Final show of WCD 60th anniversary season explores power dynamics

Winnipeg Free Press

24-04-2025

When Montreal choreographer Lina Cruz saw the artist call from Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers soliciting pieces for the final show of the company's 60th season, she wasn't convinced she would make the cut.
The WCD was looking for pieces about the future.
'I am 68 years old so I thought, well, I don't think I'm the future,' the Colombian-born artist says with a hearty laugh. 'I mean, I would like for people to consider older people as part of the future.
EMILIE BLAND PHOTO
by means of each other Vancouver dancers/choreographers Sarah Hutton and Aiden Cass, a.k.a. Generous Mess
'So, when I got the news, I was really very happy.'
Cruz's Tomato Blues is one of two works that will be performed at the Rachel Browne Theatre this weekend, selected from a pool of 30 applicants by a panel that included choreographer/dancer Jera Wolfe, past WCD guest artist in residence Ralph Escamillan and company artistic director Jolene Bailie.
If you ask Bailie, 68-year-old women and their work are certainly part of the future.
'Lina's work is really super interesting — it's kind of a juggernaut, because it's about power,' Bailie says.
In particular, it's about the shifting dynamics of power and 'how easily we can shift from one side to the other depending on how much power we have,' per the artist's statement.
The power dynamic Cruz explores in this cabaret-flavoured work is between a human character and a tomato.
A tomato, after all, is ripe with imagery.
'The tomato begins as the vulnerable, the tender, the simple, the authentic. The human character is an explorer that feels superior to the tomato. And then they just start exchanging points of view,' Cruz says.
'Both the tomato and the human character can each become the abuser and the abused.'
Cruz originally choreographed Tomato Blues on dancer Geneviève Robitaille in 2018, who has performed it several times. But when Cruz had the chance to participate in Older and Reckless, a Toronto showcase for artists who are 45-plus, last year, she decided to perform it herself.
'I had to train a lot,' she says.
But she's patient, a quality she brings to her choreography.
'I'm more patient than they are,' she says of the dancers she works on. 'I know things will come. I'm very confident and patient. So I did the same thing with myself.'
And sure enough, it came.
'I'm lucky I can still, more or less, move in all directions,' she says with another big laugh. 'But it's exciting. It's really exciting because it's still rare. I mean, there's more and more older performers, yes, but it's still very rare.'
The other show on this double bill is by means of each other, from Vancouver dancers/choreographers (and couple) Sarah Hutton and Aiden Cass, a.k.a. Generous Mess.
SUPPLIED
Lina Cruz in Tomato Blues
'I was really excited about this one because they had this little bit of text about how, in their personal relationships, they're often being challenged and drawn away from personal connections and into technology,' Bailie says.
Hutton, 30, and Cass, 27, were excited about the opportunity to perform in Winnipeg.
'We're emerging creators right now, so open calls are pretty rare, actually,' Hutton says.
Not only that, but the pair has been trying to première this duet since 2020.
The piece pulls from their own lives as romantic and creative partners, exploring communication, coexistence and, like Cruz's work, conflict.
The opening scene of by means of each other deals with shorthand all couples use and how easily communication breakdowns can occur.
'It's a mundane task that we're doing, where it's like talking about picking up the groceries. Did you drop off this? Or did my mom call? And because we're using these shorthand abbreviations, like how you would like through text, we do not communicate anything effectively to each other,' Cass says.
During Elections
Get campaign news, insight, analysis and commentary delivered to your inbox during Canada's 2025 election.
'It's funny because as a couple who makes dance together, there's this weird thing that happens where I often feel like creating dance together actually really grounds our relationship. Like performing on stage and being together in the studio, you have to be really present,' Hutton says.
It's the other tech-based parts of their work — the social media, the promotion, the emails and filling out applications — that cause static.
'You're trying to do this good work together, whether it's creatively or inside of your relationship, and then the technology or the admin kind of gets in the way of that again,' Hutton says.
'As we've worked on the piece, we're just trying to let that in, because that's what it's about.'
[e-mail]
Jen ZorattiColumnist
Jen Zoratti is a columnist and feature writer working in the Arts & Life department, as well as the author of the weekly newsletter NEXT. A National Newspaper Award finalist for arts and entertainment writing, Jen is a graduate of the Creative Communications program at RRC Polytech and was a music writer before joining the Free Press in 2013. Read more about Jen.
Every piece of reporting Jen produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print – part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.