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Strong
The Georgia Straight
Strong
The Dance Current
Strong
Dance International Magazine
Strong
The Star Phoenix
Very Strong ...
Bailie is a world class talent!
Victoria Times Colonist
What the Critics
say...
(see below for audience res
A Singular Creation
Attitude, The Dancer's Magazine
Joyce SoHo, New York City
Jolene Bailie,
according to her program notes, has performed an astounding 200 solo concerts.
That partially explains her poise, intensity and comfort level during her
Gearshifting Performance Works season
at the Joyce SoHo February 21-23, 2008. But as her own artistic director, she
smartly chose two other choreographers to join her on the program, who, though
cognizant of her strength and endurance, were able to reflect other sides of
this intriguing performer.
A pre-show video by
Hugh Conacher was playing in loop as the audience came in.
Jo’s Toes was exactly that and
was the only really carefree moment in the evening, especially as Bailie’s feet
remained suspended and wiggly and doing other things they are not supposed to
do.
More compelling was
Switchback to a forceful
drumming score by Jared Powell and Aphex Twinn. In an outstanding costume,
created in collaboration with Anne Armit and the Royal Winnipeg ballet Wardrobe
Department, Bailie resembled a bird, a reptile, and a warrior. It featured a
Mohawk-like headpiece and an exaggerated fin along her spine. As this isolated
creature she moved over a reflective floor covering, squatting, arching, rolling
slowly over an through her shoulder and hip joints. With precision she strikes
an off center pose. She rest as one foot is stuck, or folded into, the crease of
a best knee. Brutally pulling herself across the slick flooring the slide is
laborious. Repetitive head turns, like the twitching of a woodpecker or the
twist of an assembly line screw, secure the sense that Bailie gives herself
outlandish tasks. In the end the image is of a universal, beleaguered being,
romanticized or idolized but still alone.
Marie-Josee Chartier, a choreographer, who like Bailie, is
primarily based in Canada,
created Terrain
to music by Richard-G Boucher. A bee-like drone follows the prone Bailie as she
undulates 360 degrees. Pushing down with her hands she shows off her sculptural
body, going to extremes as she lifts up her hands and legs away from the floor.
Armit’s lovely, sheer unitard as the right mixture of fit and looseness as
Bailie continues to reach for the end range. Bridging on her hips she rises to
the tips of her toes. Walking backwards on the balls of her feet she jack knifes
her torso. Bouncing in a squat she hangs on her ligaments. Outside forces plague
Bailie’s character in this dance. Her wariness, eyeing of her surroundings and
close contact with the floor are reminiscent of the previous dance but just a
notch less aggressive. When she finally gets up and walks around, Conacher’s
lighting provides a magical touch, changing and warming the color tones. A
winding down of windy sound signals the ending. Bailie reaches out. In this
Terrain, there is only
emptiness again.
Bailie’s currency is
abstraction of her body but in walking thru myself, Joe Laughlin throws concrete
gestures into Bailie’s sharpness. Making her way around a set of oddly angles
wooden letters during a scratchy sounding score of Sheila Chandra and the Ganges
Orchestra she plays East Indian dance, rocks and weight shifts, repeats patterns
of slapping, turning, falling down and jumping up. She walks upstage, turns,
smiles, and a “The End” sign lights up. Not really having a beginning, middle or
an end, Bailie’s program stands on it’s own, as she does. With only short pauses
between each piece Bailie shapes the time with her own body and it’s inherent
pace. She seems to erase away irrelevance and is one of the few
dancer/choreographers I’ve seen recently who presents an integrated, completed
image of music, costume, lighting, and movement. I want to keep seeing Bailie’s
work. She’s a great ambassador, for the north of the border contingent.
Marilyn Russo
Attitude, The Dancer’s
Magazine, Vol. 22, No.1, Spring 2008
Something Old, something new
Jolene
Bailie offers a mix-bag showcase in
Evolution
Contemporary dancer
Jolene Bailie is shifting into high gears these days.
Her one-woman
company, Cuppa Jo, was officially renamed Gearshifting Performance
Works last December. She currently has two new world premieres under her
belt, including a newly commissioned solo from acclaimed Canadian choreographer,
Marie-Josee Chartier.
And now she’s New York city
bound, slated to perform three solo at the inaugural INBOUND Festival at the
Joyce SoHO Theatre, February 21-23. The festival showcases companies from all
across North America,
and promises to give Bailie an increased presence on the international stage.
Thus it is that a
capacity crowd was offered a sneak peak of the New York program on February 10,
including Chartier’s Terrain
(2008), inspired by the choreographers admiration of the Prairie landscape and
te writings of Anne Michaels.
The Toronto-based
artist is perhaps best known for her harrowing work,
Screaming Popes,
presented last April by
Winnipeg’s
Contemporary Dancers.
Bailie’s signature
piece, Switchback
(2006), has been going through its own evolution as well. The riveting solo
features the dancer as an otherworldly, feral, creature that jerks and pounds
its way through the rumbling score of Jarred Powell and Aphex Twinn.
The new version is more
polished, with Bailie even appearing as a quasi-Roman gladiator, thanks to RWB’s
designer’s Anne Armits revised costume. …the dancer’s mind-numbing physicality –
which objectifies her body as she contorts her limbs into amphibious appendages
– will dazzle those seeing the work for the first time…raw tension and volatile
energy….
Three younger
dancers from Bailie’s mentorship program, SURGE – Sarah Helmer, Emma Rose and
Mark Sawh Medrano, all students at the School
of Contemporary
Dancers – performed her Crowding
(2008), a kinetic exploration of social claustrophobia accompanied by an
ear-blasting musical score by Shaylor.
Vancouver’s
Joe Laughlin’s walking thru myself
(2004), featured Bailie as ingénue, stepping through a jumbled, cryptic maze of
letters strewn about the stage. Here the artist’s chameleon-like versatility can
make even an exploded alphabet (sort of) make sense, and she conjured stories
simply with the wave of an arm and a kiss of her foot.
Uptown Magazine, February
14, 2008
Holly Harris
Private
i
Studio 16
Winnipeg dance artist Jolene Bailie is a festival favourite, and no
wonder. Her latest meditation on life offers an hour of evidence that
innovation is everything in performance art.
Bailie begins by dancing in silence. Not for her, mind you, because she
has the ubiquitous iPod that allows so many people to tune out reality.
Eventually she'll let us in on the secret, by sidling up to a microphone
and revealing the lush sound of Toronto musician Paul AuCoin and his "indie
supergroup" the Hylozoists.
Hylozoism is the belief that all matter has life. Bailie and her sparkly
shoes certainly do, and with that hypnotic music now freed from its little
earphones, we can delight in watching the dancer delight in her angular
momentum.
Crafted by Calgary's very clever Denise Clarke, Private i ranges in its
choreography from the broad humour of a dance motif rooted in jealousy,
right down to the dancer's toes, to a "horrors of war" segment that
highlights the brutality of what happens when bullets meet victims.
Thursday, September 13,
2007
Peter Birnie, Vancouver Sun
Private i µµµµµ
Westbury Theatre
In the silent prelude to private i, a funny, mischievously
insightful new solo show starring Winnipeg's remarkable dancer/actor
Jolene Bailie, we meet double life-size images of a character smiling a
secret smile of self-satisfaction as she dances to her iPod.
Soon this hologrammatic pair is joined by a third version of the
character, who dances, too, and whispers breathily, smugly into a standup
mike at the podium that she's "listening to the music of an indie
super-group from To-ron-to." It's a word she pronounces like someone
delivering a coup de grace of one-upmanship.
Soon she's revealing, in confidential asides and little fantasias of
physical movement, her thoughts on "the philosophical belief that all
matter has life ... which I found very reassuring somehow," her new
sparkly $200 Betsy Johnson high heels with their heart-shaped buckle, and
her soul, which she's nearly positive she has. She is equally awestruck by
all three; in fact, she's awestruck by the intensity of everything she
thinks and feels, and wears. "I'm a very dynamic person. ... It sounds
like I'm complimenting myself, but I'm not."
Delight in the self glints everywhere in this clever, wicked little piece
by One Yellow Rabbit's brilliant dancer/muse Denise Clarke. Essentially
comic in inspiration, it gives voice, legs, and Bailie's precise
physicality to the pop-culture impulse that makes us feel profound. It
dances the democratization of the big emotions, the complex thoughts. It's
what happens when they're filtered through the shallow end, by someone who
thinks she's deep.
