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2, 3-17: Aflame! By Tom Patrick
With delight I opened my playbill earlier this week to discover that Margie Gillis's season at the Joyce would be a solo one. Not that I haven't and don't enjoy her collaborations with such wonders as Robert LaFosse, Joao Carvahlo, Paola Styron, and others...but I felt a shiver of foreknowledge that told me I was in for a healthy dose of MG's forte: interpretation. In our dizzying-fast world, dance surges forward too, and every year more hopefuls start their training or enter the dance-job market. Many will freely admit the "lasting" impressions of witnessed impossible extensions, freakish flexibility, an abundance of pirouettes.... How many times do we hear and exchange these raves over so-and-so with those feet, that whatever. Many times we see dancers going at it, and can safely assume some of their influences. The aforementioned "qualities" and their disciples are of marginal interest to me. I don't try to see dancing that resembles the Olympic Games. I find the connections more interesting, how a person is living in his or her performance, and technical trickery is a thin refuge from my scrutiny. I'm much more interested in seeing those who take their dancing inspiration from Margie Gillis.... I will simply say that it is a constant source of voyeuristic pleasure and education to be able to see the work of this woman, Margie Gillis, a national treasure of Canada and a touchstone of interpretation. I am always astonished by her honesty and vividness on stage, a bi-lingual goddess interpreting divine mysteries with huge aplomb, humor, and pain. I won't belabor the oft-made comparisons to "predecessors" like Loie Fuller and that Ms. Duncan, but for people who only hear about them from dance history shelves, this is your chance to see a LIVING legend in the field. She is, quite simply, like no one else. Not that Ms. Gillis is stuffy or old-fashioned--whoa no! (Indeed, she seems constantly like a new "prime" is upon her--the Joyce curtain rises to reveal her as a strong, vigorous and sculpted woman, topped by a long cascade of fiery red hair...looking eternal, heroic, and fresh.) By all accounts, she has been a very busy lady--all of the six works on this spring's program were created in the past 18-or-so months. It is with great pleasure that I report her triumphant again. With her wits, her heart, and her art, she treated us in the house to amazingly clear and deep portraiture of many souls--hers, ours, and other Characters. Immediately it's understandable how such a woman, aided only by costume (beautifully so, thanks to Anne Dixon, as well as Ms. Gillis) and lights (by Pierre Lavoie, excellently) can hold us spellbound throughout the performance.·It is because there simply is no one else like her. The suppleness and sensuality of her spine, sure-footedness, and a remarkable clarity of gesture make this--hell, ANY--concert of Margie Gillis a must-see. If you're tired of inferences or suggestions or promises, get your weary eyes and heavy heart down to the Joyce this weekend for a big dose of BEING instead of just seeming....
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