2023
Sex Dalmatian by Rock Bottom Movement
See the printed matter: Show Poster / Show Program
See the event web page
One of the most-presented artists in Public Energy/Peterborough New Dance history told us about Alyssa Martin and her dance troupe Rock Bottom Movement. I had become out of touch with the hot new artists on the always active Toronto dance scene, so I reached out to Laurence Lemieux for help. She had been upping her presenting game at her home venue (literally: she lives above the theatre), turning the Citadel on Parliament Street into the busiest place for contemporary dance in the city. Her suggestion to me was to check out Rock Bottom Movement and I was in luck because they were planning to premiere their newest creation, Sex Dalmatian, in the coming Citadel season.
Once I got in touch with RBM’s choreographer, Alyssa Martin, it became obvious that if Public Energy was going to keep up with how the next generation is moving dance forward, we had to bring Sex Dalmatian to Peterborough. In the brief clip seen here we see two characters upstage in low light: they are speaking to each other and carrying the narrative of the show. They are also watching the two dancers downstage – one dressed as a rat, the other a Dalmatian dog – performing a fast-paced duet, and one of the watchers is becoming aroused to the point of ecstasy. That’s a small taste of the outrageous and entertaining mix of dance, performance, costume and musical genres that combined to make Sex Dalmatian the eventual winner of two Dora Awards as the best independent dance in Toronto in the 2022-23 season.
This presentation served as the world premiere for Sex Dalmatian. A run in Peterborough has become an appealing way for companies to hone their newest work prior to a run in front of Toronto audiences and Dora judges. This turned out to be a lucky break for the company following a not so lucky break: one of the dancers had recently broken her ankle and was moving about in a walking cast. Did she bail on the Peterborough show? Heck no: she soldiered on as the company re-worked some her bits and handed out some to others in the cast. This allowed her to perform as much as possible, including the clip seen here where she is the one becoming over-excited. Given a few more weeks of healing time, she was able to perform sans-cast in the Toronto run and earn those Dora plaudits.
-Bill Kimball
