18 — Friday, May 28, 1999 — North Shore News jancing through Europe Katharine Hamer Contributing Writer WHEN Vancouver choreographer Lola MacLaughlin began to assemble her latest work, she turned to the great cities of Europe for inspiration. MacLaughlin, whose piece . Four Solos/Four Cities rans till tomorrow night at the Roundhouse, says she has always been fascinated by European history and culture. MacLaughlin studied at the University of West Berlin, and more recently, was award- ed a grant to study with . acclaimed German contempo- rary choreographer Pina Bausch. After additional dance training at SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts, ~ MacLaughlin became a founding member of : Vancouver’s EDAM ~ (Experimental Dance and .. Music), She has had her own company, Lola MacLaughlin “ Dance, for the last 10 years, = and in 1992 received the * prestigious Clifford E. Lee 1: Award for Choreography. 3 - Four Solos/Four Cities ». emerged from a tour the Q choreographer took around 4 her four favourite European + towns: Berlin, Vienna, : : Bose and Venice. > Each 15-minute solo — performed by: dancers hand- «Peron by MacLaughlin — is + designed to reflect the histo- = ry, culture, and identity of the £ city from which it takes its “ge: Mame, On her European excur- , Sion, MacLaughlin “travelled + with four envelopes. In each ; one | collected postcards, wk 2 video clips, impressions of the : 4 city... wanted to create a por- ’ #strait of each one.” ** MacLaughlin chose her_ . ; dancers — Susan Elliott, & Jennifer Murray and Andrea Gunnlaugson from Vancouver and Hope Terry from Toronto — because she felt each would be uniquely able to “manifest the character” of “ee WE eh dag Me Rae gees Soe Phato submitted FLYING high: Andrea Gunniaugson of Lola MacLaughiin Dance in “Venice” — one - of the pieces in MacLaughlin’s Four Solos/Four Cities at the Roundhouse. the city they portrayed in the solo. “Each of the pieces is so different,” says MacLaughlin. “You probably wouldn’t know it was the same choreo- grapher.” Costumes, props, and music were also carefully selected to represent the “feel” of each city. In “Berlin,” for example, a back- drop displaying tanks and bar- ticades is used as a symbol of the Berlin Wall — while dancer Jennifer Murray is clad in a plastic dress. “Berlin is industrial, angu- lar, technological — yet full of old culture and art,” says MacLaughlin, who choreo- graphed the piece,to a combi- nation of techno music and Telemann. jenna” is performed to music by Schubert by Hope Terry in a long ballgown, and has “a: romantic, old world feel, ” while “Brussels,” fea- © turing Susan Elliott, has “a Flemish influence.” The props used by dancer Andrea Gunnlaugson in “Venice” — impossibly tall platform shoes and stilts — were an adaptation of a dis- covery MacLaughlin made in a Venetian museum. “I found these shoes called chopines,” she says, “they dated back to 15th or Téth century Venice, and they were about one and a half fect high. The women used to walk around with long sticks and a servant on each arm — (the Props) : are just a modern equivalent.” Four Solos/Four Cities wa8 premiered at Burnaby’s Shadbolt Centre for the Arts ‘in 1998. MacLaughlin hopes that the Roundhouse perfor- mances will bring the already popular work to a wider audi- ence. [OT = CO “We’ve got you covered” A&A Gas Fireplaces are pleased to announce they have officially expanded to include a new furnace division. Come meet the most knowledgeable peopte in tho - industry with over 35 years serving the North Shore.” _ GAS to GAS ~~ furnace conversions We service all makes and models New Portable. Air Conditioner ideal for livingrooms and bedrooms © Plug into standard 120V « Manual or remote controlled * Never needs draining END OF SEASON SAVINGS on all gas’ fireplace units Concord 80 Mid- Efficiency Gas Furnace Features the latest advancements in efficient gas heating technology at an outstanding value « 20 year warrantee “The audiences (for dance) are still small in Vancouver,” she says, “but it’s an exciting time (in the local dance scene). There are some incredible dancers here, and a lot of creativity. We're really coming into our own and getting national and interna- tional recognition.” MacLaughlin will begin rehearsing a new project — an ensemble picce influenced by German expressionism — in June. The. last two performances of Four Solos/Four Cities arc tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m. For tickets, cal] 280- 2229 FOLKESTONE Way, WEST VANCOUVER, BC RESERVATIONS: 926-3212 “meh iapmer Ly B Bird Calling 7 All. Surfer Chicks! ‘16 reasons why wa. have the. best selection of women’s surfweer, shoos and bikinis © on the North Shore. .. - Roxy 9. NFA - Volcom “10. Sugar -- Flo Sport 11. Rip Col, F Stones. 12. Gils Rule - 13. Etnies 14. Converse. : 15. Sanuk 16. Point Conception nr om GON = hala ong Vons © Westbeach . 139 Lonsdale Avenue North Vancouver. smn OO WAVE secondwave-serfandsnow. com