In conceiving their newest work, dancers with the 605 Collective considered what produces spine-tingling sensations.
“Doctor’s office visits, or having your hair brushed by somebody or face painting or different sounds, or people playing with different textures nearby you, whispering, all these soft and subtle sensorial cues,” said Josh Martin, artistic co-director.
Performers will explore sensorial activity eye-to-eye and shoulder-to-shoulder with audience members in an immersive work called The Sensationalists at the Cultch May 12 to 16.
“We want to have everyone experience the dance in their own way and to be in closer proximity and to feel the movement of the performers more themselves,” Martin said.
The show will begin in the lobby of the Cultch and then flow into the historic theatre, the audience moving with the choreography throughout the show.
“We really want people to take ownership over their own experience of the work and we’re giving them the tools to do so,” Martin said. “They can shift their perspective 360 degrees throughout the entire work and they can get close, they can get far, they can spend the time with one dancer only. They get to track the piece as it unfolds in their own way.”
The development of The Sensationalists unfurled in a novel manner for the six dancers who will perform. For the first time, 605 collaborated with a theatre artist — Maiko Yamamoto, artistic director of Theatre Replacement, a local theatre company known for collaborations and productions that include Dress Me Up in Your Love and 100% Vancouver.
In the past, 605 Collective has collaborated with other dancers, media artist and animator Miwa Matreyek from Los Angeles, who created projections for 605’s 2012 show Inheritor Album, filmmaker Brian Johnson and photographers. For The Sensationalists, Martin said building the piece with a through line from the start, instead of with movement, was exciting.
“For 605 Collective, we don’t typically have a constant outside eye,” he said of having Yamamoto as co-creator and director.
605 Collective is known for its high-energy, physical urban and contemporary dance works and Martin concedes The Sensationalists is “more chill.”
“There will be a time for the audience to go and give the space for us to do what we normally do, which is just dance it out a bit,” he said.
Audience members and dancers will have to stay “very much alive” during the piece to negotiate the movement and space.
“So there’s a really nice dynamic that happens between us of are you going to move or am I going to move?” Martin said. “You feel energetically like it’s a charged space and anything can happen so I have to stay on my toes and I have to be alert and I have to be feeling everybody in the space and watching.”
Those who choose orchestra seats should expect to be on their feet for the bulk of The Sensationalists. Those who need to stay seated can choose balcony seats.
Martin encourages audience members to opt for the orchestra.
“Even though it says participatory, it doesn’t mean that we’re going to make anyone do anything that they don’t want to do. We’re not going to single anybody out, or anything like that,” he said. “I’ve talked to a couple of people who are just scared, ‘Oh what am I going to have to do or what’s it going to be like?’ They’re just not comfortable with being that close to action. But, you know, take a risk. Take a chance.”
For more information, see thecultch.com.
