It’s a rare dance performance that makes you question the very essence of what it means to be human. In Dark Matters, internationally acclaimed Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite examines the human capacity to both create and destroy, and manages to pare down the human condition to a single point of consciousness in a sea of uncertainty. With seven supple performers, Pite merges physics and dance to craft a potent study of the dark matter of the universe, exploring all of the unseen forces that shape our existence. It’s a hefty topic to take on, but Pite handles it with precision and grace in this stunning performance by her company Kid Pivot Frankfurt RM.
Dark Matters opens on a simple set, an austere room with gold hues, a table, two stools and a single hanging light. An inventor cranes over his desk meticulously building a knee-high marionette out of wood. Five dancers cloaked in black use long thin poles to delicately maneuver the puppet. We are conscious of the presence of these dark puppeteers, yet focus almost entirely on the engaging and life-like movements of the miniature. In this way, Pite shows us dark matter at work, an invisible power which manipulates and controls us, and of which we are only barely aware. The puppet, who begins as a playful and beloved creation, slowly transforms into a destructive daemon, violently dominating his maker. An elaborate battle between man and puppet ensues, which culminates in a dramatic climax.
Pite then takes this drama one step further as the black-clad dancers, the dark matter, begin to destroy the set itself, knocking down massive walls until the back of the theatre is bare and completely exposed. In this loaded act, Pite ingeniously erases the illusion she has created, exposing the artifice of theatre itself.
Throughout the first act, Dark Matters pushes the audience to question what is real and what is simply theatrical. As the toy begins to control the man, we are forced to ask: who is the puppet and who is the puppeteer? Pite described her own work in these words: “For me, Dark Matters is a portrait of the unknown, a performance that pulls itself apart in an attempt to discover what its made of”.
In the second act, brimming with pure dance, Pite conducts a study of negative space, exploring all of the ideas brought forth in her conceptual first act. The idea of dark matter is embodied and examined through Pite’s distinctively angular and agile choreographic style; the seven company dancers move with dexterity as they interpret her complex and meticulous physical vocabulary. Rubber-like, seemingly boneless, yet articulate, the dancers dissolve and reconstruct themselves, moving into each other’s empty spaces, acting upon each other like single atoms clustering and re-configuring.
Dark Matters closes with a final duet. Slowly removing her black hood and suit, a dancer strips down to reveal her marionette-like body. An intimate and fragile duet between man and life-sized puppet ensues, leaving the transfixed audience wondering, once again, who controls whom, and whether or not this question can ever be answered.
Dark Matters
By Kid Pivot Frankfurt RM
Feb 28-Mar 3
Tickets $22-$99
Bluma Appel Theatre
St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts
For tickets visit: www.canadianstage.com or call 416-363-3110
