For the second year in the row, Broken Rhythms will be presenting a new full-length work at the McPherson Playhouse. The new show, On Hold, will be performed on Friday, April 4th at 7:30pm. I was able get a sneak peek of the show during a recent rehearsal and then ask Artistic and Executive Director Dyana Sonik-Henderson some questions afterward. I have been watching, previewing, and greatly enjoying Broken Rhythms shows for years, but I have to say that I was completely blown away by this one. I was struck by the use of repeated images and ideas throughout the show and how those images and ideas interacted with, morphed, and built upon one another. This new show is stark, confident, bizarre, complex, visceral, at times earnest, and at other times funny.
In pop culture, there are many current and recent representations of corporate culture, the futility and frustration of waiting, and the pitfalls of capitalism. Recent television shows such as Severance (2022) and Fantasmas (2024) explore the grip that corporations have on their employees as well as the citizens in their communities. Films such as Being John Malkovich (1999), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), and Stranger Than Fiction (2006) use bizarre office and workplace visuals and play with the ambiguity and mutability of time. The structured opening sequence of On Hold, and how that structure dissolved throughout the show, reminded me of these and made me think of the title sequence from Mad Men (2007), an animation in which a central character starts in a skyscraper and then plummets as his office furniture, walls, and floors fall away and betray him.
Broken Rhythms in rehearsal Photo by Helene Cyr
While I saw echoes of the visuals, tones, and moods from these different reference points throughoutOn Hold, Sonik-Henderson’s approach to these themes comes from real life. She tells a personal story of a very necessary phone call (related to grant funding) last summer, during which she spent a very unnecessary eight hours on hold. During this time, her mind went on a wild and layered journey which became the running inspiration for this piece. She was also inspired by the Salvadori Dali painting The Persistence of Memory (1931) and the melting clock imagery within, as well as Einstein’s On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies (1905).
The result of the mind journey that Sonik-Henderson went on during her time on hold yielded a very honest and incisive reflection which pushed her forward in this creation: “Capitalism makes us value time in relation to money. I had gotten very stuck in my value based on hourly work. As predominately a contract worker, each hour wasted represents lost money. However, time is completely abstract, and money has no real relation to my personal value. I can’t put a price on creating, community, time with loved ones, learning, [or] growing.” The frustration is palpable in this show. Images of dancers waiting on hold appear at the beginning and throughout the show in different configurations. These images are relatable, sincere, provide comic relief, and extend a sense of tension and anxiety. However, they also serve to bookend and emphasize Sonik-Henderson’s expansive and exploratory choreography as well as the dancers’ signature attack and fulsome embodiment of her choreography.
“This new show is stark, confident, bizarre, complex, visceral, at times earnest, and at other times funny.”
In Sonik-Henderson’s words, “each dance is meant to dive further into abstract thought and constructs around time.” The show begins grounded in reality, but as the characters’ minds wander the subsequent dances start to move from images of waiting to images or explorations of time itself: clocks, gears, pendulums, hourglasses, sand, sundials, and incense. Dyana and the dancers explore, question, and unmoor these images and structures related to ritual and the keeping of time. I was very impressed with how the six dancers interacted and iterated in a full group but also in solos, duos, and trios. As always, I enjoyed the emotional layering and chemistry in the performances from founding members Christina Plaschka and Naomi Graham. I think that the McPherson stage will be particularly effective for some of the bold visuals such as the soon to be infamous “sandbox piece” (no spoilers!) featuring energetic Broken Rhythms newcomer Makenna Thiffault as well a piece toward the beginning which was inspired by the imagery of a bird (played by the expressive and precise Allison Rhodes) leaving a nest and all of the dancers doing a repeated intricate phrase in different directions, giving the illusion of even more dancers on stage.
One duet in this show, between Caleigh Hunter and Candace Bruce, is something that has really stuck with me as I have been fortunate to see it 4 times in different versions. Their interplay together is electric, and it works so nicely in tandem with the texture and ardor that they bring to their movement. I first viewed this duet as an argument. As it has grown, I have started to see other possibilities. Is it two different versions of the self? Is it a negotiation or a message trying to be conveyed from one party to the other? Is it two people who want to agree but don’t speak the same language? My favourite new interpretation is that Hunter’s character has time travelled to deliver a message to Bruce’s character. I look forward to what I see next in this piece on April 4th.
One element that will be a surprise to me on April 4th is the lighting. I saw a different version of lighting during the preview performance, and I look forward to what Lighting Designer Emma Dickerson creates for this show. In particular, I am eager to see how their design will approach the opening office/waiting/on hold sequence and its recurrence throughout the show, as well as the several pieces that feature one or more dancer downstage while more company members are upstage doing contrasting movement.
Audience members are in for a treat. Overall, this new work is full of drama, expression, storytelling, tension, precision, experimentation, reflection, strength, humour, and beguiling music selections. I think that dance lovers will be swept up by the bold staging, the way the dancers connect their emotions to the movements, and how the choreography is used to permutate, iterate, and explore the central “waiting” image of the show into each individual dance that spills forth. However, I think that theatregoers with less experience watching dance will also be stunned by this work. The central theme is universal and relatable for everyone, but the specific performance qualities that the dancers bring, and the way that the visual language unfolds and evolves over the course of an hour, will captivate new audience members and surely grow the community of dance lovers and Broken Rhythms fans.
” Overall, this new work is full of drama, expression, storytelling, tension, precision, experimentation, reflection, strength, humour, and beguiling music selections. “
Community is a huge part of what Broken Rhythms does. Accordingly, the evening will open with dancers from the Victoria Academy of Ballet who will perform an excerpt from previous Broken Rhythms repertoire.
Join Broken Rhythms for this exciting new work on Friday, April 4th at 7:30pm.
Choreographer/Director: Dyana Sonik-Henderson Lighting Designer: Emma Dickerson Cast (in alphabetical order by last name): Candace Bruce Naomi Graham Caleigh Hunter Christina Plaschka Allison Rhodes Makenna Thiffault Swings: Carlene Forbes Olivia Lund
Broken Rhythms 