Productions > The Echo Case > Press commentary about The Echo Case

"Pure pleasure" R. Todd, Eye Magazine

"It's hard to believe they made it all up. Funny, poetic, thought-provoking and visually appealing, THE ECHO CASE was a thoroughly enjoyable and intriguing hour of dance, music and atmospheric lighting - made in the moment."
P. Anthony, The Edmonton Journal

"There is no single word to describe the incredible repertoire of body imagery created by EDAM's Peter Bingham, Marc Boivin and Andrew de Lotbiniere Harwood. But extreme dancing comes close.

In two weekend performances . . . the three men destroyed every preconception that the human frame is limited by its bone structure, musculature and the laws of gravity to a finite number of movements and sculptural forms.

On Friday night, in a totally improvised hour of intense dancing, the dancers demonstrated a fluidity and a flexibility that is more the property of things that flow, roll, stream, compact and burst open - things like rivers, breezes, ribbons, balls, trees, flowers or things that tangle like rope and rain-forest vines. Bingham, Boivin and Harwood were accompanied by EDAM musicians Coat Cook and Ron Samworth, and lighting designer Robert Meister, all of whom were also improvising.

Each dancer, whether working solo, a deux or a trios, integrated his own personal imagery and style into that of the others and of the dance itself, in a remarkable display of sensitivity - not only to each other, but to larger forces of weight, momentum, balance and poise.

The resulting harmonization of imagery, mood, motion and latent power put a spell on the audiences both nights. They watched in the kind of breathless silence that seems concave in its intensity.

Bingham's is a noble presence, calm, direct, concentrated, whether he is draping himself around a balcony railing and post like a sunning cobra, or writhing restlessly in a tiny circle of light which imprisons him with dark, unseen walls.

Boivin, tall and leggy, stalks the stage like a bird of prey, or sculpts strikingly defined circles and spheres with arms and hands that lose all trace of bone or muscle in their geometric flow. His entire body metamorphoses from angular structure into dancing fire as effortlessly as spontaneous combustion.

Harwood, smaller and more compact than his lanky partners, displayed an astonishing ability to compact himself into a ball and roll around the stage as though every movement displaced his centre of gravity and obliged his body to flow in a new direction. . .

In all of the trio's dancing, one became strongly aware of the invisible flow of gravity as their bodies slid down, rose up, poised for a fraction of a second, then plunged away."
Stephen Pedersen, Arts Reporter, The Chronicle Herald