We formed in 2003 when Rachel Anderson, Treena Stubel and myself came together to train and perform outside of studio classes. Our goal was to strengthen and evolve our independent work as well as invigorate the professional contemporary dance community as a whole. New dancers moved into the community and triPOD dance collective expanded to become a group of 15 dancers and musicians. We choose to work in the spirit of collaboration and improvisation, drawing upon each member’s expertise throughout our creative process. We also support each members independent work and strive to offer presentation opportunities for them.
We often collaborate with events and artists in our city on an improvisational basis. I grew up in a small northern town in Alberta called Lac La Biche. I began dancing when I was 17 and first trained at Grant MacEwan Community College in night classes with Brian Webb and Chick Snipper. I graduated from the full-time performance program in 1985 and studied for two years at LADDMI.
At the end of this month, we are presenting a program titled Six Mixed, as all of the six pieces are quite diverse and by different choreographers. I will tell you about my piece titled Pourtinade.
Pourtinade was first performed at the Victoria Symphony's New Currents Festival in 2007 at the MacPherson Playhouse in Victoria, BC. I was inspired to make it because I had a revelation about how we, as human beings, work hard to recreate those circumstances that are known to us as we grow up. In doing so, we can never really recreate them because life throws all sorts of unplanned possibilities in the way.
Pourtinade is about literally laying out those possibilities and dancing the outcome. The music, composed by Linda Bouchard (surprise!) is titled Pourtinade (more about that later!) and is made up of sections that can be arranged in any order for a performance. Justin McGrail, a resident poet/performance artist recites 4 of his original poems.
I built a board game titled Pourtinade and at the beginning of the dance piece, we play the game using dice to determine what the order of the 11 sections of music and 4 poems will be. A live camera feed suspended above the board allows the audience to follow the game's progress. The outcome of the game determines what order the dancers will improvise to the elements. They have a scored improvisation they follow, but they do not know what the accompaniment will be - akin to the curves and straight arrows life throws our way as we strive to recreate that which is known to us!
I really enjoy the work because it truly reflects the playfulness and sadness of what those unknown circumstances mean.
The title, Pourtinade, is a coincidence itself. Linda Bouchard wrote in her program notes that it came from a card her young French nephew, Martin, had sent to a friend of Linda's named Tina. The end of the card read "Pourtinade Martin". Tina did not understand this French word and called Linda for a translation. They discovered the young man's script caused them to unite the french phrase "pour tina de Martin". They laughed and Ms Bouchard made note that it was a beautiful word. When she was looking for a title for the work, she found Pourtinade to be entirely appropriate.
Six Mixed will be presented at the Artspring Centre on Sept. 26, 2009 at 8 pm. Please contact artspring.com for more information.
It will also be presented in the new year by Dance
Six Mixed also features: a scored improvidstion by Peter Bingham (sponsored by Dance Victoria), a work by Daniel McCusker of Boston, a dance/physical theatre work by Treena Stubel, a work performed with musical ensemble Continuum Consort (to a score commissioned from David Loeb), and a scored improvisation designed by the dancers and musicians of the collective.
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