In one funny scene, the character is flung by the toe through a complex
choreography as she roots out the first hints of jealousy. In another, the
character, whose favourite segu is "anyways ...", prides herself on her
glorious responsiveness to the tragedy of war, which she enacts with
extravagant self-regard. "I would hate to take a bullet," she whispers,
delighted by her own responsiveness.
Anyways, private i is cheeky, sly, a wee bit mean like the best satire,
and fun. And I'm prepared to argue it's the first piece of modern dance
theatre in history to star a character who brags about using Wikipedia.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Liz Nicholls, Edmonton Journal
Private i
rating:
A
WCD Studio Theatre
Winnipeg dancer Jolene Bailie once again dazzles with a
creative wonder. In Private i, Bailie bends both her physical and
mental prowess to reach beyond pure dance, incorporating spoken-word musings
between dance pieces. Bailie is an engaging and endearing performer.
Private i is a thoughtful, daring endeavour. With everything from odes
to beautiful, glittering Betsey Johnson shoes (most definitely worth the
adoration) to an a cappella rendition of the Motown classic, What
Becomes of the Broken Hearted, Private i is a uniquely
wonderful work showcasing Bailie's myriad talents
July 26, 2007
Uptown Magazine
PRIVATE i
µµµµ
WCD Studio Theatre
This endearingly quirky, life-affirming work was specially created for one
of Winnipeg's foremost dance soloists, Jolene Bailie, by one of Calgary's
top dance names, Denise Clarke.
Bailie portrays a naive, soul-searching young woman who shares with the
audience her iPod playlist (hence the "i" of the title), and bursts into
exuberant dance numbers that are a joy to watch. The highlight is a
brilliantly silly anti-war number in which she imagines being caught in a
hail of bullets. The lush recorded songs are by The Hylozoists, whose retro
use of instruments like organ, trumpet, vibes and cymbals is an ideal fit
for the character's huge, often dreamy, emotions.
...Bailie is a delight from her expressive eyebrows to her bare feet. Those
feet rebel against her in a tour-de-force of physical comedy, after she
boasts that she can subdue feelings of jealousy by confining them to her
toes. Yeah, right.
July 22, 2007
Alison Mayes
Winnipeg Free Press
PRIVATE i
µµµµ
Winnipeg dance fans need no introduction to Jolene Bailie, and probably
don’t need to be reading this review: they already know she’s a rising star.
But for those unfamiliar with the oft-intimidating waters of contemporary
dance, now is the time to dip your toes without fear of being in over your
head.
Created for Bailie by Calgary’s Denise Clarke, Private i gets
personal with a series of dances and short monologues exploring the
strengths and weaknesses of the human experience. Bailie delivers the words
in a breathy hush before whirling into motion, channeling everything from
exuberance to envy with power, poise, and control.
What’s even more fascinating than Bailie’s fluid body, though, is her face.
She has an immense capability for expression, with the cheekbones of a
supermodel and the eyebrows of a character actor. In a provocative physical
outburst on war and fear, her straining jaw and silent screams speak even
louder than her mile-long limbs.
Bailie never stumbles, but the pacing sometimes does: though the silent
intro, featuring Bailie grooving to her iPod, is hypnotizing, it also has
soporific effects, and the extended plug for Toronto band The Hylozoists is
cheesy. But the dancing and the words are exhilarating.
July 22, 2007
Reviewed by: Melissa Martin for CBC
CBC Rating: Four Bars
IPod generation dances to the sounds of the
70's
µµµµ
Bailie is a virtuoso who
holds nothing back, in her muscles or in her heart.
The young woman wearing earphones is lost in a private
groove to a song on her white iPod.
She looks like a shallow ditz, bopping and posing to an
inaudible soundtrack. Her glittery high heels are a fashion crime. Like who does
she think she is, Paris Hilton?
In life, you never get to find out what's between the ears of
such a cardboard passerby. She remains flat and illusory, like the tricky,
hologram like figure who appears at the start of the show.
When Winnipeg dance soloist Jolene Bailie, 29, approached
Calgary choreographer Denise Clarke, 50, to create a work especially for her,
the result was private i, a piece that spills out the melodramatic
passions and heartaches of such as iPod princess, an impressionable things who
hasn't ye discovered cynicism - or good taste.
This dippy diva's "really, really, really, really, really" big
emotions and anti-war solu baring aren't expressed like an MTV video, nor like
the contemporary pieces that Bailie often performs.
The style here is more like a variety show put on by sensitive
girl of the '60's or '70's in her bedroom, with a stack of LP's for a score.
That makes it especially endearing for women of Clarke's vintage, though you
don't have to recall Carol Burnett's dancers to appreciate its sweet nostalgic
feel.
You can catch today's 4 p.m. closing performance, and Bailie
will be touring the one-hour show to fringe festivals, including Winnipeg's,
this summer.
Bailie who has never spoken before on stage, gains a whole new
dimension as a performer in private i. Her naive but
striving-for-wisdom character speaks in an airhead voice into a microphone at a
lectern. She introduces the most adored songs on her playlist - occasionally
kissing the iPod - and throws herself into sincere, borderline goofy dance
numbers woven out of delightful ballet, jazz and showbiz cliches.
Of course, an artistic cliche isn't one the first time you
encounter it - that's why our girl can be so moved by the corny lyrics of the
Motown song What becomes of the Broken Hearted.
All the other songs are written by Paul Aucoin and performed
on disc by Toronto's The Hylozoists. They're both fresh and retro feeling, often
lushly scored with horns, organ, harp and other warm, happy sounds that aren't
usually encountered in contemporary dance these days.
That seems to be intentional for Clarke and Bailie - to make
an exuberant, unpretentious show that even features a corny heart-shaped
spotlight as it pokes loving fun at an awkward girly stage. there's room for the
piece to get funnier as it evolves, but one can't imagine it better danced.
Bailie is a virtuoso who holds nothing back, in her muscles or
in her heart. She can almost out-emote Evelyn Hart, whom she brings to mind in
her ballet movements. Come to think of it, now that Evelyn's out of the picture
as Winnipeg's Dance sweetheart, it's probably time for Jolene to take the
heart-shaped spot.
May 06, 2007
Alison Mayes
Winnipeg Free Press
2006 Year in Review: Stepping it up
One special night last fall, dancer-turned
choreographer Jolene Bailie metamorphosed into a mysterious bug/lizard creature
in a standout performance that captivated all at Studio 303. Dressed in a
costume that had echoes of exoskeleton, Bailie took the life cycle of an insect
as a starting point for this succinct choreography. Switchback showcased her
strength, flexibility and presence, which were all heightened by an
intense driving soundtrack. Born and raised in Winnipeg, she has developed a
must-see rep on the Fringe circuit. Keep an eye out for this one.
December 28, 2006
Marites Carino
Montreal Mirror
SWITCHBACK
You won't see more skill on stage at the Fringe:
Jolene Bailie is a solo dancer at the top of her game. Of the four pieces on
this program, Escape, a 1955 work by Anna Sokolow, held the most interest
for me, with its melancholy, party-girl bravura. Joe Laughlin's walking thru
myself is a giddy plunge into the fluid world beyond words. And Bailie's own
Switchback evokes the brutally mechanical beauty of insects. If only more
theatre were this freely associative and formally adventuresome.
September 14, 2006
Colin Thomas
The Georgia Straight, Vancouver
Riveting display of creativity and strength
On the cover of the program for the
Fringe dance production Switchback,
the subtitle reads “accessible and artistically daring.” Few would disagree that
modern dance is an embodiment of the artistically weird and wonderful. However,
considering the fundamental relationship modern dance holds with the abstract
aesthetic, some eyebrows may be raised at the idea that it is “accessible.”
Performed by Canadian soloist Jolene
Bailie, Switchback
is a modern dance act that succeeds in achieving a
surprising level of accessibility. The show is divided into four 15-minute
performances, beginning with the title set Switchback, which was choreographed
by Bailie and “inspired by insect imagery.” Performed on a black stage framed by
black curtains, Bailie’s sheer blue leotard and multicoloured mohawk that
extends from her head down her back is dramatic and highlights her phenomenal
core strength, supple back and flexibility. Influenced by contortionism and
yoga, the piece is characterized by poses held on or close to the floor for
extended periods of time, and is punctuated with graceful and forceful
transitions between poses. As provocative as a peacock’s bravado, it is a
riveting display of physical strength and visual creativity, and the best of the
four pieces.
