Underground Pop culture, minus footwear

By Tara DiBenedetto

The High Performance Rodeo at One Yellow Rabbit is known for embracing the extraordinary. Popular, a dance exploration of underground pop culture promises to do just that.

“It’s pretty weird. It’s a pretty strange evening,” laughs Kimberly Cooper, choreographer and creative force behind Popular.

Cooper joined Calgary’s Dec-idedly Jazz Danceworks in 1989 and is currently their Resident Choreographer and Artistic Ass-ociate. She recently returned from a year-long sabbatical that took her to Chicago, Vancouver, Cuba, New York and New Orleans. While all of Cooper’s experiences affected her, it was her time in Cuba that had the greatest influence on this production.

“I went to the Banff Centre, where the show was first created, right after I came back from Cuba, so I was very richly inspired by Cuban dance,” says Cooper. “There’s a really strong Latin flavour in this show.”

The Cuban influence extends to the show’s title, explains Cooper. Popular, pronounced “populare” is actually Cuba’s favorite cigarette brand.

“Although the show does have aspects of popular underground culture in it, the music in particular [has] a seedy, smoky reference throughout,” explains Cooper. “Some seedy characters include a washed up showgirl and a sailor-there’s a lot of back alley dances happening.”

The show also features a lot of different styles, keeping with the whole purpose of the festival.

“These dances contain elements of jazz, hip hop, AfroCuban, lindy hop, kung fu and ballet,”

says Cooper. “I’ve basically mangled them up and mixed them around.”

The unconventional dance is not the only unusual aspect of the show. Cooper’s choreography calls for audience interaction.

“For the first third of the show, the audience will move around the stage and different dance pieces will take place in different parts of the theatre,” she says. “The audience will be herded by what I call

the Greek Chorus.”

At this point, actors switch between playing roles in the piece and commenting from outside of the action, until the audience is allowed to sit back down.

“This is my first time experimenting with this concept and I feel it will make it exciting for the audience,” Cooper explains. “I wanted to make this a whole experience and not just a show.”

Elaborate costumes, designed and constructed by Vancouver’s Natalie Purschwitz, add to the experience. This is a departure from Cooper’s usual style.

“Anytime I’ve ever made anything, I really see the stripped down dance side of it,” says Cooper. “But for some reason, this was a totally different experience in that I wanted big elaborate costumes.”

As with many of the performances at the Rodeo, Popular promises an unusual evening. This will be immediately apparent as the audience will be given slippers prior to the show. So sit back, kick your shoes off and become Popular.