DJD's Party Time gets the seats shaking in downtown Calgary
Decidedly Jazz Danceworks threw a pretty catchy party Saturday night.
The Calgary dance company’s new show Party Time is a kind of celebration of springtime and it was hard not to watch the company’s dancers trace out the steps of a night on the town and feel a little spring in your step, no matter how close we are to the tax filing deadline (Tuesday!).
In fact, at DJD’s gorgeous 12th Avenue S.E. dance theatre, when a piece gets the audience’s groove, you can actually feel the bleachers move in time to the music onstage – and that’s what was happening in the first act Saturday night.
That’s when company member Sabrina Naz Comanescu, dressed a bit like a 1920s flapper, evoking turn-of-the-20th century New Orleans, acted as a kind of choreographed emcee for the evening, slowly drawing us into the dreamy, drifty world of Party Time.
What makes a DJD show special is that they have always blended their unique dance with live music.
Decidedly Jazz Danceworks' new show Party Time opens Thursday night in Calgary at the DJD Dance Theatre
In Party Time’s first half, the soundscape is dominated by Andre Wickenheiser’s trumpet, which provides an almost elegiac soundtrack for the company as it gathers for a house party.
There’s Hugo Barry (Thys Armstrong), a mustachioed dude prone to missteps. There’s Fifi (Mara Liao Esnard), an animated presence who dreams of one day becoming a flying squirrel. There’s Zeus (Catherine Hayward), whose Van Dyck beard looks carved from a Rembrandt painting who moves like a panther.
Roshanak (Shahrzad Ahmadi) is a Persian powerhouse whose presence shrinks everyone around her.
David Kizzy Wisdom the 3rd (Shemar Herbert) brings the street dance to the party and a pretty wicked sense of mischief.
There’s others too, the same way there is at every party: people you spot across a crowded room, smoking a cigarette or laughing in a way that makes their head tilt back and showcases their molars and makes you write a life story for them in your head.
All of it unfolds somewhat dreamily, led by Wickenheiser’s lonely trumpet that made me think of city life, sort of the way it’s depicted in Billy Wilder’s Oscar-winning classic film The Apartment or even the Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks at the Diner.
City living, as depicted in Party Time, is a weird gumbo of loneliness and the instant intimacy that sometimes happens between strangers who happen to be in the same place one night, listening to the same jazz ensemble melodies when a little magic happens.
Choreographed by DJD artistic director Kimberley Cooper, Party Time poignantly acknowledges both strands of city life – it bounces between celebration and meditation, between youthful exuberance (Esnard’s jubilant flying squirrel fantasy) and Hugo’s awkward efforts to fit in with a crowd he doesn’t quite fit in with.
The second half of Party Time pumps it up, replacing Wickenheiser’s lonely trumpet with something a little funkier, allowing Kizzy Wisdom the 3rd and Roshanak among others moments to shine, as the party goes deeper into the night and everyone starts to think and move and feel as one.
All of it benefits from Hannah Fisher's sublime costume design and Scott Reid's evocative sets. In addition to Wickenheiser's wicked trumpet playing, there's great musical chops from Carsten Rubeling (keyboards/trombone), Jeff Gammon (bass) and Luis 'El Pana' Tovar on drums.
Not to be overlooked either is the DJD Dance Centre: walking out of the theatre, you are greeted with a gorgeous, glassed-in tableau of downtown Calgary and Saturday, there were a few young women standing there taking selfies against a backdrop of the glittering city skyline – and I thought it kind of fits exactly into what Party Time explored.
I used to live in Los Angeles and one time someone asked what it’s like to live in Los Angeles and I said, “I’ve never lived anywhere where I met so many people for the first time.”
Party Time will make you feel like you’ve known the dance company and even the people sitting next to you forever.
It runs at DJD Dance Theatre from April 25 to May 12.
For tickets, go here.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Robert Pickton stabbed with toothbrush and broken broom handle: victim's family
The family of one of Robert Pickton's victims says the convicted serial killer suffered an incredibly violent death at the hands of another inmate.
Father who killed one-year-old son with axe may be allowed to travel in southwestern Ontario
A Mennonite father who killed his one-year-old son with an axe may be allowed to travel to parts of southern Ontario in the coming months
'It feels like freedom': Why some Albertans like going nude in nature
Few people can say they accidentally purchased a nude beach — but Shelley can. When she saw a piece of land she could fondly remember camping on was up for sale, she inquired about it and ended up purchasing it. She soon found that there were already inhabitants on it.
Panama prepares to evacuate first island in face of rising sea level
On a tiny island off Panama's Caribbean coast, about 300 families are packing their belongings in preparation for a dramatic change. Generations of Gunas who have grown up on Gardi Sugdub in a life dedicated to the sea and tourism will trade that next week for the mainland’s solid ground.
'Check your tickets as soon as possible': Ottawa resident $70 million richer than they think
Attention Ottawa residents, a $70 million Lotto Max winning ticket was sold somewhere in the nation's capital.
Live Nation reveals data breach at its Ticketmaster subsidiary
Live Nation is investigating a data breach at its Ticketmaster subsidiary, which dominates ticketing for live events in the United States.
Vancouver synagogue holding service after arson attack
A Vancouver synagogue is set to hold its first service after an arson attack charred the building's front door and left the Jewish community shaken.
Idaho jury deliberating sentence for man who killed wife and girlfriend's 2 children
Jurors resumed deliberations Saturday on whether a man should be sentenced to death after being convicted days earlier of the murders of his wife and his girlfriend’s two youngest children in Idaho.
Israel describes a permanent ceasefire in Gaza as a 'nonstarter,' undermining Biden's proposal
Israel’s prime minister on Saturday called a permanent ceasefire in Gaza a "nonstarter" until long-standing conditions for the ending the war are met, appearing to undermine a proposal that U.S. President Joe Biden had announced as an Israeli one.