THEATRE PREVIEW

SEPTEMBER 2024 | Volume 243

 

Acclaimed Montréal contemporary dance company Tentacle Tribe returns with a new hit!

The Cultch and New Works are thrilled to present the Montréal-based dance company Tentacle Tribe, on stage at The Cultch's Historic Theatre with their latest groundbreaking conceptual hip–hop show, Prism, Oct 23-27, 2024.

Prism is a dreamlike journey with a truly hypnotic effect. A quintet of dancers move between a reflective floor and movable mirror panels that they can manipulate from different angles. Kaleidoscopically multiplied tenfold, their bodies seamlessly unite and intermingle, in synergy with the music—created by Tentacle Tribe's Elon Höglund. Prism opens up a myriad of possibilities, distorting perspectives and deconstructing movement into infinite combinations of colourful images. 

Tentacle Tribe, whose singular style blends hip-hop, martial arts, and contemporary dance, is a renowned company started by co-founders Emmanuelle Lê Phan and Elon Höglund in 2012. In the 12 years since their foundation, the company has created a series of increasingly transformative duets and group pieces and become one of Canada's most sought-after touring dance companies. "We are all street dancers, so we all have a specialty in either breaking, popping, hip hop, whacking, and we bring that together in an aesthetic that is kind of a hybrid," says Lê Phan. 

Prism is Tentacle Tribe's most ambitious production to date with an extensive stage set-up created from mirrors. "We have six panels of mirrors that can change angles and a reflective floor," says Lê Phan. "When we place it in a V we are reflected about seven times... and we're trying to fool the eye with the way we place the mirrors. So it's a big exploration of illusion and perception."

"A Colorful, Kaleidoscopic Masterpiece !" —Gen's Delight, Mountain Lake PBS

"Proof that hallucinogenic drugs are superfluous ... We can leave our banal reality by the sole power of two choreographers, five dancers and a few mirrors."—Translated from French, François Houde, Le Nouvelliste

Choreography: Emmanuelle Lê Phan & Elon Höglund
Dancers: Rahime Gay-Labbé, Céline Richard-Robichon, Valmont Harnois, Elon Höglund, Marie-Reine Kabasha
Scenography: Charles Cormier, Rahime Gay-Labbé
Light design & Technical direction: Benoit Larivière
Original Music: Elon Höglund
Co-Production: Diagramme Gestion Culturelle, DanseDanse

This creation was made possible thanks to technical residencies with: Centre Création O'Vertigo, Maison de la Culture Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Ville Notre-Dame-des-Prairies, Festival Dans Encore

WHEN: OCT 23-27, 2024
WED, OCT 23: 7:30 PM—OPENING
THURS, OCT 24: 7:30 PM—TALKBACK
FRI, OCT 25: 7:30 PM
SAT, OCT 26: 2:00 PM
SAT, OCT 26: 7:30 PM
SUN, OCT 27: 2:00 PM

WHERE: Historic Theatre, 1895 Venables

TICKETS: Tickets from $29. Single tickets on sale now through The Cultch's Box Office: 604-251-1363 or thecultch.com/event/prism

ABOUT TENTACLE TRIBE:
Approaching choreography through a wide variety of movement philosophies, Montreal-based dance duo Tentacle Tribe concocts uncommon dance works with a contemporary approach. 

Drawing from their wide scope of dance experience, co-founders Emmanuelle Lê Phan and Elon Höglund create conceptual hip–hop with a contemporary twist, while intermingling organic influences from earthly creatures.

This Canadian-Swedish creative alliance experiments with intricate partnering, refined musicality and a saturated dose of physical choreography. As b-boy and b-girl, present in the street dance community and as seasoned stage performers, the duo combines movement techniques that transcend style boundaries and create works that express the embodiment of music beyond technique.  

Their repertoire includes magnetic duets and group pieces such as Ghost, Threesixnine, Nobody Likes a Pixelated Squid, Origami Mami and Fractals of You, which have toured internationally. tentacletribe.com 

ABOUT NEW WORKS:
New Works is a Vancouver-based non-profit organization that is dedicated to developing and supporting dance communities through accessible art engagement.

On the ground, that work takes many different forms; we strive to respond to the needs of a diversity of dance practitioners, audiences, and arts workers through a contemporary cultural lens. How can we best support and make space for the development of dance artists today? That answer (and our subsequent suite of program and presentation activities) has shifted subtly and significantly over the last three decades. Through it all, we continue to be guided by the commitment to supporting dance artists, cultivating audiences, and providing and promoting diverse and accessible performance experiences. We strive to remove systemic barriers positioned against equity-owed practices and practitioners, and carry innovation, collaboration, and community at the core of all our programs. newworks.ca 

ABOUT THE CULTCH:
Since 1973, The Cultch (formally the Vancouver East Cultural Centre) has been one of Vancouver's most diverse and innovative arts and cultural hubs. The organisation operates three theatrical venues, a gallery, various ancillary spaces in the heart of East Vancouver, as well as digital programming through The Cultch Online that reaches international audiences. The Cultch offers dynamic contemporary programming in theatre, dance, music, and the visual arts, bringing world-class cultural presentations to thousands of citizens each year through its own programming and through providing rental opportunities for community users. Our purpose is to provide a venue for performance that serves a diverse and engaged public and provides space for artistic experimentation and development, building an audience for local companies and presenting cutting-edge national and international work. thecultch.com

The Cultch is located on the unceded Indigenous land of the xwməϴkwəýəm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil‑Waututh) Nations.

 

 

 

 

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