> fifty-one pieces of silver
Concept, Choreographer, Set Designer: Marie-Josée Chartier
Composer & Sound Design: Henry Kucharzyk
Lights: Marc Parent
Costumes: Heather MacCrimmon
Set Designer Assistant and Builder: Don McGoldrick
Performers and Co-Creators: Julia Aplin, Susie Burpee, Shannon Cooney, Alison Denham, Robert Glumbek, Carolyn Woods, Dan Wild
In April 2002, Bennathan invited guest choreographer Marie-Josée Chartier to create a full-length work for the company. Chartier has developed a distinctive style of dance that draws heavily on her fascination with contemporary music and visual art. In fifty-one pieces of silver, she set a silvery stage of sculpture, sound, space, and texture – a landscape in which the dancers were the powerful, physical force interacting with, and within, a still life full of its own mystery and meaning. fifty-one pieces of silver premiered at Harbourfront’s Premiere Dance Theatre April 23-27, 2002.
In creating fifty-one pieces of silver, I was thinking about the sculptures and installations of Cornelia Parker, Eduardo Chillida, Juan Munoz, the writings of Wassily Kandisky, the metal sheets of Bilbao, the prairies, the lives of people around me, spaces constructed and deconstructed, interrupted events and uncontrollable moments. Most of all, I was thinking of my great love, Michael J. Baker, who taught me how to appreciate the simplest things in life and how to find beauty in unexpected places.
Reviews:
Paula Citron, The Globe and Mail, April 26, 2002
“Former Dancemakers company member Marie-Josée Chartier returned as guest choreographer to create the ravishing full-length work… this is a dance in which sound, setting and movement form a symbiotic relationship of such intensity they literally merge…The set is lined with various–shaped metal objects, 51 of them, in fact, which are manipulated by the dancers to create live sound that complements Kucharzyk’s pinging, taped soundscape…The Dancemakers dancers, as always, are committed and passionate.
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Glenn Sumi, Now Magazine, April 18, 2002
Marie-Josée chartier’s newest work includes people banging on big rectangular sheets of galvanized steel and tossing metal hoops to each other. No, she hasn’t joined Stomp or Cirque du Soleil. These unique moves -- that go way beyond dance -- are part of her much-anticipated full-length Dancemakers commission, fifty-one pieces of silver. Read the entire review
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Michael Crabb, The National Post, April 25, 2002
... in fifty-one pieces of silver, the time is filled with so many shifts of tone, texture, imagery and sound that it adds up to a very substantial sixty minutes....Chartier is also witty.. she has produced something that, while abstract, could never be called bloodless.
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Awards:
Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Choreography (2012)
Prix Dora Mavor Moore pour chorégraphie exceptionnelle (2002)
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