Sonya and Layla Go Camping is a hybrid dance and video work by New York-based performance duo robbinschilds (Sonya Robbins and Layla Childs). The piece forges new territory at its Canadian premiere as part of the Images Festival’s ongoing explorations of how media art and performance collide. Festival programmer Jacob Korczynski writes about this innovative duo and their work.
In many ways, the performance of Sonya and Layla Go Camping is emblematic of the 23rd edition of the Images Festival. The festival extends the forms of choreography beyond the stage into questions about the organization of the body within social space: it’s a query that cuts across various projects throughout the city.
Although robbinschilds’ collaborative practice continues to be firmly rooted in the history of choreography, the pair often works outside of the traditional parameters of that discipline, engaging in site-specific and installation-based performances, which contain elements of sculpture, music and video. Thus, the inherently interdisciplinary position occupied by the practice of robbinschilds within the theatre, gallery and “site” is echoed by the Images Festival and its platform of performances, exhibitions and screenings.
An absurd, playful and humorous performance, Sonya and Layla Go Camping is built around a narrative that folds back in on itself, creating a sort of structural feedback loop over three distinct acts. The title of the performance references Jacques Rivette’s 1974 film Celine and Julie Go Boating, a film in which the two protagonists are engaged in a similar looping narrative, a mobius strip of a story that moves from action to inaction, function to dysfunction.
The looping metanarrative, conjured by Celine and Julie and carried forth by Sonya and Layla, is confronted by the audience and the performers: the space between the screen and the self is mediated by the choreographed bodies.
WHERE/WHEN: Sonya and Layla Go Camping runs Friday April 9 (7 to 8:30 pn) and Saturday April 10 (4 to 5:30 pm) at the Dancemakers Centre for Creation in the Distillery District (55 Mill Street, Building 58, The Cannery). The Images Festival continues to April 10 at 25 venues across the Greater Toronto Area. Tickets and information (prices range from PWYC to $15) for the 23rd edition of the festival are now available online.
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