The golden ratio in dance
When the Montreal-based dance company Compagnie Marie Chouinard launched a new performance about the act of creation in the natural world it didn’t have a particular image in mind. During Chouinard’s research into nature though she stumbled upon the Golden Ratio an equation that can be found throughout the universe.
In geometry the number can be found in the spiral of a snail’s shell and 16th-century philosophers and artists discovered the ratio in the lengths of a person’s arms and legs. Many Renaissance artists and architects created their works using the ratio believing the inclusion created beautiful art. Music from around the world incorporates the number including works by some of the world’s most famous composers such as Satie and Debussy. The Golden Ratio can even be found in the world of finance with the number being used in many principle algorithms such as the Fibonacci arc. Nineteenth-century mathematician and philosopher Aldolf Zeising found the Golden Ratio so constant throughout the universe that he declared it to be a universal law. The equation and its place in the cosmos is an endless source of wonder which is why Chouinard decided it would be the perfect foundation on which to base a dance performance about the perfection of creation.
The Golden Mean (LIVE) which is Theatre Junction Grand’s first show of the new season was first performed at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and is described as an “erotic avant-garde humorous and deeply human work” about the living world.
Dancer Carol Prieur has been involved with the show since its inception. One of the most enjoyable parts of it for her is the unique way in which the performers manifest the act of creation.
“I think in all of (Chouinard’s) work” Prieur says “even if we reproduce a piece over and over again it’s never performed the same way twice. But that is especially true with this piece. It’s a heightened state of being so in tune with what it is that (Chouinard) wants us to communicate — we are trying to portray the creative process through a creative process right there in front of you.”
In every performance the dancers fully absorb the atmosphere in the performance space the unique time of each show their own individual thoughts and feelings and the over-arching theme of nature and its perfection and in that state of mind they are creating gestures and movement and exploration of tracts unique to that moment. It’s a kind of rehearsed improvisation through the body.
“It’s the imagination of each individual” Prieur says “that fantastic life force that is so unique to each person their thought process the choices that they make in the environment they’re in that creates a web. And that web is what creates this piece. It’s an incredibly organic experience and yet it’s also a very mathematically connected and calculated piece; we’re all tuned in to the same frequency.”
When asked how the Golden Ratio figures into the dance in The Golden Mean (LIVE) Prieur says it depends on how each performer accesses their own feelings in any moment and how that person brings those sentiments to the surface through their fluent body.
“We used the equation in examining our creative choices and discovering that maybe there aren’t any right or wrong decisions they just lead you to where you are.”