The second piece, “Short Voyage,” concerning “hidden anxieties
and emotions,” is the most abstract and perhaps least accessible work of the
show. However, Bailie inhabits the desperation of her character with such
sincerity that it is difficult not to be affected by her performance. She is
able to shift from deliberate to unwieldy movements flawlessly and makes use of
an impressive array of facial expressions.
“Escape” is the third performance in the
series and introduces some black chairs as an addition to the otherwise bare
stage. Languid, dreamy movements and costuming distinguish this piece, and give
balanced contrast to the pose-based Switchback
and the conceptually abstract “Short Voyage.”
Bailie captures the work’s themes of desire, eroticism and bliss, as well as its
message that the sole pursuit of sexual satisfaction often leads only to
emptiness and frustration. Partly because of its balletic overtones, “Escape”
gives the strongest proof that if beautiful choreography is left in the hands of
a talented performer such as Bailie, modern dance is not only accessible but
also moving.
“Walking thru myself” is the final piece and mindful of the
quirky spirit of the Fringe Fest. There are random, wood-block letters strewn on
the floor instead of the black chairs, and Bailie wears a short black wig and a
gauzy, lime-green dress. The choreography is spastic, quirky, and reminiscent of
both the abstract art of Salvador Dali and the colourful film Ŕmelie. Bailie
maintains a steady current of intrigue and entertainment nonetheless.
Bailie delivers a compelling performance and inhabits each
piece with the ease of a chameleon taking on a new camouflage in the rainforest.
Switchback is indeed a slice of modern dance that tastes of both artistic daring
and accessibility.
The Ubyssy
Jessica Roberts-Farina, September 19th, 2006
Don't try this dance at home
µµµµ
I've been a Jolene Bailie fan ever since seeing her dance at
the Victoria Fringe in 2003. Now she has returned with a set of solo dances that
once again showcase her jaw-dropping artistry.
The through line in these four contemporary pieces is Bailie's
physical strength, dexterity and her proud, leonine grace. The entry into her
world in her self-choreographed first piece, Switchback. Inspired by the
life cycle of insects, the dancer - wearing a blue crest suggestive of a
centurion's helmet - enters to repetitive, industrial music. Bailie, who's
tremendously flexible and strong, executes a series of seemingly impossible
poses, such as "sitting" with only her palms touching the floor, her legs
wrapped around her arms. While holding such acrobatic positions, she pulsates in
a subtle, thrumming way reminiscent of a larva about to hatch.
The music breaks down into quirky motifs that spiral randomly
like figures in a Miro painting. Bailie's movements become violent and
desperate, like a winged creature emerging from it's shell. There are more
don't-try-this-at-home feats, such as jumps executed from a prone push-up
position. Ultimately, the dancer becomes a metaphor for nature's all-powerful
life force, portrayed as beautiful, desperate and ferocious.
On Tuesday night the Bill Evans choreographed Broken
Columns was also marked by Bailie's virtuoso athleticism, although
this time it's sense of anguish and violence suggested not so much nature as
oppression. Poses in which the dancer flung back her head brought to mind
Picasso's Guernica (the piece was inspired by Frida Kahlo and the
political situation in the Middle East).
The dancer's touching resurrection of Anna Sokolow's 1955
work, Escape, was also successful. Joe Laughlin's walking thru myself
was a fluffy dessert offering in which Bailie assumed the guise of a pixie-ish
gamin. This hour of dance was terribly impressive. That one can experience such
artistry is, to me, absolutely astonishing.
August 31, 2006
Adrian Chamberlain
Victoria Times Colonist
SWITCHBACK
µµµµ1/2
Though technical skill, artistry and precision that engage
every centimetre of her frame, Jolene Bailie brings a fourth dimension to the
human body. The five solo dances include a video and two works from
world-renowned choreographers. Watching her playful choreography in
Switchback is akin to spying on a twitchy, athletic insect through a
microscope. In Broken Columns, she portrays images of turmoil from visual
artist Frida Kahlo's paintings, and then interprets modern dance pioneer Anna
Sokolow's flowing, dramatic Escape (1955). Bailie creates herself yet
again in walking thru myself, a lighthearted journey through Sesame
Street alphabet letters, a piece that was interestingly strange.
August 24, 200
Vue Weekly, Edmonton
SWITCHBACK
µµµµ1/2
Undoubtedly very few dancers have the chops to carry off what
Jolene Bailie accomplishes in an hour. With classy choreography from the likes
of Bill Evans and Anna Sokolow, elegantly pared down costumes and sets, and
impressively fiery physical intensity, she makes modern dance spring to life for
every neophyte, and thrills every connoiseur. Highlights include Bailie's new
work Switchback, an incredible contortionist's display which lends weight
to the old adage that a truly great dancer knows how to lend weight to a pause,
and Joe Laughlin's fanciful walking thru myself . Be sure to come early
to catch the pre-show video, A Short Voyage, which captures Bailie's
performance of a work choreographed en-plein-air by Marie-Josee Chartier.
August 21, 2006
Celia Nicholls
See Weekly, Edmonton
Powerhouse performer fashions a species µµµµ
To all you who are leery of "modern dance" (you
know who you are and I am one of you) or regard the term "dance theatre" as one
of the great oxymorons of the modern entertainment industry, I bring news from
the Fringe. Be not afraid. There is Jolene Bailie, of Winnipeg's Cuppa Jo Solo
Dance.
She is a mesmerizing performer who reinvents the body, and the
species, in the title number of this startling, unexpectedly accessible quartet
of pieces. To a superb percussion score (Jared Powell and Aphex Twinn) Bailie
gives us 20 minutes in the life of an exotic, blue, helmeted lizard-esque
creature, watchful, orientated always toward the light. Sometimes the creature
waits, pulsing, poised on a limbless, asymmetrical body. Sometimes it inches
ahead by a kind of dry land swimming locomotion. The precision of the
physicality, the staccato flickers of the head, fashion a species before our
very eyes.
Bailie is a powerhouse; you feel sure she could scuttle through the
Fringe on one arm and carry a lighting board on the opposite foot, if she had
the mind to it.
In other pieces, Bailie is utterly transformed. Bill Evans'
2004 Broken Columns is inspired by Frida Kahlo. There's a charmingly expressive
piece about our social interactions, set to a jazzy score. And there's a witty
finale about our relationship to language, in which Bailie propels herself in a
quirky fashion through a landscape of disembodied letters and recurring verbal
motifs ("Not a word in the sky"). It's unhinged from narrative, true, but it's
theatrical. And it doesn't have to be explained.
August 20, 2006
Liz Nicholls
The Edmonton Journal
SWITCHBACK
µµµµ
Those who missed Winnipeg modern dancer Jolene
Bailie's solo show last April have another shot to see this dynamo in action.
The one-hour show takes it title from her fiendishly difficult
SWITCHBACK (2006), a 20-minute work in which she appears as a lone
lizard-like occupant in some strangely feral world. Bailie is fearless on
stage as she falls, crawls, compulsively jerks her head and twists herself into
the impossible.
Bailie shows off her wonderful theatricality in Rachel
Browne's gender-bender Freddy (1990), and her growing choreographic
skills in Gear Shifting (2006), performed by students Ruth Levin
and Emma Rose.
The abstract walking thru myself (2004) may be the toughest
sell for the uninitiated. But keep your eyes on this one. You never know what
Cuppa Jo will do next.
July 22, 2006
Holly Harris
The Winnipeg Free Press
SWITCHBACK
Cuppa Jo is Jolene Bailie, a Winnipeg dancer,
choreographer and dance teacher with ambitious vision. Bailie showcases her
power and control in the self-choreographed title piece, in which she becomes a
lizard-like creature. Most fun, though are the world premiere Gear
Shifting, a fast-paced piece of synchronization for students Ruth Levin and
Emma Rose, and a reprise of Joe Laughlin's walking thru myself, a
whimsical romp through an alphabet field which suggests that some people can be
just as idiosyncratic with movement as they are with speech. Bailie's
interpretation of Rachel Browne's Freddy, meanwhile, allows her to
combine the best of SWITCHBACK and walking thru myself - as
a cross-dressing woman-to-man in the Cabaret era of pre-Nazi Germany she
is at once flowing and controlled.
July 27, 2006
John Kendle
Uptown Magazine
SWITCHBACK
Machine-gun precision. Visually it's kinetic and surreal, with the
sinewy Bailie skilfully morphing between reptilian creature and mechanical
android.
