Recently, the persistent lack of diversity in cultural production, from films, to television, to print media, has garnered significant attention. And as choreographer J\u00e9r\u00f4me Bel observes, contemporary dance suffers similar maladies. In an interview for the program notes accompanying the Festival TransAm\u00e9riques\u2019s production of his work Gala,<\/em> Bel remarks, \u201cIn 99\u2009% of dance shows the dancers are between 20 and 35 years of age, are svelte, in great shape and good-looking\u2026 I find that extremely limiting for an art whose tool is the body.\u201d With performances like The Show Must Go On<\/em> (2001) and Disabled Theatre <\/em>(2012), Bel has attempted to correct these representational oversights.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The choreographer addresses these problematics once more in Gala<\/em>, whichassembles a cast of amateur and professional dancers, sourced locally, who cross delineations of race, gender, ability, and body type. Beginning with pirouettes, these performers take turns literally going through the motions of conventional European dance vocabularies, before embarking on a series of group-accompanied solos. The piece reinforces the limitations of concert dance, offering the surprising talents, distinct propositions, and unique energies of a breadth of bodies as a celebratory alternative. It is an important endeavor, and one that succeeds in fostering an undeniably entertaining experience for the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beyond eliciting laughter and applause, however, it is worth considering how Gala <\/em>actually operates as a dance work. The performance foregrounds diversity, and yet, it does little to engage, question, or investigate difference, how we understand and respond to it, beyond rote representation. Bel\u2019s claim that the uniqueness of each performer allows them to \u201csuddenly become equal, worthy of the same interest,\u201d not only relies on troubling neo-liberal notions of individuality, but also seems to downplay the complex systems that perpetuate our valuing of certain bodies over others. To that end, let us not forget the differential worth typically placed on dancers and choreographers, which, despite self-reflexive gestures, Bel\u2019s work does not sufficiently overcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n