Sixty dances by 40 dancers in 60 minutes. That just about sums up the evening of May 18 at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre (NACC).
The Yellowknife Dance Collective performed its latest show titled North of 60×60 to a sold-out crowd. Whether it was a solo performance to dancers pretending to be dogs, the show didn't seem to miss a beat with performers needing to - and hitting - all the right moves to sidestep from one performance to the next, seamlessly.
By the time it was over, there was a standing ovation.
Tomiko Robson wore a number of hats for the show, figuratively speaking, as director, choreographer and dancer herself. She laughed when asked how she was able to juggle all her tasks at once.
"The pieces are just a minute long, so it's really easy to be like 'oh yeah, sure I'll do that.' And then at some point I went 'I wonder how many pieces I've said yes to now?' and I started counting them up and it was nearing on 20," she said following the performance.
With a hand in just about everything, it wasn't exactly easy for Robson to land on a favourite routine.
"I have so many favourites to watch," she said. "There were so many good ones for so many different reasons."
It was more than just a performance as there was a panel discussion for audience members to ask questions to not only Robson, but also a number of other dancers and choreographers.
During the panel, Robson explained that a 60×60 isn't quite a novel idea, but it was the first time Yellowknife's ever done one.
"I always wanted to try one. I maybe didn't realize how much memorization it was going to be," she said to the audience's laughter.
The show touched on just about every big emotion there is, with some hitting harder than others.
Natasha Bhogal was one of the dancers and choreographed one dance in particular, called "Ghosts of Gaza."
Among other things, Bhogal said the dance was a means of informing people of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
"This was a way for me to empower myself," added Bhogal. "To take action, and tell someone's story when they are not here to tell their story."
When it came to figuring out the choreography, Bhogal said what has stood out to her in the news are the images of grieving mothers.
"I think we forget that they still have to keep living with the reality of not having their families," she said. "So how do we bring that experience to light?"
It's a question she wanted to answer in her dance. In it, mothers are cradling what appears to be a baby, only for the dance to end with the sound of an explosion, and the mothers dropping to the floor.
"The concept was there's a break in reality," Bhogal explained. "In the very beginning of the dance, they are already childless mothers. And they have to believe that they're children are alive to keep living, but they're only brought back to reality by the sound of essentially their ultimate death: the bomb."
No doubt, not every dance had subject matter as heavy as that one. Robson explained it took some work to find the right pacing.
"There were a few pieces where we were like 'We have to be careful about how we order these and what we surround them with,'" she said. "'Gaza' was one of them and there were a few others where we had to make sure we had a nice flow in and out of those pieces."
Now that the show's over, Robson said she'll take a bit of a break. If there's one thing she wants people to know about the collective, it's that it's diverse and welcoming.
"Everyone can dance," she said. "We've got very high-level dancers, very thoroughly trained dancers with us, and we have new people. And you'll see them in a lot of pieces dancing side by side. If you've got a body, you can dance."