July 13, 2006
Toronto Eye Magazine
Being fluent in dance is
not a prerequisite for enjoying Jolene Bailie's Switchback...a fantastic
sampling of awe-inspiring talent.
July 19, 2006
Winnipeg Sun
Jo's a Real Pro
Bailie impresses with stunning dance presentation
Switchbacks are not often seen on the Prairies. This
topography boast no steep hills, so the zig-zag heights are unfamiliar to people
used to 'farmer turns' and driving on squared off mile roads.
Still, Winnipeg modern dance fans were given a sense of the
abruptness of such terrain when Jolene Bailie - the Jo in Cuppa Jo - premiered
her Switchback last week.
The 20-minute work is a fantastic realization of Bailie's
physicality and choreographic imagination. Wearing a gold headdress adorned with
a blue mohawk, which matched a blue fin on her back, Bailie conjured a day in
the life of an amorphous, malleable creature, from dawn until dusk.
What a day it was too. With amazing control and dexterity,
Bailie arched, slithered , crawled and contorted herself across the entire
stage. She walked on her knuckles, stood on her hands with her legs slung over
her shoulders (think about that for a moment), and even conjured real fear and
tension with a set of alarmed, repetitive neck twists.
Set to minimalist rhythms courtesy of Jarred Powell and Aphex
Twin. Switchback is a spell binding display destined to become Bailie's
signature piece for years to come.
Significant as it was, Switchback was only one of a half-dozen
other pieces offered by Bailie in her 90-minute program.
This collection was billed as '50 years of modern dance',
given that its earliest works, two vignettes called Escape and The
End? come from Anna Sokolow's Rooms, which debuted in 1955.
Far from being dated, these short pieces came alive with
Bailie's expressive performances. With and actors concentration, she completely
captured the angst and despair of the scenes. While the movements may have
seemed more classically orientated that those of current modern, it was obvious
that Sokolow was breaking barriers in the 50's.
Another dance icon from an earlier age, Isadora Duncan, was
the inspiration for Jose Limon's Primavera, a diaphanous, sprightly jaunt
that opened the show. Dressed in a simple nude bodysuit garnished only by a
flyaway throw of green chiffon, Bailie exulted in Limon's expression of the
freedom of unrestricted movement.
A Short Voyage, by Canada's Marie Josee Chartier, was
presented her as a short film by Bailie's collaborator Hugh Conacher. Featuring
the dancer outdoors in a farmer's field on a bleak autumn day, the movie was a
study in the interaction between choreography and landscape. It worked because
of its exquisite setting - a large, leaf-bare tree is a key image - and Bailie's
absorption in her role.
Stephanie Ballard's Mara closed the evening. Set to
music of Camille Saint-Seans, this is a hair-swirling piece that recalls Margie
Gillis in its use of the tools at the dancers disposal. If Switchback was
a taut, controlled work, Mara was its opposite - an update of Limon in
its exultant celebration of the body.
Contemporary Dancers' School student Emma Rose welcomed the
audience with a playful, pre-show Bailie piece titled The Bathing Ya-Ya.
Rose frolicked and splashed about in a small tub to the music of Peggy Lee
and Nelson Riddle in a way that underlined the playful movement of children -
which often inspires the dances of adults.
May 04, 2006
John Kendle
Uptown Magazine
Performance full of power, promise
Striking work from local dancer
The bizarre, lizard-like creature in her newest dance work, Switchback,
is an apt metaphor for her own career.
The Winnipeg performer and choreographer is quickly becoming known as an
artistic chameleon who effortlessly slides among a multitude of worlds,
portraying everything from the sublime to the downright disturbing.
Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers' third show of the season
presents the local dynamo's one-woman company, Cuppa Jo. Rooms With a
View opened Thursday for a four-show run. It's a program of six works that
span 50 years of modern dance.
Bailie has been making her mark mostly as a performer of other
choreographers' work. If her own recent creative foray is any indication of
what's to come, audiences should beat a path to her next show.
The world premiere of Switchback - one of two works on
the program that Bailie choreographed herself - features her as some kind of
unearthly reptile with imagery ripped out of a parallel universe. With
distinct overtones of Montreal-based choreographer Marie Chouinard's beastly
inventions of the 1980's, Bailie's angular, repetitive movements creates a feral
world that is pedestrian, quirky, and sinister all at once.
Rich visuals - including a delicious spiny costume co-created
with Anne Armit - are matched by brute physicality as she falls, crawls and
compulsively jerks her head through the 20-minute work. Her
all-hell-breaking-loose finale creates a real sense of danger. You don't know
whether to fear or feel for the unworldly creature.
Some of the pieces sections feel suspended and slow.
Nevertheless, Bailie's images are so potent that one doesn't really mind. An
electronic score by Jarred Powell and Aphex Twin adds its own rumbling power.
The program also includes a hot-off-the-press video, A
Short Voyage, shot outside the city with only a majestic oak for
backdrop. The dancer creates an intriguing relationship between herself and the
tree, as she gambols around its roots. Long shots by lighting designer Hugh
Conacher evoke a strong sense of place.
Mara is a work that
Bailie has performed for many years. A hair dance of the first order, Stephanie
Ballard originally choreographed this solo in 1989 for the great Margie
Gillis. Bailie, who shares Gillis's trademark long tresses, rise - literally -
to the pieces challenges and effectively manoeuvres her flowing dress through
various sea-goddess guises. It's not easy to follow on an icon's footsteps, but
Bailie staked her own claim on this work years ago and performs it with
conviction.
The audience was treated to a pre-show performance of The
Bathing Ya-Ya, a second in Cuppa-Jo's Ya-Ya series. School of Contemporary
Dancers student Emma Rose, set in a clawfoot tub of water, splished and splashed
her way through a medley of Peggy Lee hits.
Although it is fascinating (and important) to reflect of
modern dance's heritage, the art form - by its very nature - has always pushed
itself into new territory. There is a risk of creating museum shows that present
only older works, but fortunately Bailie has already earned her stripes as a
restless innovator.
Rooms With a View may be billed
as showcasing 50 years of dance, but it also provides a cross check at where
this wonderfully versatile artists has come from, and the promising direction
which she is heading.
April 29, 2006
Holly Harris
The Winnipeg Free Press
Bailie's Rooms:
Short and Suite
µµµµ
The challenge of interpreting and performing some of
modern dances most renowned works in the past half-century hasn't affected
Jolene Bailie's personal flair.
The Winnipeg dancer's new show, Rooms With a View, is a bite-sized
sampling of the arts founders, representing New York pioneers Anna Sokolow, Jose
Limon and the form's founder, Isadora Duncan. Bailie respects the recipe for
each morsel, but she's added her own kick.
Besides, you know it's going to be a good show when the show
starts before the show. Even if you do feel a little Peeping Tomish as you watch
pre-show performer Emma Rose wiggle around a bubble bath through a clear
curtain.
Don't get the wrong idea - Rooms With a View is
kid-friendly. Bailie choreographed The Bathing Ya-Ya, a light yet
dangerous (it's easy to slip in the tub) piece to get the audience in the
mod-dance mood.
Bailie maintains a lively pace when she burst on stage for
1971's Primavera, her first of six solos spanning 50 years of
contemporary dance. Embodying the late Duncan in her carefree youth, a smiling
Bailie prances around fairylike and free, while maintaining a sense of control
that reflects her nearly 15 years of experience. And while Primavera is a work
of dance great Limon, Bailie passes it off as her own, rather than some student
who learned the choreography.
The sunshine literally sets in the next solo, a gritty video
entitled A Short Voyage. Directed by Hugh Conacher, the film was taped
near a lone oak tree in a vacant field off Highway 1 and features Bailie
bounding around the prairie grass, then suddenly restricted in a pile of leaves
amid the enchanting dusk.
A Short Voyage
opens the audience's perspective, making
it an ideal transition to the premiere of Bailie's eclectic piece, Switchback
- the core performance of the night.
A spotlight reveals Bailie in her blue suit and amphibian-like
headgear. is she a reptile or a bug or what? "I am a real thing, and that's just
who I am," Bailie said in an interview. Yep, that explains it. And through her
jolting, demanding choreography and the pounding industrial soundtrack, you can
feel this being struggling to get through, uh, whatever they're going through.
To keep variety alive, Sokolow's 1950's works Escape
and The End? follow. They're so short, you wonder why Bailie ravelled to
New York to learn them. But adapting to the retro movements was a task she
needed time to master.
