VENUE: Metro Studio Theatre
1411 Quadra St.
Victoria, BC

PERFORMANCE DATES:
August 27th | 6:00 pm
August 28th | 8:15 pm
August 29th | 3:00 pm
August 30th | 9:00 pm
August 31st | 9:45 pm
Sept 1st | 6:30 pm

LENGTH: 55 minutes

Just what kind of dreams will emerge out of the human imagination? Some imagery is personal and others are symbolic. In what was presented by Viva Dance Company, it’s wholly about the experience and what feelings remain after the mind and body awakens from its trip through the Astral Plane. In this case, it’s in what people feel after leaving the show.

Not a lot of show attendees will be occultists and I know enough of the lore to understand that when an individual dreams, he or she leaves the body and ventures into this realm. The physical body connects to the spirit self via a silver cord. While no thread is used in this performance, I suspect what was used in its place was a robe to keep these performers grounded to this reality. As they leap, prance and skip across the stage, demonstrating their athletic prowess, the intensity of this show is like no other I’ve seen previously in my years of Fringing. Short of going to see STOMP, that’s a different style of show that can’t compare to this. To see this device used is just a personal interpretation of what this show meant to me.

I was enchanted by the carefully choreographed numbers and mesmerized by the music. Electronica, New Wave and New Age will do that to me. The night presented a wonderful selection of tunes which perfectly explains what I understand about the Dreaming in a metaphysical sense. The songs, “Last Night I Heard Everything in Slow Motion” by Oliver Tank, “Dreams so Real” by Metric and “Where the Boats Go” by M83 nicely demonstrate this. I believe careful thought was put behind what songs this dance group would perform to. To close the night, Enya‘s “Storm” is a perfect reflection of how often I tend to wake up.

4 out of 5 stars