Dance review: Momentum of Isolation illustrates the pain of loneliness in enthralling ways
Radical System Art choreographer Shay Kuebler’s new full-length piece is moving and fiercely funky
Aiden Cass and Sarah Hutton of Momentum of Isolation. Photo by David Cooper
DANCE ARTIST SHAY Kuebler first started making waves in Vancouver’s dance community well over 15 years go, and from the get go, he was someone to watch. He quickly became known for his highly physical style rooted in rigorous technique, and, as a choreographer drawing on hip hop, breakdance, martial arts, and theatre, he had a way of making contemporary dance accessible and exciting. Momentum of Isolation may be his most moving and fiercely funky work to date.
The founder of Radical System Art, Kuebler began exploring the work’s theme of loneliness long before the pandemic, making for fortuitous timing of the full-length ensemble piece’s world premiere at the 2021 Chutzpah! Festival. In the piece for nine dancers, Kuebler’s character grapples with the effects of isolation that we have all come to know to varying degrees over the last 18 months.
His Everyday Man spends his time working alone, occasionally talking to the single potted flower on his desk. At closing time, he puts on his suit jacket to leave the office, Kuebler then donning a bungeelike harness attached to his torso that pushes, pulls, and propels him forward and back. As he sprints amid a soundscape that’s a mix of horror show, circus act, and sci-fi flick, we wonder: is he running away from something or to someone?
The throughline of Kuebler’s character is his connection to objects rather than human beings; in one striking scene (quite literally), he dances with a dresser, individual drawers opening and closing, coming at him like a boxer. The ingenious solo gives Kuebler a chance to illustrate his background in martial arts, the section escalating to extremes with slow-mo sequences set to thrash metal under a pulsing red glow.
Momentum of Isolation’s scenes featuring its crack group of dancers (Keirdan Bohay, Aiden Cass, Jade Chong, Sarah Hutton, Tia Kushniruk, Nicole Pavia, Nicolas Ventura, and Calder White) act as a counterpoint to Kuebler’s disconcerting solos. Here, his distinct multiflavoured vocabulary and savvy melding of forms shine through, whether it’s street dance set to sultry jazzy sounds or big, brash movement amplified by music evoking a TV game show that evolves into each dancer rocking out in their own rectangular strip of light along the floor. There’s a flash of ballet here and Latin dance there, and a scene where the dancers swirl swiftly illuminated only by flashlights. A duet for a dancer and a headless life-size marionette, its limbs operated by another dancer from behind, is amusing if somewhat unsettling.
Kuebler’s selection of music samples adds layer upon layer of relatable emotion--the longing for love and connection--from Heatwave’s “Always and Forever” to “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You” by Michael Bolton to Bill Withers’s it-never-gets-old “Just the Two of Us”.
Momentum of Isolation expresses the pain of loneliness in the most enthralling of ways. Kuebler imbues his physicality with heart, creating a timely and powerful kinetic reminder that we need each other.
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