Prism: An Exploration of Body Movement and Senses

Prism: An Exploration of Body Movement and Senses

One of many events held by Salihara International Performing-Arts Festival (SIP Fest) was a dance performance called “Prism” from Montreal Danse, a creative company for choreographic development of Canada. The performances were held in two days during Saturday and Sunday on October 29 to 30 at Galeri Salihara. The choreography was created by Benoît Lachambre, an award winning choreographer who has also created pieces called “Forgeries, Love and Other Matters”, “Lugares Comunes”, “Is You Me” and “Body Scan” .

Together with six veteran performers, namely Elinor Fueter, Annik Hamel, Rachel Harris, Sylvain Lafortune, Peter Trosztmer and Nathan Yaffe invented “Prism”. The dancers were clad in a piece of clothing in bright colors that were wrapped around their bodies. Over neon colored backdrop like green, purple and pink, the dancers displayed their body movement in sync with lights and sounds. The choreography explored sensuality, playfulness, and joy to offer a perspective in social an political sense for the bodies.

One unique feature was the use of hard hats by the performers. It turned out that during the creation of “Prism” there was also a building maintenance going on at the same building they were practicing. The builders involved the use of hammer, drill, and so on. It inspired them to infuse the sound into their instrumental music accompaniment and use hard hats as costume.

Some of you might be taken aback by the sheer of sensuality that was displayed in this choreography, but it was not considered vulgar for us. The movements were beautifully presented and the harmony between lighting, music, and the dancers was solid. It was one of those experiences where the performance was too stunning to be looked away. You should keep an eye on “Prism” and not miss the chance to see it live.