She's Late // A Circus Show - Witnessing the World of Double Fantasy

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She's Late // A Circus Show by Double Fantasy is an experimental circus performance that blends dance and performance art to create a surreal and immersive experience. The show comprises two acts: an improvisation portion and the main dance performance.

During the improvisation portion, the performers explore different characters, outfits, and scenic devices while manipulating objects and exploring the theme of gravity. One character emerges from a giant, fuzzy egg shape with water sacks, while another plays with a hanging contraption of balloons. The performers manipulate different pieces around the stage, even sawing some of them open. The lighting and stage setting are equally impressive, with bold choices of color and a sense of randomness that added to the surreal atmosphere. The audience is treated to a unique experience of absurdity and visual spectacle, culminating in a captivating dance performance in the second act.

The stage setting and colors of the performance also caught my attention. The use of bold colors and random objects, such as the giant balloons and water sacks, added to the overall surreal and dreamlike atmosphere. The lighting was set beautifully, with different colors and intensities used to complement each scene. The combination of the stage design and lighting created a visually stunning experience that enhanced the overall impact of the performance.

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The main performance is a mesmerizing dance piece that sees the performers balance giant balloons over a fan, bounce water balloons up and down on a pulley, and use harnesses to move across the stage. The water balloon scene is particularly awe-inspiring, as the performers bounce the balloons up and down in a perfectly synchronized manner. The performers show incredible physical strength and coordination, seamlessly combining dance and circus performance. One performer even rises up on a harness upstage while another is naked on top of giant balloons.

She's Late // A Circus Show is a unique and thought-provoking performance that explores themes of impossibility, surprise, and tension. The performers share a complicity with the place, the objects, the scenography, and the public, creating a shared experience that blurs the boundaries between performance and reality. Nien Tzu Weng and Camille Lacelle-Wilsey are "soft clowns" who use their illogical gestures and misunderstandings to create an amusing and welcoming atmosphere, despite the surreal and absurd actions taking place on stage.

The artists’ unique perspectives and styles left a lasting impression on me, and I can't wait to see what they create next. For anyone who missed this show, I highly recommend following these artists to keep up with their future endeavors. It's clear that they have a lot to offer, and I'm excited to see where they go from here.

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Double Fantasy is comprised of two artists, Nien Tzu Weng & Camille Lacelle-Wilsey:

Nien Tzu Weng is a Taiwanese-Canadian interdisciplinary dance artist and lighting designer based in Tio'tia:ke-Montreal. She aims to build bridges between disciplines, pursuing an experimental approach to contemporary performance, and a laboratory based approach to lighting design. As both choreographer and lighting designer, Weng is curious about the relationship between movement and new media practices, and plays with the balance between reality and fantasy. She uses light and multimedia in order to play with perspective, perceiving performance as a process of transmitting dialogues between inner and outer space, where presence and image builds multiple, overlapping conceptions of time. Her projects have been shared in Node Digital Festival (Frankfurt, DE), Biennale Némo (Paris, FR), Ars Electronica (Linz, AUT), Les Percéides (Percé, QC), SummerWorks (Toronto, ON), 1-act SHIFT Theatre (Vancouver, BC) as well as OFFTA Festival, Elektra, Akousma, Tangente Danse, La Chapelle, and MAI Theatre in Montreal. She co-created the collective: Double Fantasy and is currently a member of LePARC (Milieux), one of the supported emerging artists with CCOV, as well as a resident artist at Topological Media Lab, where she develops her research on presence and interactivity. 

Camille Lacelle-Wilsey is a contemporary dance artist originally from Tiohtià:ke/Montreal and newly based in the Eastern Townships. After graduating from Concordia University with a BFA in contemporary dance, she continued her choreographic research, focusing on interference, transformation and sudden change of state. Since 2015, she has presented her creations Come a Bit Closer, Ghostbox, Dispositif and D'amour ils se gaveront, de haine ils déborderont at Tangente. She is currently in creation for the She's late - A Circus Show with her sidekick Nien Tzu Weng with whom she created the Double Fantasy collective. She has just presented a solo performance exhibition entitled Radiant  Investigation combining photography and dance at the VAV Gallery. In parallel to creation, she is interested in the creative process as a videographer, rehearsal director, member of a selection jury, movement consultant and performer-researcher. She has worked with artists such as Sara Hanley, Louis Clément Da Costa, Émile Pineault, Erin Hill, Nien Tzu Weng, Eryn Tempest and Catherine Lavoie-Marcus.

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She’s Late // A Circus Show ran March 15, 17 & 18 at La Chapelle Theatre.

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Performers + Creators Collectif Double Fantasy

Special guests Lael Stellick + Erin Hill

Costum Designer Marie-Audrey Jacques

Sound Designer Dae Courtney

Light Designer Jon Cleveland

Set Design Étienne Plante

Technical Director Darah Miah

Production Support François Bouvier Michael Martini

Artistic Coach  Sylvie Tourangeau

Supported by Danse-Cité + Conseil des Arts du Canada + Conseil des Arts de Montréal + RURART - art contemporain en milieu rural + CASJB - Centre des arts de la scène Jean-Besré + LA SERRE - arts vivants + Ranch Cheval de Soie + LOL Festival.

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She’s Late // A Circus Show

Double Fantasy

Info | Nien Tzu Weng | Camille Lacelle-Wilsey

Holly Hilts is a Core Member of Also Cool. She is a jeweler, coder & theatre worker currently based in Montreal.

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Dance Spotlight: BLEU NÉON

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Kim-Sanh Châu is mesmerizing in her piece, BLEU NÉON. Between dance, movement and Vietnamese rap is a journey to the rediscovery of an imaginary homeland.

