DanceHouse to stream spectacular Babel 7.16 as part of Digidance Series, December 8 to 19
Inspired by the Tower of Babel and featuring dancers from around the globe, filmed production is choreographed by Belgians Damien Jalet and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
Photo by Christophe Raynaud de Lage
As part of its ongoing Digidance series of streamed dance performances, Dancehouse presents Babel 7.16.
This spectacular work is a reimagining of 2010’s Babel(words), co-choreographed and envisioned by two of the world’s hottest choreographers: Belgians Damien Jalet and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, with a visual concept by British visual artist and sculptor Antony Gormley. Babel 7.16 will be available streaming on-demand from December 8 to 19.
Using the biblical story of the Tower of Babel as its inspiration, the production brings 22 dancers from 15 nations together in a driving exploration of the complexity, chaos, and possibilities generated as diverse cultures come together. In the Biblical story, humankind attempts to draw closer to God by building a tower toward him. Refusing to share his domain, the deity punishes his worshippers by dividing them into competing nations and languages.
“When Babel(words) premiered in 2010, its vision of a fractured world seemed utterly of the moment. Praising the creation, The Guardian hailed the work as ‘the most fiercely resonant dance theatre of the decade.’ Six years later, following the terrorist attacks in Paris and at the dawn of the Trump era, Babel 7.16 only seemed more relevant to a divided globe,” says Jim Smith, artistic and executive director of DanceHouse. “And here in 2021, as we are siloed by social media, as a global pandemic geographically and socially isolates us—this work’s multitude of competing, disconnected voices feels more of this time than ever.”
The diverse group of dancers—who bring not only their bodies, but their voices, dialects, and personal stories of connection and withdrawal to the stage—are amplified by British sculptor Antony Gormley’s light-catching steel cubes and imposing three-dimensional structures, which define and redefine the space in seemingly infinite geometric permutations.
Cherkaoui and Jalet heighten their distinctive movement vocabulary with an original score that is as diverse as the dancers themselves; its rhythms combine taiko drums, bamboo flute, kokyu violin, and more into a fusion of Eastern and Western sounds.
At times intimate and sensual, at times irreverent and quirky, among Babel 7.16’s highlights are a Kama Sutra pas de deux, multi-lingual border-guard robots, smooth-talking Frenchmen who regress to cavemen, and even a monstrous amalgam of six dancers that lays waste to everything in sight.
Digidance is a joint initiative of Harbourfront Centre (Toronto), the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), and Danse Danse (Montreal), in association with Springboard Performance (Calgary), and was inaugurated to stream significant large-scale dance works from around the globe to Canadians.
Post sponsored by DanceHouse