The Soulocentric Festival has been running since 2002 traditionally with a focus on multidisciplinary solo works. This year Soulocentric is narrowing its focus to dance and physical theatre and has renamed its festival the Contemporary Performance Showcase.
“We’re launching it as a showcase because we’re closing a chapter on being a festival-based company and starting a new chapter with producing ad hoc performances with programming from people from all walks of life” says Jenny Repond Peters artistic director and producer of Soulocentric Performing Arts. “Instead of feeling like this huge festival being this very dominant thing we produce… it’s a little bit more low-key and a bit smaller.”
Smaller doesn’t mean compromising on the quality of course. The showcase packs a lot into its two main events: the dance cabaret with 11 short pieces by mostly local choreographers and performers and the full-length mainstage solo performance Belle Paris by Judith Mendelsohn.
Mendelsohn both the creator and performer in the work based Belle Paris on her own experiences living in Paris where she studied bouffon clowning — which focuses on the art of mockery — for three years. Her piece seeks to expose and parody the endemic racism she observed during her time in France. “It’s this odd contradiction of beauty with this dark terrifying racism that permeates throughout the culture” she says.
While it’s a serious subject the performance isn’t heavy. “The idea is to entertain and to engage the audience while at the same time saying something that has a political commentary” says Mendelsohn. “It’s a really fine line to do it and get away with it so it’s a challenging piece and it’s a risky piece and I’m hoping it’s really entertaining.”
Mendelsohn will go through half a dozen characters in bouffon style throughout the show including a central mime character based loosely on herself. The audience has a role to play as well acting as a counterpoint to Mendelsohn’s characters. “The audience gets to become the other character that the solo performer is performing to” explains Mendelsohn. “A solo performer can’t be there without the audience otherwise the story doesn’t move forward and so it’s a way of sharing that journey together.”
The dance cabaret for its part offers a buffet of choreographic flavours in a single show with styles including contemporary dance hip hop ballet stilt dance jazz physical theatre and more. Repond Peters says the first half of the show includes the more dramatic pieces with heavy themes while the second half is lighter with more of a quirky fun and urban dance feel. Audiences will see everything from shows exploring themes of power abuse conformity and vulnerability to pieces about shoes celebrity chefs and Jazz Age steampunk.
“I think it’s going to provide a really good idea of the talent that exists in the Calgary dance community” says Repond Peters. “Sometimes dance can get pushed into that more serious abstract world but I think our jazz dancers and our urban dancers and our dance theatre dancers really show us the different levels of accessibility of dance.”
Regardless of how the festival has transformed over the years Repond Peters has maintained her passion for sharing the work of local artists. “It’s about presenting that really homegrown talent and I think this showcase is very much about remembering that we have so many fantastic artists in this city” she says. “I love seeing the variety in the performances and I love being able to go from piece to piece to piece. I’m always super excited about what the artist is going to bring to the table.”
Soulocentric Contemporary Performance Showcase runs February 19 to 21 at West Village Theatre.
