Long Live
Produced by REAson d'etre productions
Paula Citron, 2008 - The Globe and Mail
Indeed, Long Live is a brave work because, amidst the grief, it contains visual whimsy that comes close to the surreal. Two funny dolls that actually crawl and cry depict the birth of the two children. The dog is a large stuffed toy led about on a leash. The rolling armchair converts to a station wagon that carries the family on outings. The love between the mother and father is shown through a tickling match. It all helps convey the picture of a loving family.
The humour in the piece is, of course, underscored by melancholy...The son's dance of death is one of heaving staccato movement. The mother's dance of grief is graceful elegy, while the father's is a fierce outburst of energy. Rea has developed a highly defined angst-filled gestural language that acts as a communication connector to the ebb and flow of scenes.
The music is best described as folk/alternative with cryptic, elliptical lyrics. It is a moody backdrop to the piece, especially for the joyous snow ballet that ends the work. The weather report that Goldman intones is one of dire warnings, but that is not how the angels see the storm. In their long white coats, the angels twirl around, becoming the snow that falls from the sky. In this winter wonderland, the girl finds joy again with the Heart Angel through an intense duet of precarious lifts and shifting weight.
... the integrity of Rea and her cast creates a poignancy that demands respect.
Genderwear:
Is It Fashionable To Be Me Yet?
Produced by Gender Play
Susan G. Cole, June 2007- Stage Scenes, Now Magazine
Gender wears well. The Gender Players, the product of the Pride and Prejudice program at Central Toronto Youth Services, performed their kick-ass production, Gender wear: Is It Fashionable To Be Me Yet?, for two nights at the Steel Worker's Hall. The show based on writing by the players themselves, developed with Anna Camilleri and dramaturged by Tristan Whiston, probed gender issues in a funny and moving ways. Prop to Kathleen Rea for her choreography and especially for her creative use of props made out of artfully constructed Collages on cardboard. Remember the names of performers Reilly and Denise Dunn. This is not the last you'll hear of them
IRE
Produced by REAson d'etre productions
Paula Citron, July 2006- Classical 96.3 FM
Each year she (Kathleen Rea) mounts VIVID, a production which provides performance opportunities both for herself and another choreographer, and this season’s incarnation is a very strong show indeed....Rea’s Ire, for six formidable female dancers, deals with intimacy and aggression in the lives of women, set to cellist/singer Anne Bourne’s compelling original score interwoven with Bach suites. Birch’s duet sympathetic nerve uses the metaphor of a male/female relationship to explore the nature between soul and body. Both are very satisfying pieces. Ire portrays many relationships of a woman’s life – with her friends, her children – and we see both nurture and anger. The choreography is beautifully rich, poignant and lyrical.
IRE
Produced by REAson d'etre productions
Sarah Snowdon , July 2006 www.contemporarydance.suite101.com
....exciting contemporary dance pieces... Frames, first performed in August 1996, opens the evening beautifully with choreographer & dancer Kathleen Rea. A very personal and reflective piece based on Rea's battle with an eating disorder, the frame Rea uses as a prop seems symbolic to the structures within a society that promotes body image issues. Rea's strength, both physical and emotional, is demonstrated through intense, athletic-style movement and by delicate yet protected gestures. The music, ARVO PART (Fratre), evokes the sadness of feeling entrapped within an imposed social framework.
Kathleen Rea's IRE explores the evolving seasons of aggression between women at different points in their lives. A playful, child-like duet involving "paddy-cakes" is one of the opening sequences, emphasized by lighting that imitates daylight. Swaying upper-body movement leads to increased aggression and combative stances. One dancer is often singled-out and is forced to defend themselves or retaliate. Dancers Johanna Bergfeldt, Bess Callard, Anna Finkel, Pam Johnson, Karen Kaeja and Teisha Smith, are stylistically varied but flow well together. There are some absolutely stunning moments in this piece, which may have had more impact had it been slightly shorter.
The Velveteen Rabbit
Produced by Ballet Jorgen Canada
February 2005 - Orléans Online
The Velveteen Rabbit is a hit with young audiences. As the sun was heating up Orléans on Sunday, the stage lights heated up the Orléans Theatre stage as Ballet Jorgen Canada performed The Velveteen Rabbit to a sold-out crowd of more than 200 sat at the edge of their seats throughout the one-hour show. The six dancers brought to life the cherished children’s story of a young boy and his stuffed rabbit, which magically comes to life. The central theme is the importance of friendship, love and the discovery of what is real. The ballet was staged with children in mind. The performers spoke to their young audience before the show, explaining the story is told through the actions of dancers and music. The setting was mostly in the boy’s bedroom, where his toys danced and played. A large stuffed rabbit, used as the main prop, later changed into a costumed dancer as the boy loved it more. The friendship grew until the rabbit became “real” and left with fellow wild rabbits. The scenes were magical and full of music recorded by the Canadian Chamber Ensemble. All were pleased with the afternoon’s performance.
