Resonance by Hanna Kiel

Resonance

Choreography Hanna Kiel

Sts. Cyril and Methody Church Hall, Toronto

September 26-28 2019

Reviewed by Ted Fox

Twelve dancers move massed together but isolated in their own spaces oblivious to the others around them. Their bodies and minds consumed by the loud pulsating hypnotic rock music played by a live band hidden within the darkness of the stage.

Their movement consists of wide leg and arm extensions. Heads thrown back and nodding to the relentless beat. As are the heads of us sitting watching.

The mass gradually breaks up into individuals as they begin to acknowledge and interact with each other. Lifting their partners over and above and swinging them around and back, their faces awake with humanity.

It goes on until the dancers begin to form another mass, only one made of individuals relating and supporting each other.

Three members of the band come off the stage and join them, including band leader percussionist Greg Harrison.

Followed by another performer Zsakura Del Col delivering a compelling spoken word performance written by her and Robert Soria. The text complements the feelings and ideas I am experiencing.

"The body has been infected with future from unknown answer, the answer can only tell the truth from the past, forgotten history, forgotten names"

One performer comes very close. We can see his face etched in anguish. Beseeching us. "Help" can be faintly heard. A line from the text resonates: "What if that stranger who was lying in the middle of the street had all the answers?”

Choreographer Hanna Kiel has used the large room that is Sts. Cyril and Methody Church Hall to show us a microcosm of our technological society constantly bombarded by noise isolated from others with only ersatz faceless friends.

The dancers at the end are still a mass. But now made up of individuals who can work together and perhaps bring about a revolution.

Kiel has created an entertaining, emotional and challenging work in which the dancers excel in both the physicality of their movements and their very expressive mercurial facial expressions.