Lachambre, Benoit. Furey, Clara. Chutes Incandenscentes. Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. April 11, 2013. Post performance discussion.