Glass Houses
Premiered Toronto, November 10, 1983
Glass Houses is about speed, virtuosity and the pleasure of watching five amazing dancers riding the edge. The form and content were inspired by the unpredictable structures of Ann Southam's music and the mind-blowing skill of pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico.
Glass Houses was named by a panel convened by Dance Collection Danse in 2003 as one of Ten Canadian Choreographic Masterpieces of the Twentieth Century.
Created with and first performed by Merle Holloman, Helen Jones, Benoît Lachambre, Grace Miyagawa and Luc Tremblay
Music
Ann Southam, Glass Houses No. 5 performed by Christina Petrowska Quilico
Lighting
Roelof Peter Snippe
Costumes
Denis Joffre
"As a choreographer, Mr. House is downright startling - spewing forth a kinetic brilliance in the form of energy and continuum. He is a formalist with a minimalist bent. But this is barely recognizable minimalism. Movement is what Mr. House is all about - the richness that greets the eye in his work stems not from steps or shape, but his play upon speed and variation in tempos...Glass Houses showed Mr. House at his most exciting."
New York Times
"Its floor patterns are elegant designs of near symmetry. But within the simplicity of this exterior, the dancers are on a midway ride of risky, flying movement. And House's particular intelligence here is the restraint he shows. Though the movement is at times as fast, beat for beat, as the falling notes it is never allowed to blur together. He lets our eyes rest on an image and then go skipping over rapid sequences. It is this wearing of tensions, this relaxing and springing forward, that gives Glass Houses dynamism.”
Globe and Mail
Photos of Learie McNicolls, Merle Holloman, Grace Miyagawa, Helen Jones and Luc Tremblay by Cylla von Tiedemann