Eunoia by Denise Fujiwara Dance Inventions in Vancouver!!

Date: May 8, 2024 – May 11, 2024

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Eunoia is a dance-theatre adaptation of the literary work by Christian Bök.  Eunoia is a univocal lipogram.  It won the Griffin Poetry prize (one of the largest international prizes in the world)  and became a bestselling book in Canada and the U.K.  

“Enfettered, these sentences repress free speech. The text deletes selected letters.”  - from Chapter E.
Remarkably, and despite the severe limitations to the usable vocabulary, Bök was able to create oddly narrative poems with characters, scenes and coherent action.

In this production, we use similar constraints as the basis for the movement invention, music instrumentation, sound design, costumes, props, and in video effects like pan and parallax. These restrictions prevented us from directly illustrating the poems - rather than limit our possibilities, we found the constraints challenged us to create a delightful parallel world that is separate and yet relates to the poem in odd and unexpected ways. For example in Chapter A, we initiate movement from A body parts; hands, back, jaw, amygdala, etc. We avoid usual dance conventions such as unison movement, repetition, dance steps, except in specific situations where it fits our restrictions, like the kathak and salsa in Chapter A. Performing the choreography, which is mostly set and at times improvised, with the spoken text is diabolically difficult to perform as all are detailed and specific.

The work is full of references to the single vowel constraint.  We hope you’ll enjoy discovering them as much as we did in creating the work.

The Buzz:  “Eunoia is one of the most exciting and fun evenings of theatre we have experienced in Toronto. The production is playful, provocative and completely engaging.  It rewards the curious viewer with so much stimulation and delight, and deserves to be seen by a much wider audience.”
- Atom Egoyan, Cannes Film Festival Award winner

“Eunoia is a dramatic exquisite mind-bending combination of the physical and the mental, which leads us into the absorbing world where literacy and movement intertwine. As a book, Eunoia was challenging and beautiful. As a dance-work it completes a magic circle of emotion and reason, which leaves the spectator breathless, and thrilled.”                        
- The Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, Journalist and Stateswoman

**The Firehall Arts Centre is located on the unceded and traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations where they lived and gathered together for thousands of years. Acknowledging their connections to these lands is a significant part of what the Firehall considers when choosing the productions and presentations we undertake and how that work shapes and impacts those around us. We ask our community to reflect on what being present here means to you and those around you.**

Box Office:
(604) 689-0926
Email: boxoffice@firehallartscentre.ca

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