Kitt Johnson in Rankefod, part of World Stage at Harbourfront. ( WORLD STAGE ) <\/p>\n
Kitt Johnson X-act: Rankefod <\/p>\n
Choreography by Kitt Johnson <\/p>\n
Until Apr. 8, at Harbourfront Centre Theatre, 235 Queens Quay W., or 416-973-4000. <\/p>\n
Danish dance artist Kitt Johnson is not the first to attempt to evoke our primordial past through movement. Such efforts can too easily appear corny or, worse still, cute. Instead Johnsons Rankefod is epic and awe-inspiring. <\/p>\n
In her 50-minute solo that opened at Harbourfront Centre on Tuesday Johnson takes us on a journey at once strange and haunting, from the infinite vastness of a universe devoid of life to an evolutionary moment when our primitive ancestors took to dry land and hind legs. <\/p>\n
An improvised electronic soundscape by Johnsons longtime artistic collaborator Sture Ericson roars deafeningly in the darkness; the birth of the universe perhaps. It then diminishes to a whispering, unworldly ambience. <\/p>\n
A dim circle of light gradually intensifies to reveal an unidentifiable creature, a mound of animal matter with a prominent spine suggestive of an exoskeleton. It begins to breathe and pulsate, shooting out stunted bodily appendages in staccato bursts of movement. The creature unfurls, becomes increasingly mobile and scampers about as if exploring unknown terrain. <\/p>\n
By now, of course, we know its Johnsons human form generating these images of primitive existence yet, naked except for a rough-textured loincloth and with a blank, glassy-eyed expression on her pale-painted face, we never for a moment see her as anything but pre-human. Now in her late fifties, Johnson remains a formidable presence and performer, her body lithe and expressive. <\/p>\n
The solos title is the Danish word for a subclass of crustacea known as cirripedia. Barnacles qualify as such along with various other arthropoda. Its not necessary to know this to appreciate Rankefod although it does help explain some of Johnsons oddly contorted modes of locomotion, redolent of leggy insects or sideways-moving crabs. <\/p>\n
Rankefods overall poetic resonance is enigmatic, more easily felt than explained. The image conveyed by designer Charlotte Ostergaards deeply textured backdrop varies according to how it is lit by Mogens Kjempff. It can be a rocky cliff or transform into a barren, gullied landscape. It is towards this that Johnson turns her glance before finally staring out beyond us towards an unseen and, we ponder, threatening future. <\/p>\n
This is a return visit to Toronto for Rankefod. Johnson first performed it here nine years ago as part of Harbourfront Centres World Stage, a series presenting both international and Canadian artists from a range of contemporary performance disciplines and their evolving hybrid forms. Now Johnson is the opening event of World Stage Redux, a compact 18-day festival comprising eight programs, three of them featuring Canadian artists. <\/p>\n
Launched in 1986, World Stage was once a high-profile festival that introduced Toronto to a host of major international theatre artists but when munificent corporate sponsorships began to dry up World Stage became a more modest although still artistically adventurous series of performances. <\/p>\n
This year, as Harbourfront Centre re-evaluates its place in the local cultural landscape, it has opted for an interim to dip into its past with a festival of encore appearances. A combination of timing, logistics and available funding doubtless determined the choices. Five of the eight shows feature solo performers, which of course makes them no less interesting. <\/p>\n
This week World Stage Redux also features a fresh iteration of actor Clare Coulter and director Philip McKees exploration of Shakespeares Lear as well as dancer\/choreographer William Yongs Steer, an unnerving portrayal of how technology may denude us of our humanity; as if it hasnt already. Among next weeks highlights, if that can properly describe a theatrical memorial to the Holocaust, is Rotterdam-based Hotel Moderns chilling Kamp in which three performers animate the occupants of a roughly 1:20 scale model of Auschwitz. World Stage Redux will end with Mies Julie, South African Yael Frabers contemporary re-imagining of August Strindbergs torrid drama. <\/p>\n
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Rankefod takes human evolution on a poetic journey: review - Toronto Star<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kitt Johnson in Rankefod, part of World Stage at Harbourfront. ( WORLD STAGE ) Kitt Johnson X-act: Rankefod Choreography by Kitt Johnson Until Apr. 8, at Harbourfront Centre Theatre, 235 Queens Quay W., or 416-973-4000. Continue reading