Songbird Stories by Meghan MacNeil is produced by Connection Dance Works in New Brunswick and combines two dancers, Meghan and Emily MacNeil with a photographer Justin Floyd and a musician to create a dance layered and informed by the visual and musical backdrop. In the written description of the piece we are told that this layering process, which element leads or informs which other elements, is being investigated. I found that mostly it was Meghan and Emily’s dancing that dominated my focus, but that the choice of moving photographs did help to inspire the narrative that I was building for their dance. At the same time, the music also helped to establish the mood of the piece and at one point I felt a shift between the dancers and the music for which of them was shaping the story.
Meghan and Emily are proficient dancers and some of the pictures that they create in this piece are visually exciting and the whole show, running at just twenty minutes, is compelling and interesting to watch.
Songbird Stories plays at DanSpace (1531 Grafton Street) as part of the Atlantic Fringe Festival at the following times: It is $10.00
Saturday September 3rd 8:30pm
Sunday September 4th, 7:00pm
To book advanced tickets please visit Neptune Theatre’s Box Office, 1593 Argyle Street or call 902.429.7070 or visit www.atlanticfringe.ca.
Same Day Sales are available at the venue (Neptune Studio Theatre) From 1 Hour Before the First Show of the Day.
