Heterollectual: Love, and Other Dumb Ideas

Reviewed by Brian M. Carroll
60 Min | Dance Dramedy | PG

This is Pollux Dance’s first full-length dance. Choreographer Leslie-Ann Glen has programmed a complete story arc (with subplots).

Girl has charming urban life among her pretty and handsome friends.

There is much pretty dancing. Cute scenes of infatuation. Pretty people parading the promenade, showing off their new accessories.

And then there are a few scenes of real romance, beauty, and drama. It is these that stick in my mind.

Girl meets boy.

When the mannequins come on stage, I feel the stage at last come alive. The pas de deux of the mannequins is romantic and sweet. Two dancers, Austin Fagan and Joanie Audet, enliven mannequins of opposite gender, animating their gestures with Ronnie Burkett grace. Dating. Popcorn at the movies. Cocktails at the bar. Return to apartment, together. It still brings a smile to my face.

Subplot: pas de quatre.

Olivia Citter’s pas de quatre with the three men of the company touched my heart with its beauty and passion. I don’t know how it advances the plot…

and I don’t care. I close my eyes and I still savour it.

Girl and boy trying to…

understand each other. The duet between Ana Grappler and Falciony Patiño Cruz is sweet without being cloying. Bittersweet. Their movements are a conversation. THAT conversation. Is this more than just infatuation?

Girl hurts boy.

I found the pas de trois with mannequins (Fagan and Audet) and Tyler Gledhill wrenching, as Joanie Audet’s male mannequin literally falls to pieces.

Girl begs forgiveness.

This is a moving double duet. Citter and Gledhill play out the scene as girl wants: girl proves her love, winning back boy. Grappler and Cruz play out the reality.

I found the choreography for the female dancers a convincing mix and range of emotions: flirting, teasing, shyness, passion, lust, love and sorrow.

But Glen’s choreography for men struck me as showing less understanding. While the men are usually strong and stoic, only in the “Trying to…” duet did I get hints of real overwhelming passionate love and delight from a male character. The mannequin pas de trois shows a male abandoning stoicism, but to pain, not to love.

Much as I enjoyed the mannequin pas de deux, leaving them on stage, supposedly in coitus, struck me as passionless.

There’s much use of taped voices between music. But I didn’t always find a connection between the thoughts expressed and movement on stage.

A pretty piece, with some scenes of real beauty and brilliance. But there’s room for more passion.

NOTE: Although the show ran just under 60 minutes, it also started 9 minutes late. Plan accordingly.

Heterollectual: Love, and Other Dumb Ideas is playing at Venue 1 – Arts Court Theatre (2 Daly ave) on Saturday, June 16 at 8:00PM; Sunday, June 17 at 3:30PM; Monday, June 18 at 10:00PM; Wednesday, June 20 at 8:00PM; and Sunday, June 24 at 5:30PM. Tickets: $10.