In a short series of sold-out relaxed performances* at Montreal, arts interculturels (MAI), Châu moves methodically through variations of squatting, glowing in a magnificent, multicoloured haze of neon light, designed by Jon Cleveland. The room is set up in thrust (audience on three sides), with chairs and cushions on the ground. Cables are loosely hanging around the back wall, coiled along the edges with neon lights piled on all sides.

Photo by Kinga Michalska

As we waited for the performance to start, we read translation booklets for the performance’s texts in in Vietnamese, English, and French. There were colouring pages, snacks and prior to the performance, we were told exactly how the show would unfold and that our seating could be adjusted without a problem if we were not comfortable.

With Châu , we discussed how nostalgia acted as a coping mechanism for Vietnamese refugees in the 80s; helping them to imagine a world and home that no longer existed for them. The Vietnam that Châu knows well is so vibrant, bustling, and youthful. This performance integrated the music and movement of these different eras, these varying nostalgias, the loss of language, and difficulties surrounding sexual objectification along the way.

Though Châu does not speak Vietnamese, she learned each rap for this performance phonetically. In the talk-back after the show, she explained how Toronto rapper JONAIR wrote the pieces in Vietnamese, elaborating on the distance children of diasporas have from their cultures.

Châu’s collaborator Chi, of Hazy Montagne Mystique / Chittakone Baccam, grew up in Laos, right next to Vietnam and was able to access these points of nostalgia through his grandparents’ audio tapes. Together, Châu and Chi create a dreamy and dark soundscape of ambient music, modern rap beats and cassette tapes from another time.

Photo by Kinga Michalska

Creator and performer Kim-Sanh Châu is a Montreal-based Vietnamese-French contemporary dance artist. She has lived in Montreal for over 15 years and has a parallel life in Vietnam, with a dance studio, community, lovers and mentors. Her practice comprises choreographic installation and video-making. Châu is interested in the emergence of imaginary landscapes through the body, distilled from far away dreams, imaginary memories and psychotropic reminiscences.

It was an absolute pleasure to watch this performance in a tiny space. With an audience all around, facing each other, we took a dive into her magical world.

This show will be back in Montreal for Vietnamese Culture Week in September and will also be performed in Vietnam later this year.

The BLEU NÉON soundtrack is provided by Montreal's Hazy Montagne Mystique / Chittakone Baccam (composition), JONAIR, Duy Quang Vu (paroles rap), and Vietnamese experimental trio Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective

*All BLEU NÉON performances have a more relaxed attitude to noise and movement within the theatre. The reception, soundscape and visual atmosphere are adapted to create a calm and inclusive environment for all.

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Theatre Spotlight: Black Theatre Workshop's "Pipeline" Design Team

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Black Theatre Workshop is making big moves — their bilingual production of Pipeline, co-produced with La Manufacture, has swung us right back into gear with this emotional, challenging piece and beautiful, bold creative choices.

The play follows Nya, a single mother who teaches in a public school and her teenage son Omari, who attends a private institution. As Omari struggles with the everyday factors working against him in the school system, an incident occurs that puts his future, and the education his mother worked so hard for him to have access to, at risk.

Pipeline’s stellar design team deserves to have a light shone upon them while audiences still have a chance to catch the French version of the production from April 26th to May 8th at Théâtre La Licorne.

On set and costumes, Nalo Soyini Bruce thought a lot about the uniforms we wear everyday: in school, for work and as members of society. A theme throughout Nalo’s work is her non-traditional mix of pieces to create asymmetry in her characters. In Pipeline, the architecture and shapes throughout costume and set created the perfect industrial, chilling rigidity that characters manipulated with their frustrations.

It is important to highlight Nalo’s stellar team of Black women supporting her design: Courtney Moses (Set & Costume Assistant), Mlle Geri (Make-Up Assistant), & Enyse Charles (Costume Assistant). Nalo has expressed that their work was instrumental to the process and collaborating exclusively with a team of Black women in costume, makeup and sets was a first for her. She feels it is important for youth to see this example and be inspired to enter creative fields as performing artists as well as designers.

Elena Stoodley, Sound Designer, felt personally connected to the story of Pipeline, having grown up in the Quebec school system. “Like Omari, I was sometimes targeted and with no other ways to protect myself, I used to result to my fists to stop the verbal bullying,” she says. She even wrote a piece about her constant fear of ending up in prison because the school system at an early age made her feel like she needed to be contained.

In creating the production’s sound design, Elena thought about how prison systems are mirrored in other institutions and “how weirdly, a prison soundscape resembles high school hallways. The cafeteria, the intercom, the bus that gets you to class or your cell, how time is counted...” She mentions the threat of being just a number is latent, a theme echoed in the video and costume designs, as well.

Lighting Designer Tim Rodrigues, a staple of the Montreal theatre community, knew he would be working on this production as of 2019. Rodrigues was drawn to the emotional layers in the script, as well as the importance of the issue at the centre of the story: the school-to-prison pipeline.

Starting with identifying moments where light or quality of light is mentioned in the script, Tim also follows and elevates the emotional journeys of the characters with lighting. He looks into different cultural references mentioned in the script (poetry, music, etc.) and carries his impressions of the story and the world into design meetings and conversations with the creative team and directors. Tim’s lighting for Pipeline created a moody, chilling colour palette that elevated the intensity and depth of the content presented.

Video design team Andrew & Emily, of potatoCakes_digital, were also enthused to be a part of this production and developed their design virtually using Unreal Engine and a draft of Nalo’s design to pre-visualize their mapping. The video design mapped throughout the show onto the actors and stage, providing context, shape, and texture; elevating the emotional peaks of the performance.

To find out more, go check out the show at La Licorne from April 26th to May 8th! Tickets are available here.

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