For the kids in the crowd, accessible closer Mara by
local choreographer Stephanie Ballard sees Bailie as an untamed, mermaid-like
sea goddess, shimmying like a belly dancer and getting her legs caught up in her
lengthy purple gown. Somehow she makes it look graceful.
April 28th, 2006
Lindsay Ward
The Winnipeg Sun
That
Rare Breed Called Soloist
Chasing Bliss by Jolene Bailie for Cuppa Jo Solo Dance
by
Kaija Pepper for The Dance Current Magazine
Vancouver: September 10-18, 2005
 |
| Jolene Bailie in
her own work "Bell/Anti-Bell" / Photo by Hugh Conacher |
|
It’s not easy to be a solo
dancer, filling out a program and keeping the audience engaged and
focussed all by yourself. Margie Gillis does it brilliantly; so does Peggy
Baker. And so does the up-and-coming Jolene Bailie.
The twenty-seven-year-old Winnipeg dancer is busy establishing herself as
one of that rare breed called soloist. Last March, Bailie was at the Ninth
International Solo Dance-Theatre Festival in Stuttgart, and the six
performances of Chasing Bliss at the Vancouver Fringe Festival are part of
her third national Fringe tour.
 |
| Jolene Bailie in
"Dances for Isadora" by José Limón / Photo by Hugh Conacher |
|
In Chasing Bliss, Bailie performs as if she is in love with the act of
dancing, sweeping the audience up with her in the exhilarating physicality
of her art form. The mixed bill of four solos was well chosen, especially
for the theatre crowd who attends the Fringe. It includes lots of
character-driven movement, with passion and humour more often than
mysterious angst. Chasing Bliss is a warm, accessible show, the kind that
makes everyone understand why someone would be attracted to this art form
in the first place. The vitality of the moment was tangible, and worries
about what the works were about fell by the wayside. Not that Bailie
panders to the lowest common denominator. It’s just that in her hands and
feet even the most modern abstractions become the bliss.
Bailie has a wide-ranging repertoire, on this program presenting
choreography that spans decades and countries. One work is a tribute by
Mexican-American choreographer José Limón to Isadora Duncan, the Dionysian
innovator who danced barefoot on early twentieth-century stages. Limón’s
1971 “Dances for Isadora”, set to Frederic Chopin, was mounted on Bailie
by Limón Dance Company artistic associate and past dancer Nina Watt.
Bailie presented the five-part work at July 2005’s Dancing on the Edge
Festival. Here, we saw an excerpt, “La Patrie”. Why the present
performance, which I saw on opening night, was more nuanced and
emotionally rich is hard to say, although at the time of the Edge show,
Bailie was in the midst of a punishing schedule and had arrived in
Vancouver very late the night before she opened. In any case, instead of
the full-length outline we saw at the Edge, this was a miniature but
complete portrait of Duncan in full-blown revolutionary mode. In a flowing
red tunic, Bailie turns and skips, her arms flung wide as if embracing all
the political ideals Duncan championed after her encounter with Socialist
Russia. When Bailie holds aloft a rectangle of fabric in the same shade of
flaming red as her costume, she becomes heroic Duncan, fully convinced of
the importance of her dance.
 |
| Jolene Bailie in
"Dances for Isadora" by José Limón / Photo by Hugh Conacher |
|
Another work from the archives was Rachel Browne’s “Freddy”.
Winnipeg-based choreographer Browne brought this work to Vancouver’s
Dancing on the Edge Festival the year of its premiere, 1991, and images of
the delightfully campy solo, set to music by Kurt Weill and performed by
Sharon Moore, have stayed with me since. Bailie presented an excerpt
entitled “Tango”, although if she had danced the whole work it might have
filled out the under-an-hour-long evening.
In “Tango”, Bailie performs as a mustachioed lover. She fulfills
whole-heartedly the fellow’s lovelorn, silent-screen-style movement and
then, somehow, for the second half, metamorphoses into a perky cabaret
dancer.
 |
| Jolene Bailie in
"walking thru myself" by Joe Laughlin / Photo by Hugh Conacher |
|
The evening opened and closed with more abstract pieces, beginning with
the premiere of one of Bailie’s own choreographies, “Bell/Anti-Bell,” and
ending with Joe Laughlin’s “walking thru myself”, created for Bailie in
2003. In “Bell/Anti-Bell,” Bailie gave herself the kind of pretzel-making
shapes and split legs that sometimes obliterate any real interpretive
interest. Not so here. In a partially transparent purple tunic, she moves
from yoga pose to gymnastic excess so smoothly it seems inevitable. Set to
a score by Brett Dean that features spooky-sounding violins and a
telephone operator’s annoying instructions, the piece seems to touch on
modern day alienation, but Bailie is no modern dance automaton. Despite
her extreme physicality, she remains warm and human.
This is partly the result of the way she dares show emotion in her face.
Bailie is a woman first, a dancer by calling. This is even more clearly
expressed in Laughlin’s experienced choreographic hands. Laughlin has
created character pieces before, notably in the cross-dressing “Harold,
Billy, Stan and Jack.” In “walking thru myself”, character is less defined
than in that 1997 piece, but nonetheless personality infuses the movement
with the kind of juice Bailie relishes.
The stage is strewn with letters of the alphabet. At the start, the words
The End are briefly lit upstage. Clad in moss green pieces of fabric that
form a top and skirt, Bailie crashes through a series of angular movements
to a score by Sheila Chandra and the Ganges Orchestra. She’s a flirtatious
waif and sometimes a lost child, as she collapses to the floor, lifts her
foot to her mouth and kisses it, and sticks her bottom in the air. “The
world of words is meaningless” is heard on the soundtrack, but to close,
The End is lit once more as Bailie turns to us, and smiles. The words do
make sense!
 |
| Jolene Bailie in
"walking thru myself" by Joe Laughlin / Photo by Hugh Conacher |
|
As for the thoroughly uplifting Chasing Bliss, it was the kind of show
to which you could bring someone –- anyone -– new to dance and be
confident they would not feel mystified and alienated. I’d like to see
Jolene Bailie perform in a more formal venue, one where she could forget
the excerpts, have an intermission if needed, and really take both herself
and the audience on a journey.
|
Cuppa Jo provides a blissful fringe experience
Dancer's endearing presence makes show one of the
Fringe's must-sees
Chasing Bliss is a must-see
µµµµµ
Amidst the endless ringing, beeping and buzzing known as
modern communication, answering the call of our bliss is easier said than
done. In her latest solo dance offering, Winnipeg-native Jolene Bailie takes
a closer look at the pursuit of happiness and the road blocks it prevents.
Chasing Bliss gets off to a saucy start with a
tongue-and-cheek tribute to telephone queuing and its rage-inducing
reassurances. ("Your call is important to us" just doesn't cut it after two
hours on hold). From the moment Bailie takes the stage, her presence is
endearing. This dancer demonstrates impressive breadth through bound and
unbound energy, skilfully articulating her movements to the tune of every
last finger and toe.
Watching Bailie is a pleasure as her effortless transitions
from liquid to static are an energized reflection of real-life conundrums.
Chasing Bliss is a must-see Fringe for dancers and
non-dancers alike.
September 18, 2005
The Vancouver Sun
Cuppa Jo: Chasing Bliss
Bailie may be chasing bliss through the
creative process. Watching her I found it.
I could have watched Winnipeg's Jolene Bailie dance all
night. A chameleon on two legs, Bailie assumes a new persona in each of her
four solos. In "Bell/Anti-Bell", her own work, she rings the tocsin with her
many jointed body, her torso, pelvis and limbs undulating back and forth
like Gumby. the sonorous peal gives away to the shrill of a phone. As she is
repeatedly put on hold, Bailie contorts her limbs into shapes that reflect
her inner frustrations. "Thank you for holding," says the phone company
voice, "your feelings are important to us." In "Freddy", Rachel Browne's
brilliant little hats-off to German cabaret, Bailie wears sideburns,
moustache, pants and vest with watch chain. She vamps like a Buenos Aires
lounge lizard in a tango danced to Teresa Strata's songs. An excerpt from
"Dances For Isadora" by Jose Limon is a stylish period piece recalling the
great Isadora Duncan's florid freeform. Joe Laughlin's "walking thru
myself" is a surreal journey through cut-out letters of the alphabet
scattered around the stage, while a voice-over mutters "the world of words
is meaningless" - a cheeky finale for a dance program. Bailie may be chasing
bliss through the creative process. Watching her I found it.
