I showed up last night at Breaking Circus to see Vazari’s everything i wanted to tell you / tout ce que j’avais envie de te dire as part of Mayworks Kjipuktuk/Halifax knowing little more than it was a dance show, it won three Dora Mavor Moore Awards, and that it would be presented in both English and French. Often for dance shows I go in having read as much as I can on the show because I often spend too much of my time while in the audience second guessing my ‘understanding’ and interpretation, despite the fact that many dancers have told me it’s not so much a matter of being ‘right’ or even necessarily ‘getting it.’ I found this show to be wonderfully accessible for folks, regardless of how much knowledge they have of dance.
The concept and direction for this show are by Jessie Garon, and it is performed by two dancers: Demetri Apostolopoulos and Jarrett Siddall. They are onstage surrounded by cardboard boxes, and the beginning of the piece is very funny and joyous. The two dancers move very much akin to children playing games together that erupt into hilariously physical fights with absolutely no sense of personal boundaries. Throughout the show I saw them as brothers, but their exact relationship, I think, is up to interpretation. At much of the centre of their relationship is competition. In fact, the piece begins with them looking out at the audience engaged together in a game that is perplexing but intriguing to watch because we in the audience don’t know the rules. Much of the beginning of the piece is stylized movement evoking a sense of play, spontaneity, and games.
This reaches a pinnacle as we get a series of blackouts where the performers rush to create a series of tableaux, both separate and together, to be revealed triumphantly once the lights come up. A lot of this part of the show felt reminiscent of gym class, summer camp, and improv games to me, and as though our characters were growing into teenagers.
The tension between the characters builds and builds until there is a breaking point, and suddenly the piece turns quite emotional and the movements a bit more conventionally “choreographed,” with some repeated gestures, and I got the sense more and more of metaphor and the narrative between these two characters becoming more and more complex. I may have been filling in the blanks of the details for myself, but that didn’t matter, the arc of the big emotions exploring a theme of familial relationships over time really tugged at my heart.
The audience, myself included, was also blown away by the incredible athleticism of Apostolopoulos and Siddall on display. There is a moment where Siddall’s character is centre stage essentially fighting against some invisible force. Even though he is barely moving it seems like every muscle in his body is engaged in active resistance, and the audience can see the sheer force of energy it is requiring for him to do this. He is also up club dancing with Apostolopoulos and both are running and jumping up onto blocks and falling and sliding and lifting each other up, and walking on the walls- it’s truly incredible to watch these two be absolute masters of their craft in such athletic immediacy.
The cardboard boxes that fill the set are used in both whimsical and ominous ways. I saw them representing that apex of childhood creativity: the empty cardboard box that could be turned into a rocket ship or a fort or a train when you were small enough to squeeze inside it. In the context of the Mayworks Festival, I also saw them as symbolizing the threat of poverty, of isolation- the proverbial “living in a cardboard box” on the street. They can also represent the way that we are continually packing up our lives and moving to different places, which can create huge distance between us and our family members. There is also a theme of dressing in new clothes- a fresh start, perhaps?, as we do see the characters seem to struggle and recover, only to struggle again. The ways that they lift each other up, pull each other down, and lean on one another really stresses the distinct experiences of each of these in a relationship.
It is ironic that the title is everything i wanted to tell you/ tout ce que j’avis envie de te dire because there is very little actual dialogue in the piece, and the characters also seem to struggle with other forms of direct communication- such as simply hugging one another, or high fiving, or shaking hands. Instead, they tend towards more indirect actions (sometimes even more intimate), but the intentions are vividly clear. We get the sense that inherent to the conflicts they are having is this constant moving sideways that keeps them from being able to connect seamlessly.
Indeed, through this masterful and beautifully creative storytelling Garon has told us all we need to know.
everything i wanted to tell you/tout ce que j’avis envie de te dire has closed at the Mayworks Festival of Working People & the Arts. The Festival continues today, May 9th, and tomorrow, May 10th. For more information about upcoming performances and events please visit this website.
