Actor-turned-dancer Hiromoto Ida has directed and choreographed Detour, a contemporary dance theatre presented by Ichigo-Ichieh.
Ida is fascinated with the basic movement of everyday life and the undercurrents below the surface. A man or woman standing at a kitchen sink with their back to the room; the story in the shoulders. When Ida left his native Japan, his mother walked to the washing machine with her back to the family and stood with her chin down to hide her sadness.
Once in Canada, Ida’s love/hate relationship with chainsaws began. Standing alone in the forest trying to start the chainsaw, pulling the cord over and over, to no avail. Sitting down in the solitude defeated, head down with the sense of failure and frustration as a man.
Ida finds irony in the contrast to the seemly sleek and cool look of today’s technology like a Smart phone to the noisy, clunky, gas smelling chainsaw.
A third image came to Ida when his children began to leave home. The emptiness of the home sunk in as the day wore on. The dining room table which once held the warmth and happiness of the family was empty and he noticed one table leg was shorter, causing it to tilt to one side, draining all the sorrow off the corner.
These are the images that mulled in Ida’s creative mind that led to the plot of Detour.
A man and woman from the Walkman era struggle to feel relevant, confident and fluid in the high tech world. Set to music composed and arranged by John Tucker, the characters use a simpler style of contemporary dance to covey the story, without dialogue.
Props designed by Doug Scott convey themes like emotional baggage as the lost couple, living under the same roof, struggle to be connected.
Detour has three showings at the Capitol Theatre on Friday, May 16 at 8 p.m. and two showings on Saturday. Tickets for the mature-themed theatre are available at the Capitol box office.