September 14, 2005
CUPPA JO: CHASING BLISS
heroically sensual
Winnipeg's contemporary dancer Jolene Bailie is so alive in
every fibre - she's strong, pliant, and her balance is phenomenal - that
you'll leave Chasing Bliss feeling like your body has just made a very good
friend. Bonus: Bailie's skills help her to realize dances that are both
accessible and artistically daring. Bell/Anti Bell, which marks her debut as
a choreographer, is an extraordinary combination of vulnerability and
strength. She undulates her torso and exposes her pelvis, but the tone is
urgent rather than pleading. In Rachel Browne's Freddy, she becomes a
moustachioed Latin Lover, and in Joe Laughlin's walking thru myself, a silent
screen coquette. The excerpt from Jose Limon's Dances for Isadora sums up the
program: heroically sensual.
September 08, 2005
Colin Thomas
The Georgia Straight
Chasing Bliss
The fit, frenetic and funkily fluid
Jolene Bailie is back
What's the fringe without a Cuppa Jo? The fit, frenetic and
funkily fluid Jolene Bailie is back with this series of four short dances.
Bailie, as always, is fascinating to watch as she twists and bends her body
like sassy Silly Putty. Sexy like a B movie starlet - especially in the new
piece, "Bell/Anti-Bell" and the cabaret-esque drag king tango "Freddy" - and
only mildly pretentious, a Cuppa Jo should be part of any well-rounded Fringe
diet.
September 01, 2005
John Threlfall
Monday Magazine
Chasing Bliss
rating: A
Winnipeg's Jolene Bailie wowed the crowd with the four-segment
dance show Chasing Bliss. Bailie is an immensely talented dancer, driven by
passion, and her enthusiasm is infectious. Beginning with her own creation,
Bell/Anti Bell, a stunning piece which captures humour, frustration, and a zen-like
calm in its relatively short span, bailie set the bar high but did not
disappoint. Several other pieces illustrated Bailie's versatility as a dancer.
The performance ended with the complex and dazzling Joe Laughlin work, walking
thru myself, in which Bailie's ingénue wound her way through letters littered
around the stage, coaxing a story from tem. Bailie's work is self-assured and
ambitious, and her abilities seem endless.
Uptown Magazine
August 04, 2005
CHASING BLISS
Jolene pushes the limits of physical
endurance in this piece as she takes us on a tour of her limitless abilities.
Many theatre performers have stage presence, the ability to
project themselves, to break down the fourth wall" between them and the
audience. Winnipeg contemporary dancer Jolene Bailie has the added
extraordinary ability to reach out, take you by the
hand, and draw you into the singular universe that she creates
on stage. Within mere seconds, you are transfixed as you marvel at her
physicality. While she commands your attention, there is only you and her -
nothing else exists.
There are five different dance pieces in "Chasing Bliss", but
Bailie's own creation - "Bell/Anti-Bell" - is a standout. On the surface (as
indicated by the audio track), it seems that Jolene is permanently "on hold"
while on the phone. As the piece progresses, it
takes on the quality of a metaphor for life itself. Jolene
begins with a gentle undulation of her body in the initial stages of waiting,
but soon morphs into quick, frantic movements and surreal contortions as she
physically represents the feelings of frustration
and impatience that, near the end, almost transform her into a
primal creature. Jolene pushes the limits of physical endurance in this piece
as she takes us on a tour of her limitless abilities.
Having watched Jolene for a few years now, if I may be
permitted a hockey analogy, Jolene Bailie is "the Wayne Gretzky of
contemporary dance". Her level of skill places her in a league of her own. No
one else comes close.
The Jenny Revue
Robin Chase
July 23, 2005
CHASING BLISS
   
Bailie's artistry is potent,
flavourful, complex, and will force your eyes open to her excellence
Winnipeg's Jolene Bailie, who calls her solo company Cuppa Jo,
pours a generous cup of challenging contemporary dance that ain't no wimpy
decaf. Bailie is usually barefoot. But the highlight of this diverse five-work
show comes when she dons black shoes and digs into muscular, streetwise blues,
After Words, by Gaile Petursson-Hiley. Accompanied by John Cale's blazing slide
guitar, Bailie becomes a scrappy urban survivor whose deep, deep backwards
bending is soulful poetry.
This slender, long-haired brunette - a chameleon who
transforms her look for each piece - delivers not just stellar technique
and compelling stage presence, but an actor's performance from the neck up. An
intense new piece of her own making, Bell/Anti Bell, is weird enough to be
off-putting, alternating the frustration of telephone-hold hell with the
blissful calm of yoga. And a political themed excerpt from the five-piece Dances
for Isadora lacks power in the absence of the other four dances.
Despite such clouds in the coffee, this is THE solo dance
performance to catch at the fringe. Like a mug of java brewed by an expert,
Bailie's artistry is potent, flavourful, complex, and will force your eyes open
to her excellence.
The Winnipeg Free Press
Alison Mayes
July 22, 2005
CHASING BLISS
a
surreal dreamscape that will keep you wide awake
Not a contemporary dance aficionado? Don't worry, you'll
appreciate the art after seeing local dancer Jolene Bailie submerge herself in a
series in a series of characters in this enthralling dramatic piece. Bailie pays
tribute to dance icon Isadora Duncan, portrays a woman living in a pre-Nazi
Germany, play a silent film heroine and dons other personae - along with
stunning costumes - while contorting her body into pretzel-like shapes and
executing staccato and raw dance movements set to a haunting soundtrack. The
final, beautiful sequence is a surreal dreamscape that will keep you wide awake.
Sabrina Carnevale
The Winnipeg Sun
July 22, 2005
CHASING BLISS
defiant, funny and entertaining
The words graceful, deep and sensual are often used to
describe a dance performer. But in Winnipegger Jolene Bailie’s case, I’m more
apt to choose defiant, funny and entertaining. In her five-part modern dance
show Chasing Bliss, Bailie starts off strong. First with a macabre but
humorous depiction of a female cross-dresser in pre-Nazi Germany. Her next
dance has her writhing on the stage in a full-body explosion of frustration at
the torment of waiting on hold for a telephone operator to pick up (something we
can all relate to). The eclectic and lively musical choices help propel
Chasing Bliss to a colourful finale. Dance training is an asset, but is not
required to enjoy this performance.
CBC
Jessica Grillanda
Jolene Bailie acts and dances superbly while evoking
dance legend Isadora
Duncan in Chasing Bliss
The spirit is pure Duncan, the technique is Limon, and Bailie masters both
brilliantly.
Winnipeg dancer Jolene
Bailie is a slight young woman with a huge stage presence and the maturity to
take on both the choreography of Toronto's Marie-Josee Chartier and the
legendary persona of Isadora Duncan.
In a fringe show
called Chasing Bliss, she evokes images of the sea in A Short Voyage,
a solo commissioned from Chartier. Bailie alternately appears to go with the
flow of harness the power of waves in this dance, set to penetrating music for
cello composed by Linda Smith. With an awed look on her face, the dancer recedes
into darkness like a traveller moving onto the darkness.
Dances for Isadora,
created by Jose Limon and first performed in 1971, pays tribute to the life and
art of the revolutionary artist who danced in Communist Russia, married a
millionaire, lost her two children in the Seine and died a bizarre death in
1927, strangled by her scarf when it caught in the wheel of a moving sports car.
Bailie shows as much
range as an actor as she has a dancer, performing each of Limon's short solos
marking the five stages in Duncan's life. She appears to age before our eyes,
dancing from youthful nymph to blousy matron remembering her former triumphs.
The spirit is pure Duncan, the technique is Limon and Bailie masters both
brilliantly.
Susan Walker
The Toronto Star
July 08, 2005
CHASING BLISS    
Dancer Jolene Bailie is captivating in two solo selections,
inhabiting each moment of her performance with a tangible emotional presence. In
the first piece, A Short Voyage by Marie-Josée Chartier, Bailie conveys
manic distress, contorting on the floor or running around its perimeter. It's a
nice intro to the showpiece, Bailie's recreation of a 1971 tribute to dance icon
Isadora Duncan, called Dances for Isadora. Her sensuous moves are
accented by a flowing scarlet shift, among other costumes, and Bailie's own
flowing mane. There's even an allusion to Duncan's tragic end. Bailie's fearless
style is easily appreciated in this up-close venue.
