BWW Reviews: MOVE Celebrates at Vancouver Playhouse

Preeminent dance companies of New York, London, and Winnipeg all collaborated to celebrate the tenth birthday of Move: the company with a world premiere collection of works by company choreographer Joshua Beamish.

Together with the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Royal Ballet of London, and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Beamish has solidified his place in the stars as a vital proponent of classical modern dance in Canada, and around the world.

After opening with a solo piece that he performed by himself, Beamish went from tights-and-slippers to suit-and-tie and greeted the 668-seat Vancouver Playhouse, the city's prime venue for highbrow performing arts from all over the world.

Over music from Yo-Yo Ma, David Lang, Shostakovich, and Bach, as well as Olafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm, Beamish created a world-class collection of one solo piece followed by four duets. The collection featured three Canadian premieres (Adoration, Burrow, and Stay), and one world premiere (The Other People in Your Party).

The duet is one of the most beloved forms of dance. There is nothing quite like the dynamic interplay of two bodies, with its reminiscent chemistry, especially touching as a foreground to the serene adagio tempo.

Beamish has a bright, original style, with traces of late greats Pina Bausch, as in the first duet of the evening, Pierced, with her mad repetitious drama, and Merce Cunningham, as in the world premiere piece, The Other People In Your Party, with his informal quirk.

After ten assiduous years, Move: the company, has proved itself to be one of Canada's most respected arts establishments, following in the footsteps of the greats and carving out a path to a special future, towards the optimistic transcendence of national and artistic divides.

As an increasingly prominent leader in dance, Beamish is only further tightening the ropes of classical and modern dance technique for new generations of international artists to ascend to the heights of new precipices and wider horizons.

Photo by David Cooper and Stephen Baranovics

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