RubberbanDance will perform Vic’s Mix on Nov. 3 at 3 p.m. at the Prince Charles Theatre.
RubberbanDance, recognized worldwide for its significant contribution in dance, and for its role in the development of a new style inspired by breakdancing, classical ballet, and dance theatre, is the genius of Victor Quijada.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Quijada first danced in the b-boying circles and hip-hop clubs of his native city, moving to New York City to join Tharp! After spending three years and following a stint with Ballets Tech, he came to Montreal to join Les Grands Ballets Canadiens.
In 2002, he founded RubberbanDance, throwing himself into deconstructing the choreographic principles he had learned by blending them with the raw ideology of his street dance origins. His creations are distinguished by a powerful theatricality, the energy of improvisation, and certain codes of film language, the whole sculpted with an incomparable precision of movement.
The company’s work quickly won over audiences and critics: in its end-of-season review, the Montreal daily Le Devoir included RubberbanDance in its pick of the five best dance productions of the year. In 2005, the company performed in Japan, representing Canada at Expo 2005. The troupe’s renown continued to increase after that and touring opportunities multiplied, with as many performances in the United States as in Canada, along with frequent tours to Holland, Belgium, and England, where, among other works, sHip sHop Shape Shifting was presented.
From 2007 to 2011, the Cinquième Salle of Place des Arts hosted RubberbanDance in a residency. Four new works were created during that period averaging 40 performances annually, with highly successful lecture-demonstration instituted as cultural mediation activities following the presentation of each new work. The company supports the emerging generation of dancers by mentoring and through initiatives such as the Post-Hip-Hop Project, which, in its three successive editions, gave some young artists from the hip-hop scene a first experience of creation and dissemination in a professional framework.
In 2016, the company brought Vic’s Mix to the stage, composed of highlights encapsulating the organization’s sizzling trajectory from its beginnings. With both humorous and serious moments, Vic’s Mix spans the immense creative territory explored by Quijada, extracting jewels from the choreographer’s repertoire. In this remix, orchestrating the clash between urban pop and classical composition, Quijada goes further in his experiments defying notions of theatricality and audience expectations, while making sure that each body gravitating onstage in the highly athletic segments exemplifies the RubberbanDance method, an electrifying vocabulary combining the energy of hip hop, the refinement of classical ballet, and the angular quality of contemporary dance,
Tickets are $22 adult and $10 youth in advance from Black Bear Books, Kingfisher Books and Fly in the Fibre or $25/12 at the door.
