Visionary Montreal-based dance company Tentacle Tribe is returning to ArtSpring on Friday, Oct. 18 with its most recent production — Prism — a piece that uses visual distortions to ask questions about perception and physicality.
The production comes from the imaginative minds of Tentacle Tribe’s co-founders, choreographers and artistic directors Elon Höglund and Emmanuelle Lê Phan, both of whom are notably Cirque du Soleil alumni as well as dancers.
Over the last 12 years, the company, whose signature style blends hip-hop, martial arts and contemporary dance, has created a series of increasingly transformative duets and group pieces to become one of Canada’s most sought-after touring dance companies.
Prism is Tentacle Tribe’s most ambitious production to date with an extensive stage set-up created from mirrors, for what Le Nouvelliste calls “a visual feast.”
Five dancers move fluidly between a reflective floor and movable mirror panels that are manipulated from different angles. Multiplied tenfold, their bodies seamlessly unite and intermingle to create a single organism in synergy with Höglund’s original music.
Prism is meant to create a mesmerizing kaleidoscopic dream, distorting perspectives and deconstructing movement into infinite combinations of colourful images. Limbs, reality and illusion intertwine, leaving audiences to question what is real.
Wanting to challenge audiences to see dance in new and innovative ways, Höglund and Lê Phan’s artistic vision is to create performances that engage not only the body but also the intellect. They have toured and performed extensively in Canada, Europe, South Korea, the U.S. and the Middle East.
Tickets, available through the box office or online, are selling quickly. Limited Theatre Angel Program tickets (only $15) are available from the box office until Oct. 11.