Exploring the Intersection of Punking/Whacking and Contemporary Dance in Toronto Dance Theatre’s ‘The Magic of the Gathering’

Post COVID, Winchester Street Theater has felt more like a DIY pop-up club than a concert and dance venue. It’s not just pent-up desire for a night out for me and others; Led by new Artistic Director Andrew Tay, Toronto Dance Theater (TDT) has challenged the normative conventions of concert dance with innovative choreographic voices that channel queer, experimental, BIPOC and nightlife traditions.

The Magic of the Gathering, which runs at Winchester Street Theater through February 11, is a choreographic collaboration between Tay, Dora Mavor Moore Award-winning dancer/choreographer Ashley Colors Perez and Toronto-based electronic music duo LAL. While Tay’s lineage is in conceptual contemporary dance, Colors Perez is a practitioner of a street dance form called punking/whacking. This piece alternates between different sections of Colors Perez’s punking/whacking and Tay’s experimental compositions, which LAL’s musical score, costuming and other aspects of production bring together into a single evening.

The result of this interweaving is an often captivating dance work that evokes the before and after of nightclub experiences. Like nights that don’t seem to end The Magic of the Gathering plays out as a series of experiments that emerge from time and space to evolve. Here, Toronto Dance Theater brings audiences and performers alike a sense of belonging through inclusive yet profound dance performances.

Watch after The Magic of the Gathering is to watch a weekend fly by. Lighting designer Gabriel Copley and production designer Bryan Kling capture the ever-changing colors of the club’s ambient lighting, the smoke and fumes that cling to your clothes for weeks. LAL’s live musical accompaniment glides between pulsating beats and elongated soundscapes with screeching vocals. Angela Cabrera’s fantastic costumes weave colors and patterns from different garments, giving the feeling that we are witnessing a collage of many different experiences from many different nights.

Because many of the dancers have been trained in other techniques prior to this performance, the whacking/punking sections often play out as introductory technical exercises that build into complex rhythms and ensemble work. For example, one section begins with dancer Megumi Kokuba simply pointing her finger at the floor, rolling it up to her shoulder, and shooting it up to point at the ceiling. She reverses and repeats this movement, changing the way she responds to LAL’s booming bass as her gestures change, her other hand joins in and she begins to move around the room before others accompanied by dancers. Here, those simple moves build into a fun and vibrant passion that had viewers enthusiastically shouting their support.

These whacking/punking sections are similar and interspersed throughout The Magic of the Gathering. What I find most compelling about them is the small moments of play that weave into such tight rhythmic and technical structures. Dancers Siwar Soria, Erin Poole and others swap a pair of shades and embody a “too cool for school” attitude while whipping and twisting their arms. The ensemble shows confidence in the choreography and each other, one of many signs of its experienced virtuosity as a performer. It seems silly for this company to have agency, freedom and collective support.

If Colors Perez’s choreography evokes the pinnacle of nightlife, Tay’s embodies everything in between. Tay’s sections often play out as conceptual tableaux that develop at a gentle pace. These sections appear to be designed for a caring dramaturgy that offers the dancers respite from the more upbeat choreography (they rarely leave the stage throughout the production). In one, the dancers place large loudspeakers and scatter them around the room, reacting and wrapping their bodies around them while emitting a dissonant reverberation. In another, the dancers lie on the floor and moan next to LAL singer Rosina Kazi, slowly standing up as their voices become more harmonious until finally singing like a chorus.

With segmented choreographies marked by substantial shifts in styles, tones and movements, The Magic of the Gathering is clearly the product of two different artists collaging rather than creating together. While their interplay is abstractly compelling, the movement interactions between the two choreographers and their dance forms may have triggered the compositional pattern of Tay/Colours Perez. And considering that TDT isn’t a street dance company, I wonder: what other magic could happen by inviting punkers/whackers to perform alongside the talented TDT company?

I offer these thoughts knowing how high TDT is already setting the bar (re?), including with The Magic of the Gathering. The play ends with the dancers laying down a tarp, going topless, and covering their hands in slime. As the dancers play with stretching it between their hands, clapping and watching it dissipate, it’s refreshing to watch the play and experimentation unencumbered by the need to present something polished or pretty. It’s small risks like this that make the difference The Magic of the Gathering feels refreshing—even if it’s sticky.

The Magic of the Gathering runs until February 11th at TDT. Click for more information Here.

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