Eye Magazine
July 14, 2005
Where wonderful collides with awful
Dancing on the Edge (excerpt from a review that included many other artists)
July 7-16, 2005
delivers the dance goods, shows us how
Isadora did it and why people went wild over her. Bailie matches, possibly
exceeds the material.
Jose Limon's Dances for Isadora presented challenges and
pleasures.
This was a look backward a couple of generations. Mexican-born
Jose Limon was part of the fermenting modern dance scene in New York in the
1930's.
He formed his own company in 1946, and produced one of teh
only modern dance pieces of that era to remain alive in the repertories of
companies today, The Moor's Pavane, a retelling of the Othello story by means of
Renaissance court dance.
Limon considered Isadora Duncan to be his true mentor, and
composed a five-part dance love poem to her in 1971. The piece, set on Winnipeg
dancer Jolene Bailie by Nina Watt of the Limon Company, evokes the iconic stage
monster in different phases of her tumultuous life.
It did not come as a surprise that the work is dated. But
Dances does harness something of Duncan's reported power. Her steps are said to
have been everyday - skips, runs, twirls - and her magic to have resided in her
ability to gather momentum with such simple building blocks, to contrast
movement and stillness, to appear emotionally naked on stage.
Bailie gives us this. Dressed in wisps of chiffon, she paints
accurate portraits of Duncan (gamboling with heightened energy, staggering with
grief, overblown and indulgent) but she also delivers the dance goods, shows us
how Isadora did it and why people went wild over her. Bailie matches, possibly
exceeds the material.
Deborah Meyers
The Vancouver Sun
July 14, 2005
Winnipeg solo dancer Jolene
Bailie....captures the fey, expressionistic style of American dance pioneer
Isadora Duncan and her classical Greek aesthetic...Long-haired, striking, Bailie
is a charming dancer.
Paula Citron
The Globe and Mail
July 12, 2005
It takes guts, stamina, and a
truckload of confidence to perform an entire show as a solo dancer.
Winnipegger Jolene Bailie pulled it off two weeks ago with Chasing Bliss, which
featured a stunningly assured homage to Isadora Duncan.
Alison Mayes
The Winnipeg Free Press
May 29, 2005
CUPPA
JO: NEW WORKS
"... a giddy fool engaged in the serious process of creation.
Whoever she is, this creature is
revelling in the world of dance: associative, celebratory, visceral."
With Gaile Petursson-Hiley's After Words, the program has
edge; brutal falls to the floor erase the memory of soulful extensions. And the
fourth bit, Joe Laughlin's walking thru myself, gets really interesting.
Wearing a bobbed black wig, Bailie wanders through letters of the alphabet that
are scattered around the stage; she poses coquettishly, and walks awkwardly,
feet on her hands. Her character seems to be both a club kid and a goddess, a
giddy fool engaged in the serious process of creation. Whoever she is, this
creature is revelling in the world of dance: associative, celebratory, visceral.
Colin Thomas
The Georgia Straight
September 2004
Cuppa Jo: New Works
  
1/2
"guaranteed to enthral"
Past Fringe fave, Jolene Bailie returns with new
modern dance pieces guaranteed to enthral. With different choreographers for
each work and music ranging from John Cale to Sheila Chandra, Bailie is
captivating, whether drifting across a bare stage or twisting between the
letters of the alphabet. Using her body as most Fringe performers speak their
lines, Bailie physically narrates four pieces that are as unique as our own
individual interpretations. Anybody who says there's not enough dance in
Victoria should see Cuppa Jo. You'll want the front row.
September 2-8, 2004
Monday Magazine, Victoria and
The Westender, Vancouver
John Threfall
Cuppa Jo
   
"Bailie delivers a classy, professional
performance that will set off deep quadrants of the imagination."
Though modern dance can be an
inaccessible medium, Jolene Bailie's intense human portraits will hook even the
neophyte into this hour of arresting drama and struggle.
Bailie's performance rings with a
taut energy, as four differing solos are linked together with her halting
movements and penetrating eyes that draw the audience into her world.
The performance opens with Just a Few Broken
Columns - a solo derived from choreographer Bill Evans' anger at the war in
Iraq. The woman in this solo is clearly tormented. She barely has time to catch
her breath before another pang chases her across the stage again. A Short
Voyage is a baffling and intense piece, choreographed by Marie-Josee
Chartier, while After Words is a powerful struggle between a woman and
her unseen oppressor.
Walking Thru Myself,
choreographed by Joe Laughlin, is a dreamy exploration of a diva's heart,
a lovely yet terrible characterization - one second Bailie scratches intently at
her skin, the next she moves with thrilling happiness.
Bailie delivers a classy, professional
performance that will set off deep quadrants of the imagination.
August 30, 2004
Times Colonist (Victoria)
Caroline Skeleton
Cuppa Jo is worth seconds
five out of five Suns
"Here is a rare opportunity to share
an hour with a superlative artist
obviously at the top of her game."
According to the program for Cuppa Jo, Winnipeg dancer Jolene Bailie has
been around for some time. She comes to the fringe with an impressive
background, including work with some internationally well-known teachers and
choreographers.
As far as I
know, this is Bailie’s first appearance in Edmonton. If so, local audiences are
indeed fortunate to be present at the beginning of a major career in
contemporary dance.
Not since
Margie Gillis began appearing here regularly has there been such a thrill of
the discovery in the dance.
Angular and
slim, Bailie exhibits a complete mastery and control. Long arms and legs allow
her to fill the stage, punctuating and underlining her moves – sometimes sinuous
and fluid and other times with herky-jerky movements characteristic of modern
dance.
Even her
long, expressive fingers stretch out, filling and animating the surrounding
blackness.
The
dancer’s balance is amazing as she performs complex rhythmical movements –
sometimes standing on one foot. Although her form stretches into quite extreme
contours, she never gives the impression of anything but ease and command. She
is no uncomfortable contortionist, just a superlative dancer in complete control
of her medium.
Her program
is aesthetically and intellectually pleasing to watch, including works by such
well-known choreographers as Bill Evans, Marie-Josée Chartier and Joe Laughlin.
The music ranges from shards of exotic sound in an Indian-influenced work to a
witty composition from contemporary dance favourite (and Velvet Underground
founder) John Cale.
Here is a
rare opportunity to share an hour with a superlative artist obviously at the
top of her game. Mark Cuppa Jo down as a don’t miss.
Friday,
August 13, 2004
The Edmonton Sun
Colin MacLean
Cuppa Jo
   
"Jolene Bailie's relaxed athleticism is engrossing."
Cuppa Jo is one of those occasional modern dance performances that allows those
of us who don't particularly like dance to enjoy the remarkable mixture of
movement and sound. Great music and choreography combined with Jolene Bailie's
relaxed athleticism is engrossing. Over the course of the four pieces, Bailie
covers a surprising range of emotions, from loneliness to a dynamic
light heartedness.
August
16-25
Vue Weekly, Edmonton
James Elford
Cuppa Jo: she's smart in
ways that you can feelµµµµ
"...a physical lexicon that even a dance
ignoramus (such as your reviewer) can't help but find affecting, intriguing and
aesthetically satisfying."
Jolene Bailie's program -
the one you get handed at the door -is rather sweet, really. (Seek one out, even
if you don't plan to go). The dancer wants very much for you not to be
intimidated by the fact that the four pieces that comprise Cuppa Jo are
abstract. If you're not the trusting kind, she provides a little background. If,
however, you take her at her word and just kinda watch, you'll be treated to a
short visit with an assured and capable artist - "capable" in both physical and
intellectual senses. As the pieces move from visions of fear and anger through
to sexy confidence, Bailie's invokes a physical lexicon that even a dance
ignoramus (such as your reviewer) can't help but find affecting, intriguing and
aesthetically satisfying.
August 16-22
See Magazine, Edmonton
Kevin Wilson
INSIDE THE
FRINGE µµµµµ
"Watching
Bailie perform is a surreal experience."
I was on the edge of my seat,
craning to see dancer Jolene Bailie and her every move. And I was just one
row back.
You see, when Bailie dances, she is breathtaking. I didn't want to miss
anything and I certainly couldn't look away.
Bailie's solo dance performance, entitled Cuppa Jo, is a treat well-beyond any
caffeinated beverage.
Through four finely choreographed dance routines, the Winnipeg-based dancer
battles with external and internal forces. This requires flexibility and
skill. You can see her emotions ooze out from her flexed toes, limp
fingers or vibrant kicks.
