Co-presented by the Dance Centre: 1-16 February 2008
Co-presented by the Dance Centre: 1-16 February 2008
imbolc {in the belly}
vancouver 2010 cultural olympiad
imbolc {in the belly} considered the human relationship to the cycle of seasons within the urban environment. The piece took audiences of 50 people per night on a two hour journey through performance, sound and installation at a sequence of downtown Vancouver locations.
The title refers to the ancient Irish fire festival Imbolc (pronounced ‘im-molk’) — traditionally celebrated at the mid-point between winter solstice and spring equinox (early February) — a time when in the dead, cold darkness of winter, the animals are beginning to give birth and the earliest hints of spring are beginning to emerge.
Five key locations were included: a community centre; a bar/club; a downtown loft apartment; an underground Skytrain train; a huge disused tourist attraction building (Storyeum). Traveling through and between these ordinary public and private places of the city, the work considered: the human journey between death and life; the winter city as a cluster of interior spaces gestating the life of the city; mating displays/ritual as human-animal activity; a scientific understanding of combustion on the cellular to macro levels; fire as metaphor and biological process. Audience movement was induced through a series of fragmentary clues and/or poetic instructions. Performers ranged from 10 to 85 years old. The work used mobile phones, video, movement, text, soil, flames, and original music.
Devised in collaboration with the performers: Pia Nordin, Cara Siu, Carolyn Chan, Catherine Andersen, Jennifer Deby, Sara Mayer, Lily Whitlock, Al Thain, Joan Perkinson. Producer, Raquel Alvaro; Costumes, Reva Quam; Film, Clancy Dennehy; Production Management, Beverley Walker; Technical Direction, Jason Dubois; Finale music, Keith Johnson; Text, Dr David Suzuki (excerpted with permission from “The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering our place in Nature”, Greystone Books/1997).
PHOTOS BY CHRIS RANDLE / VIDEO DOCUMENTATION BY CLANCY DENNEHY