Sphere Festival Opens With A Beautifully Intense Inter-discipline Performance

The National Arts Centre kicked off its 2024 SPHERE Festival, an enlightened celebration of the coming together of arts and science, with UAQUE, a collaboration between Colombian Canadian choreographer Andrea Peña, renowned Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky, and the NAC Orchestra’s masterful Music Director Alexander Shelley.

The curtain was up as the audience filled Southam Hall, and two enormous, suspended screens dominated the stage. Choreographer Andrea Peña welcomed everyone, with the help of two Indigenous elders and explained that in her native Colombia, there is a prophecy of the eagle and the condor splitting into two paths, a metaphor for the people going their separate ways. She expressed her hope that the night’s performance would mark a move toward the two Indigenous birds coming together, uniting the people of the world.

Next, the screens came alive with the incredible photographs of Edward Burtynsky, who captures native, unmanipulated representations of man’s effect on the earth’s natural landscapes. The photographic works alone could have carried the show. The images are straightforward yet profound, startling yet captivating, depicting landscapes irrevocably transformed by human intervention.

One by one, from beneath the suspended screens displaying the intensely malevolent images of the Anthropocene Epoch, the dancer made their way onto the stage.

The choreography was moody and mournful, full of angst and pain. The accompanying music by electronic composer Eƨƨe Ran served to heighten the sense of discomfort and intensity. At times, it went so far as to feel like Armageddon was upon us.

The ten dancers on stage relentlessly moved in contorted and unnatural ways, furthering the notion of the vulnerability of the state of our planet at the hands of its human stewards. The stripped-down dancers were raw, almost otherworldly.

The audience was inevitably drawn to contemplate the message of the Anthropocene and its significant implications. The ever-changing images on the screens depicting resource depletion, deforestation, and rising C02 levels in the oceans and the dancers’ movements on stage symbolized the urgent need for humans to take notice and alter our behaviours. It was a call to move forward collaboratively in harmony with our natural environment.

The performance was not entirely steeped in dystopian gloom. Amidst the pain and angst, there were fleeting moments of hope. The evening concluded with Alexander Shelley and the NAC Orchestra performing Knut Nystedt’s rendition of Bach’s “Come Sweet Death,” a composition that expresses the desire to leave the sorrowful world behind and ascend to heaven.

The evening’s performance was of world-class calibre, possessed a beautifully intense quality and set the stage for an exciting 2024-2025 season at Canada’s National Arts Centre. The seamless integration of the audio, video stills and the incredible choreography successfully conveyed the subject of humanity’s impact on the planet. Andrea Peña instilled a new level of consciousness in the audience and reminded everyone of our symbiotic relationship with our planet.

If you missed the opening night, there’s another performance of UAQUE this evening, September 11, and a wealth of engaging programming scheduled for the next nine days of the festival.

Visit the NAC’s website to learn more about the 2024 SPHERE Festival.

Photo: Bobby Léon