Lining
Produced by the Ryerson Dance Program
Emma-Kate Millar, November 2004
The Eyeopener
Some of Toronto's most renowned choreographers….One highlight of the show was a series of duets choreographed by Kathleen Rea. The three short pieces offered an intimate and poignant view of the complex dynamics of three couples. The choreography challenged the performers to work in close relationship, both physically and emotionally. Rea originally choreographed this piece for the Toronto Dance Theater earlier this year and it was great to see the Ryerson Dancers make it their own.
Lining
Produced by Toronto Dance Theatre
Keith Garebian and page website, 2004
Kathleen Rea's Lining, performed to Bach cello suites, was layered by Freudian or Jungian psychology in terms of emotions and interactions. Three duos performed three different sections. The most abstract was probably the first, danced by Brenda Little and Bess Callard, who achieved a dramatic rhythm and flow as they used little pieces of white cloth to demonstrate the unpacking and layering of feeling. The second section featured Jessica Runge and Brendan Jensen in a gently comic bit of business where each tried to slip a hand into the other's trouser-pocket. Pockets became metaphors of guarded secrecy, and hands became emblems of strange intrusiveness. The third section, with Kristy Kennedy and Matthew Waldie, was even more strongly comic, as Kennedy wrestled feverishly with a blouse that just simply refused to slip off her head. The business itself was comic, but the way in which the dancers turned the comedy into patterns of movement was even more interesting
flux and Frames
Produced REAson d'etre productions and princess productions
Glenn Sumi, 2002
Now Magazine top ten dance of the year Kathleen Rea's imaginative, richly theatrical 1996 piece Frames - performed in and around a frame - explored the limits we set for ourselves, while her new work, flux, examined the need to lift off with a clown inspired whimsy. A delight"
flux
Produced REAson d'etre productions and princess productions
Paula Citron, 2002 - The Globe and Mail
There is something very satisfying about a program performed by established dance artists. Marie-Josée Chartier and Kathleen Rea, epitomize a maturity that takes dance deep below the surface to a level where the emotional, psychological and physical intersect in provocative ways.
Rea's new solo, flux, is a delightful yet poignant collaboration with guitarist-singer Roman Koudriavtsev. On the surface, it is a story about a girl who wants to fly, but while Koudriavtsev's folksong score conjures up a folk-tale mystique, the fact that he sings not actual words but meaningless syllables, opens up the dance to deeper meaning. Symbols abound in the piece. Rea is garbed in a skirt of newspaper pages and the incessant rustle is also part of the dance, particularly when she takes off the skirt and wears it like fragile wings.
Gravity is more than being rooted to the ground. It also involves rolling around the floor, on, we discover later, a hidden blue beach ball -- and this bizarre movement heightens the chains that bind her on earth, despite the straining and yearning of the intense motion of her upper body. The ball, in fact, becomes a character in the fable, a voiceless companion that epitomizes her loneliness anchored in the horrors of today's headlines.
Her clumsy attempts to fly with a rope also convey bondage, even conjuring up a noose that is a symbol of death, as if finally achieving what she wants is another form of imprisonment. It is the dark undercurrents of flux that continue to haunt the viewer long after.
Fleeting
Produced by REAson d'etre productions
Susan Walker, 2002 - The Toronto Star
Rea, a former National Ballet dancer, became a choreographer after knee injuries ended her performing career. Fleeting is a word that holds meaning for any professional dancer, but especially for someone like Rea, who created this work on three men and six women to music by Mass Ensemble.
The opening scene involves a flattering use of old newspapers: fashioned into ballgowns for Lisa Otto, Eryn Dace-Trudell and Karen Kaeja. In silence they swirl around the stage and roll on the floor, creating a sound like the crunching of dead leaves.
Later, newspapers are used again to make a long rectangular floor cover, lifted by dancers Tom Brouillette, Piotr Biernat and Yong to suggest a moving river in which Trudell is immersed. Later still it becomes a long blanket for a group sleep-over. Veering between the naturalistic and the metaphorical, Fleeting sometimes feels like bits from two dances spliced together, but its images will prove permanent.
Lightbulb
Produced by Ballet Jorgen Canada
Paula Citron, 2002 - The Globe and Mail
Equally capable of coming up with inventive ideas is Kathleen Rea. Lightbulb, a solo for the delightful Clea Iveson, was performed on or about a couch, with a couple of forays into standing action. Rea was inspired by a person spending nights at home with nothing to do. The perky music by Trevor Watts's Moire Music Drum Orchestra was the perfect backdrop for Iveson's swings between restlessness, boredom and lassitude. Of interest here are all the various small movement patterns Rea came up with to present her theme, particularly the small details that spoke volumes, such as a prolonged stare with the odd tilt to the head.
