MAGDANCE 5
featuring the Bras de plomb installation by Betty Goodwin
June 5 & 6
Triffo Theatre, Allard Hall, MacEwan University
8 PM
Johanna Bundon, Jayden Pfeifer, Lee Henderson and the Brian Webb Dance Company in a double bill program produced by Regina's MacKenzie Art Gallery and New Dance Horizons that celebrates the 100th birthday of legendary Canadian artist, Betty Goodwin and her collaboration with Fortier Danse Création. MAGDANCE 5 highlights dance performance created on the Canadian Prairie.
An Anvil, a Coil, a Patterned Ocean
Created & Performed by Bundon Pfeifer Henderson
In response to scenography and performance by Betty Goodwin and Paul-Andre Fortier
Originally presented as part of MAGDANCE 5: art + dance + archive
Curated by Ginelle Chagnon, Paul-André Fortier, Timothy Long, Robin Poitras and Edward Poitras.“An Anvil, a Coil, a Patterned Ocean proposes labour, iteration, and automation, each as both subject and performance technique. Using Betty Goodwin and Paul-André Fortier’s sculpture-dance collaboration “Bras de plomb” as their scaffolding, Bundon Pfeifer Henderson deploy movement as a sonic tool, their bodies rendering themselves increasingly obsolete as their sound takes on an algorithmic density of its own. In this space of controlled menace, a soft touch becomes a wail, and the artists pave the way for their own disappearance.”
An Anvil, a Coil, a Patterned Ocean is presented with support from Canada Council for the Arts
Images by Daniel Paquet 2023.
About Brian’s Piece…
Created and performed by Brian Webb
Lighting Design by Dorrie Deutchendorf
Two years ago, I was asked by Robin Poitras, artistic director of New Dance Horizons in Regina, Saskatchewan to create a performance work in MAG DANCE 5: art + dance + archive. Dance artists from across Canada were asked to create a work that was a dialogue with Betty Goodwin's famous installation from her collaboration with Paul Andre Fortier, Bras de Plomb.
I was asked to spend several weeks exploring dance/performance ideas in the installation as it was installed in the MacKenzie Art Gallery. The installation is part of its collection. During this process several things emerged, and I was able to arrange them into a performance piece that I feel is one of my best pieces!
Some facts:
I was born in Unity Saskatchewan
I took the Ridere Express bus from Edmonton to Regina as part of my experience in reclaiming my prairie upbringing
I love the prairie...I love those long straight roads that reach for the horizon... I love that magnificent prairie space that seems to reach forever... on the bus journey, I passed my grandparents homestead...
These became central elements in the thematic material I explored during my residency and which define the work's poetry.
At the same time, I physically explored Betty Goodwin's Bras de Plomb installation, and I recalled the dance of Paul Andre Fortier in that installation. I also came to terms with the fact that I am a person dancing, performing well into my seventies! Really! Why on earth am I doing this?!
The answer is quite simple.
It is because this is who I am.
This is how I relate to myself and to my life.
I have done this since I was seventeen years old and took my first dance class.
I have never stopped...I can't
Click on photo to view artist bio
