Dance review: Wheezing robotic accordions and whirling shawls, as Èbe pushes definitions of flamenco
Montreal’s Sarah Bronsard creates striking visual poetry at the Vancouver International Flamenco Festival
Sarah Bronsard’s Èbe. Photo by David Wong
Vancouver International Flamenco Festival presented La Sporée’s Èbe at the Waterfront Theatre on September 18; the festival continues to September 22
IT WAS A PERFORMANCE THAT was as out-of-the-box as “flamenco” gets—or perhaps just a sign of how far artists are pushing the Iberian-born art form these days.
At the Vancouver International Flamenco Festival, Èbe began with dance artist Sarah Bronsard and robot operator-dancer Olivier Arseneault wheeling four remote-controlled accordions around the stage. The instruments eerily “breathed” together as they opened and closed—immediately conjuring the fan work of flamenco, a motif that Bronsard played effectively with later on in the piece.
In this La Sporée work conceived with sculptor, audio artist, and robotics whiz Patrick Saint-Denis, Bronsard often partnered with her mechanical stagemates, occasionally using her footwork to play a clever call-and-response with their machine clacking. A lot of the choreography drew on contemporary dance, particularly in the piece’s crescendo, with a swirling fringed flamenco shawl carving the air around the accordions.
Bronsard’s nontraditional tie-dye bodysuit and jeans and her artistic, avant-garde prop work at times faintly reminded you of iconic Spanish trailblazer Rocío Molina (whose unforgettable Caída del Cielo visited SFU Woodward’s a year ago). But in contrast, this was not a show that was about the fierce fireworks of pummelling feet or virtuosic spectacle—though there were a few sequences that showed Bronsard has serious chops, reaching complex rhythms against the thunking and clicking of the looping machinery.
Instead, Èbe worked strongest on a level of high-concept visual art. Everything about the piece was composed with the care of a gallery installation, from the formations of the accordion stands to the fiery burnt-red shawl tornado whirling against the clean, grey, minimalist sets. The lighting was gorgeous, too, sometimes throwing tall shadows of the wheezing accordions against the wall, or illuminating the shawl like a warm, glowing tortoise shell. Unsurprisingly, Bronsard has a multidisciplinary background in visual arts that includes painting, glass work, and electronic arts.
On another level, it felt completely different from the catharsis of so much flamenco, instead inviting us to listen to our own breath, to the spaces between sound, in meditation and reflection. The title—which translates as the outgoing tide—perfectly encapsulated the mood of a piece that lulled, its heaving accordions cycling like waves at the beach.
In fact, it’s up for discussion whether this piece that so deconstructs the form can be defined as “flamenco” at all—or whether that even matters when it feels so artfully original. It may be enough to just call it striking visual poetry. 
Èbe. Photo by Vanessa Fortin
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