Tanya Tagaq stands alone on a stage, a small red rug beneath her bare feet. She gently rubs her belly, as if coaxing up the air she will soon need to push out a parade of spirit voices: some pitiful, others hectoring, one apparently a demonic presence that transforms Tagaq into something snaky and cruel.
Throat-singer Tanya Tagaq could be Canada’s unlikeliest crossover act. At a time when Canada is reckoning with the historic mistreatment of its indigenous population, her new LP demands retribution.
Tanya Tagaq looks as if she's having an out-of-body experience onstage. Her voice flickers like a sonic candle, rising and fading with the music. It becomes guttural as Tagaq drops to her knees, and she chitters high and desperate as she flutters her hands about her face. She sings no discernible words — it's as if she were speaking in tongues.
The program moved backward in time, with newer pieces performed at the beginning. First came William Forsythe's "One Flat Thing, Reproduced," a riveting piece involving a stage filled with metal tables.
Formosa is a more reflective look at the Taiwan of today. The Chinese title literally translates as ‘About the Island’, which pretty much sums it up. In part, it’s a celebration of the open, multicultural society that Taiwan now is, but it also reflects the mixed-up feelings of today as moments of harmony rub up against moments of conflict. Sometimes there’s a sense of frustration, sometimes of hope.
“When I started the company. I wanted to create something of our own,” Lin said. “I never thought that we would tour around the world.” In the ’70s, Cloud Gate was the only professional dance company in Taiwan — the first contemporary dance company in any Chinese-speaking country. With a prolific career including more than 90 works, Lin developed his own choreographic style, blending Western dance with Eastern ontology.
Their performance delivered absolutely top-notch music-making, as fine as one could ever expect to hear. In works of Beethoven, Turina, and Tchaikovsky, the group made a forceful statement, with loads of personality and nearly perfect technical finish.
Mesmerizing and powerful, Madrid-born Cigala’s voice carried, lingered and haunted throughout the theatre. His voice has been called “natural, inspired [and] drop dead gorgeous” by the BBC. The concert gave a preview of songs that are going to be on his newest album named after the tour.
Diego opened, perched on a stool and showing off an intense, emotional style that began to sound repetitive during the long, later section of the show after Omara mysteriously left the stage.
All his movements and gestures seemed to answer or anticipate the music’s beats and silences, which formed a constantly shifting grid through the interaction of guitar, bass, piano, violin and the boxlike cajón. At decisive moments he slowly outstretched his arm to snap his fingers, forcefully, with his pinky extended.
