Vancouver, B.C.
Dancers exude our own anxious isolation and the hope of coming out of this pandemic
A review by Teodoro Alcuitas
Editor, Philippine Canadian News.com
’Offering’ indeed was translucent in all the solo performers’ interpretations as their hands and bodies move in a darkened environment.
Costumed like semi-primitive beings lost in a world beyond their control, each offers some kind of a vessel of supplication – once holding it in both hands and suddenly letting go.
The eerie music and superb lighting design combined to exude a mode sometimes of struggle and at times of acceptance.
Dancers engrossed in meditation and bathed in joy as if walking on water, it was a reflection of our current state of anxious isolation and the hope of coming out of this pandemic, washed in the healing waters of salvation.
While each solo performance mimics our individual separation from our loved ones in these trying times, in the end, it offered some hope with some of them appearing together momentarily, fleetingly.
Alvin Erasga Tolentino, who had a surprise appearance, once again proved the prowess and versatility that has sustained him and his company, Co. ERASGA for two decades.
Filipino-Canadian dancers Antonio Somera, Joshua Ongcol, and Marc Arboleda with Marissa Wong, Molly McDermot and Olivia Shaffer, all did justice to their individual performances evoking the object of devotion and prayer superbly.
This 20th anniversary piece almost fell victim to Covid only to come to life in a successful virtual presentation for two days – November 28 and 29.