Calder White’s BABY: On the Edge, yet accessible - Vancouver Ballet Society
By Kristen Lawson
Calder White believes that contemporary dance needs to make itself more accessible in order to reach more people. “The contemporary dance world can be quite insular,” he says. “It uses a language that not very many people speak.” White maintains that for this art form to be understood and valued by the wider public, it must become more legible. He often presents his work in a public space, rather than a traditional theatre, breaking the fourth wall and creating a sense of transparency into the sometimes opaque world of dance.
I met the freelance dancer and choreographer at a rehearsal in a bright Vancouver studio, where he was working on his multidisciplinary piece BABY, about to premiere at the Dancing on the Edge Festival. The work, which also features dancers Rakeem Hardy and Jessica Mak, and is set to music by Stefan Nazarevich, incorporates cultural touchstones that White hopes everyone can connect with, such as puppets and elements of horror through eerie imagery.
Because of COVID, the dancers were masked in rehearsals, which led to Maria Kofman’s costumes having hoods that cover their whole heads. White’s faceless body manipulating the lifeless bodies, whose limbs bend in anatomically impossible ways, created a haunting scene that stayed with me long after I left the studio.
Originally from Ontario, the emerging choreographer studied at the School of Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre before earning a BFA in Dance at Ohio State University in 2018. He has performed with several Vancouver companies, including Shay Kuebler’s Radical System Art, Wen Wei Dance, and Joshua Beamish’s MOVETHECOMPANY.
White feels grateful to have worked with choreographers who make it their mission to reach people who wouldn’t normally attend a contemporary dance show. Kuebler, for instance, uses comedy, satire, and gymnastic movement as bridges for new audiences to enter his work.
When COVID hit and the dance jobs dried up, White realized that if he wanted to stay in the industry he would have to make work for himself. He wondered, “How can I make a group piece, or even a duet, in a time when it doesn’t feel safe to be touching each other?”
By looking for ways to amplify the body, he had the idea to incorporate non-living bodies as extensions of the self. BABY was born from White’s experiments with full-sized puppets, who also act as partners incapable of catching or passing on a communicable disease. They are both prop and costume, attached to the dancers, restricting their movement. The result is a dance-theatre hybrid in which the puppetry is also the choreography.
This is the most expansive work White has created, both in terms of length (30 minutes) and the mixing of disciplines (dance, theatre, and puppetry). BABY will be presented in a theatre, unlike his usual work, but he is happy that the black box at the Firehall Arts Centre is small enough to host an intimate performance. The dancers will still be able to make a real connection with the audience, dedicated dancegoers and fresh faces alike.
BABY will be presented on a double bill with Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg July 15-16 at Dancing on the Edge.