The 60 minute dance floated by and
kept me enraptured from scene to scene.
Bailie is physically amazing.
She changed from statuesque, on tip-toe, reaching out of herself - pulled up by
the heavens - then reduced her body into a tiny contracted ball of vulnerability
- crushed or cowering from another invisible force. She is a beautiful
dancer, strong and dazzling.
Bailie moved from anguished and frail, fighting some indescribable torment in
the first song, to the final act where she played a coquette, full of nerves,
but cheeky enough to make you smile, side-stepping large foam alphabet props.
Watching Bailie perform is a surreal
experience. Her haunting performance sticks and I'm sure I'll think about
Cuppa Jo long after Fringe week wraps up. This is a must see performance
and a treat.
Chantal Eustace
The Star Phoenix, Saskatoon
August 2004
Go See Cuppa Jo
Took my breath away....audio to come....
CBC
Bill Robinson
DANCE NO LONGER ON THE MARGINS AT THE FRINGE FESTIVAL
"the
strength of coiled steel and the pliancy of rubber"
Solo performers impress by a
varied combination of means. In some way, they have to be physically arresting.
They must also move with unswayable conviction and they need to have something
to say, even if the words - in this case of dance, the moves - come from someone
else. A soloist cannot dance from the surface. There has to be poetry and soul.
Bailie combines all these
characteristics and more. Although her body might at first seem willowy, it has
the strength of coiled steel and the pliancy of rubber. With a solid grounding
in ballet technique, Bailie has a keen sense of where her physical centre rests
but uses this to move with surety in off-centered directions that are more
typical of modern dance.
Like another famous Canadian
solo dancer, Margie Gillis, Bailie has long brown hair, although she does not
make it part of her visual signature. In one of her three Fringe solos Bailie
wears it in a bun and in another she buries it entirely under a black pageboy
wig.
And Bailie is versatile. A
different choreographer has created each of her solos and she adapts admirably
to their particular requirements. In American choreographer, Bill Evans' "Just a
Few Broken Columns", Bailie is in dramatic mode, evoking the image of an
oppressed yet defiant woman, hands alternately clenched or contorted into
claw-like appendages. In Toronto choreographer Marie-Josee Chartier's moodily
lit "A Short Voyage", Bailie seems to travel into an interior realm of hidden
thoughts and anxieties marked by difficult balances and contorted floor work. The
tone is edgy and fraught. Them, for Vancouver choreographer Joe Laughlin's
"walking thru myself", Bailie becomes a screen character - probably of her own
dreamlike imagination - as she negotiates a stage littered with large cut-out
letters to score of distorted voices and South Asian vocal rhythms.
Michael Crabb
The National Post
Monday, July 05, 2004
Cuppa Jo
µµµµ˝
"an ideal way for
neophytes and aficionados alike to appreciate the possibilities of the form"
Jolene Bailie's impressive
performance of four modern dance pieces is an ideal way for neophytes and
aficionados alike to appreciate the possibilities of the form. The works are
ordered so that they become progressively more unconventional, evoking and
portraying emotions that grow increasingly erratic and unsettling. It's not
merely the juxtaposition of dance styles that make this a satisfying buffet. The
costumes range from a sexy shift to a two-piece number like Tarzan's Jane might
have worn. The fourth piece features music that's more like a fascinating pattern
of rhythmic buzzes, which makes you realize that the first piece wasn't as outré
as you might have thought.
Toronto Eye Weekly
July 08, 2004
Ten shows you shouldn't miss: Comedy, drama and
choreography
"This expressive Winnipeg-based
dancer has been praised from coast to coast."
If the Fringe were a box of chocolates, it would probably be the box that's been
reduced to clear at the drug store because it fell off the shelf, its contents
all cracked and dented. Nevertheless, the perfect cherry cordial is there to be
found. Here are the top 10 shows at this year's Fringe that you'll be happy to
bite into….
Cuppa Jo, by Jolene Bailie. This expressive Winnipeg-based dancer has been
praised from coast to coast. Here, she performs solo works by some of Canada's
best-known choreographers, including Montreal's Marc Boivin, Toronto's
Marie-Josee Chartier and
Vancouver's Joe
Laughlin…
J. Kelly Nestruck
The National Post
Saturday, June 26, 2004
Three new pieces a perfect
showcase for dancer's style
"pure dance with
phenomenal flexibility, torrents of emotion, and an aesthetic reach that never
exceeds her grasp"
She's been compared to other
soloists with long tresses, such as Canada's Margie Gillis and even the famous
Isadora Duncan. Yet Jolene Bailie's hair is only one aspect of this deftly
original artist who doesn't need the drama of a cascading coiffure - or any
other theatrical device, for that matter.
Hers is pure dance with
phenomenal flexibility, torrents of emotion, and an aesthetic reach that never
exceeds her grasp.
At a Thursday preview of her
Cuppa Jo show with three world premieres of three new works by three gifted
choreographers - Montreal's Marc Boivin, Toronto's Marie-Josée Chartier and
Vancouver's Joe Laughlin - Bailie's instincts in finding the right dances for
her style paid off handsomely in this production. It opened last night at the
WCD Studio theatre, with both Boivin and Chartier in town during the production.
The Winnipeg-based dancer's
expressive, distinctively pre-Raphaelite features suited Boivin's soulful To
Somewhere Else. A large white canvas backdrop is the only set piece, and
lighting designer Hugh Conacher's expansive lighting effect makes it look as if
Bailie is dancing inside a high atrium or cathedral. The mostly angular, hinged
movements of the choreography are performed with superhuman precision.
Her flexibility is also
showcased in this dance, and many lesser dancers wouldn't be able to take it to
the level she achieves. Standing on tiptoe, reaching skyward, her body extends
up and up, her torso elongates yet further, then in another sequence, she
contracts into a small space. Her body expands with the music and then, like a
tide, recedes again.
Bailie is a virtuoso dancer
with impeccable balance and control. In To Somewhere Else and also in
Chartier's edgy, neurotic piece, A Short Voyage, Bailie lifts a leg,
extends it, and holds it in the air or cradles it while balancing on one foot,
sometimes while doing one-eighth turns.
A Short Voyage, which
has a subtle Arabic or Middle Eastern flavour, also features an interesting
lighting effect where Bailie is motionless on the floor as she watches
something, perhaps a train car, move past her.
Audiences expecting to see her
long hair down may be surprised to see that Bailie keeps it in a bun throughout
and even wears a shorter, dark hairpiece in the last dance. This is a wise
choice. While her hair is a good prop for some dances, it shouldn't become
Bailie's only signature, because she has so much else to offer.
Laughlin's whimsical walking
thru myself assumes an altogether different tome than the first two dances
on the ticket. While Chartier's piece relies mostly on lighting rather than set
and costume, the last piece has large Styrofoam alphabet letters dispersed on
the floor and smaller letters drifting past that dancer's eye level on an
invisible line.
Dresses in a dark wig, Bailie
plays out a kind of waking dream where she is the heroine in a surrealistic
silent screen drama, and at the last moment she poses beside a sign that says
"The End".
At 60 minutes, the show is
compact enough, but this is the kind of production where you wish there was even
one more dance to enjoy since Bailie just seems to be getting started. Well,
always leave 'em wanting more, right?
Garth Buchholz
The Winnipeg Free Press
May 08, 2004
CUPPA JO
"A captivating performance with flawless
movements and innovative choreography."
A captivating
performance with flawless movements and innovative choreography. The life and
specificity of these pieces bore themselves into my inner being and moved me
greatly. Jolene is striking and expressive and completely sustains the essence
of each piece. Stunning costumes and infectious music.
(L.J.)
Terminal City Weekly
Sept. 12, 2003
CUPPA JO
"Jolene Bailie carves out a fascinating poetic
space."
In the first
three of the four dances on this program, Jolene Bailie carves out a fascinating
poetic space. Her powerful, supple body can be as awkward, angular, and
off-balance as it can be steely, streamlined, and controlled. The sum is as
deeply human, vulnerable, and appealingly androgynous as a well-muscled
small-town girl. In the fourth piece, choreographer Stephanie Ballard's Mara,
Bailie turns into a mermaid, hair flowing, breasts almost visible beneath the
sheer bodice of her dress. It's transporting.
Colin Thomas
The
Georgia Straight
Sept. 11, 2003
Fringe: Great
Price for Talent
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