The keening begins before the house lights are down. Out of the darkness, a shrill cry, rising in pitch, louder until it’s a glass-shattering single high note held unendurably long. In a slow-motion film fade-in, a  figure can be glimpsed in the murky space, naked arms raised high and wide like a Thunderbird totem pole. Then, with a clack of a switch, we are struck with the glare of a stagelights so strong we have to shield our eyes. Before us, stage front and centre, staring steadily into the middle distance stands Paige Culley, naked but for a pair of blue jeans, which she ever so slowly begins to unzip and partially remove, squatting down as if to pull them off then changing her mind. She moves to a cross-legged position upstage on the dance pad, a big rectangle made of pale blue Styrofoam sheets shiny with some kind of body oil. She removes removes the jeans completely now, emerging like a newborn from a shed skin. Lying full out, she begins to slowly roll along the slick surface, literally painting the floor with her body as she outlines the perimeter of the dancepad, upstage right, across the back and downstage left.

Pour, at 60 minutes long, is as much performance art as dance. Culley’s sculptural movements, mostly on the floor, are agonizingly slow, inviting us to contemplate the body as a three-dimensional work of art. Conceived and directed by Montreal-based dancer/choreographer Daina Ashbee, the show prompts thoughts of missing and murdered indigenous women. Ashbee found the perfect interpreter for the piece in Culley, a BC-born, Montreal -based dancer who has worked closely with Dancemakers and Compagnie Marie Chouinard.

Ashbee, whose heritage is Cree and Dutch, was trained in Vancouver and has made her name as an up-and-coming choreographer on the stages of Montreal, Europe and Mexico. She is currently artist-in-residence at Agora de la danse in Montreal and describes her choreography as “an investigation of the body in order to address the subconscious. . . and bring awareness of my own thoughts and processes. Articulating this awareness through choreography helps to uncover my connection to the environment, the earth and to my ancestors.”

This connection is clear, as Culley, now well oiled, lies supine on the floor and begins a rhythmic pounding of her elbows on the floor, replicating the beats of an Indian drumming circle. Culley’s strength and control is empowering. She is fierce in her exertions as she rolls first from one side to another. She pounds with her hips, each of her buttocks, then her torso, then full body, like a mermaid, flapping prostrate on the shore. There are sounds too – an earthy groan of connection to some primal force.

Then standing tall, dripping with sweat and oil, her face enflamed, Culley begins a slow sideways shuffle with her back to us, crossing the stage from left to right and back again, completing enclosure of the performance space that she began with her body rolls. This ritualistic enclosure defines the territory of the self, inviolate, never to be overlooked. As the dancer turns to face us once again before being plunged in darkness, that direct gaze offers us her full spiritual and physical presence, a gift to be sure.

Take a look here: https://vimeo.com/241325669

Pour

Conceived and directed by Daina Ashbee

Performed by Paige Culley

A To Live Presentation in association with Native Earth Performing Arts and the Theatre Centre

At the Theatre Centre, Toronto until February 24, 2019