Dance review: Ebnflōh's In-Ward brings the thrill of the streets to Dancing on the Edge fest
The cutting edge of hip-hop meets Montreal company’s fluid vision of confinement
In-Ward. Photo by Melika Dez
Dancing on the Edge presents Ebnflōh's In-Ward at the Firehall Arts Centre until July 12
FROM ITS BIG trap bass beats to its krump slouching and chest pops, In-Ward, from Montreal’s Ebnflōh Dance Company, is rooted firmly in the streets. Making few concessions to contemporary dance, the striking vision from choreographer Alexandra “Spicey” Landé is riveting and raw over its full, fluid hour.
All of this makes In-Ward one of the most exciting and refreshingly uncompromising shows at this year’s Dancing on the Edge Festival.
Your attention never ebbs and flows—as proven by a small audience who made a big noise when it leaped to its feet in a standing O at the end of the opening show.
Credit goes to Landé’s alternately dark and darkly funny concept of six bodies trapped, No Exit style, in a room. Some of the flowing vignettes find the dancers zombified and caught in a surreal limbo, others have them exploding in rage one minute and teasing each other playfully the next. Props also go to the six fierce performers (Ja James “Jigsaw” Britton Johnson, Jaleesa “Tealeaf” Coligny, Kosisochukwu “Kosi” Eze, James-Lee “Kiddy” Joseph, Elie-Anne “Rawss” Ross, and Céline Richard-Robichon) who commit fully to the piece’s mood—and dance themselves into the ground in the process.
Audience members are immediately immersed with the dancers, entering the theatre to discover the beats already banging, and the performers already popping, not just on the stage, but up the stairs, and in selected seats, where they remain for the entire first section.
The dancers look like urban ghosts in all-white sweats and sneakers as they move towards the stripped-to-its-bones black stage; a big industrial light, a central bench, and a pair of kicks thrown over a wire are the only set pieces.
Throughout the show, the performers creatively turn their hoodies into props: at one point they yank them over their faces to eerie effect; in another, a mass of dancers pulls at each others’ sweats till they all fall backward, erupting across the floor.
Rather than work the mélange of hip-hop styles into synchronized dance numbers, Landé lets each artist find their own groove to create moods and sculptural imagery. One sequence finds the dancers leaning hard backwards as they move around, as if pushed by some invisible force. And watch what each performer brings to the off-the-hook movement: the popping by Rawss gets so refined at one point that she’s trembling violently all over; Jigsaw flips a playful rap into something primal and angry, and his moves extend electrically, right out to the tips of his expressive fingers.
There’s meaning here too: people fighting for space, lost in the crowd, grasping for hope, and climbing the walls.
In-Ward is intense, it's laugh-out-loud funny, and it's badass—hip-hop that's not watered-down and allows the dancers to find their own flow in a context outside of the streets or clubs. But let's not over-analyze it: head to the Firehall tonight to experience it. Just follow the sub-bass beats.
Photo by Vanessa Fortin
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