With a contribution that enables The Dreaming Machine to expand its reach in the arts, especially the collaboration between different ones such as music, dance and video we are proud to share Linda Arkelian’s dance video Lost in the right direction, as well as a review in Artsforum Magazine:
Inspired by “Lost in the Right Direction” dancers’ gestures transcend the walls that border our isolation. A collaboration created during the Covid-19 quarantine between Lamondance and Muriël Bostdorp, pianist/composer from Amsterdam.
Lost in the Right Direction
Muriël Bostdorp, Pianist/Composer
Linda Arkelian, Artistic Concept
Davi Rodrigues, Film Editing
Dancers of Lamondance
in order of appearance
Linda Arkelian, Amy Staples, Grace Willock, Keira Douet, Lazaro Silva, Ali Jenkins, Piper French, Natasha Pavan, Oksana Maslecheko, Caroline Kiddie,
Thiago Ruela, Katrina Del Villar, Mariana Camarena, Ashley Rabinovitch, Isla Spotswood, Will Jessup
Solitary Ballet in the Time of the Pandemic
© Reviewed by John Arkelian
“Lost in the Right Direction” (Canada, 2020): This improvisational dance collaboration was devised by dancer, ballet teacher, and choreographer Linda Arkelian and features several dancers from Vancouver’s Lamondance. It’s a reflection – in movement and music – on the isolation born of the global COVID-19 pan-
demic. Each dancer contributes a few seconds of improvised dance to solo piano music by the young Dutch composer and pianist Muriël Bostdorp,whose gentle, poignant, and introspective music gives this dance short its name. The music speaks of both loss and acceptance; its sadness is intermingled with welcoming of what comes next. Appropriately, then, the closing movement of each brief section of dance becomes the starting movement of the following section, resulting in a seamless depiction of balletic cause and effect. Each dancer was free to express the style and mood suggested to them by the music and by the film’s theme: There are moments of melancholy here, as well as pent- up energy and the impulse to break free from the virtual walls that separate us in this time of self-sequestration, social distancing, anxiety, and quarantine. One dancer is sandwiched between two looming, oppressive walls; another tests the unseen barriers that surround him, like a mime in an invisible box; a third has only her own reflection for company. Arkelian herself is perched among the intertwined roots and trunks of large trees: clad in flowing mauve, she’s kin to Tolkien’s elvin Luthien, who danced under the boughs of the greenwood when the world was still young. The video ends with her representation of a pulsating heartbeat, a sign, doubtless, that life endures and prevails. The collaborative result, edited by La- mondance’s artistic director Davi Rodrigues, is lyrical. The video is about three minutes long:https://vimeo.com/428388781
Published in the online edition of Artsforum Magazine on June 15, 2020 at: https://artsforum.ca/other-media/dance-opera
Linda Arkelian has performed internationally with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Theatre Ballet of Canada, Anna Wyman Dance Theatre and the Judith Marcuse Dance Company. She was the recipient of a Canada Council grant in 1991 to study at the National Dance Intensive and the National Voice Intensive. Linda has choreographed for and collaborated on numerous contemporary dance projects. Linda teaches Ballet and Contemporary Dance at Scotiabank Dance Centre, as well as Advanced Ballet at the School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University. She is also ballet instructor and repertoire coach at Lamondance Company. In addition Linda is a visual artist, actor and filmmaker. Linda has had professional experience in theatre and film. Her dance films with David Cooper have received worldwide acclaim and international screenings in the US, India and the UK. Linda was honored as a guest speaker for PetchaKucha sharing the inspiration of her innovative “Bringing Artists Together” project which integrates musicians’ and visual artists’ work into her dance journey.
