Samara L. Thompson Media

Dancers have long been enthralled by technology, but many fall short of effective integration of the new toys into a dance piece. Samara L. Thompson has been brilliantly inventive in fusing the software Dance Forms into her delightful See Through Me, performed in charming fashion by the talented Jesse Dell. The work places Dell in front of a screen projecting a life-size, 3D animation character, and so the wonderful play on words, See Through Me, takes on many meanings during the quirky, cheeky duet between a dancer and a faceless body figure. The mirror images they create give Thompson's dance piece its symbolic anchor. Dell is also "animated" because she is alive, and her facial expressions dance as merrily as her body does. The real dancer, performing the same quick silver movements as her animated self, is coy and ironic. The faceless figure may also have form, speed and virtuosity, but is bland and passionless, a virtual self that pales beside Dell's charisma like a shadow. Thompson's clever choice of circus-inspired music by the Maarten Altena Ensemble and Quartetto Gelato is also filled with humour, matching Dell perfectly in her tongue-in-cheek execution. Thompson may have planned the choreography on the computer, but it was learned by Dell in the studio, where the dancer and choreographer had an intense human encounter. Dance Forms may be a useful tool, both as a starting point in generating movement ideas, and as an ending point in terms of documentation, but the glorious middle is the live dancer. Without her, we have no dance, only the idea of one. Kudos to Thompson for also being her own animator and video editor.

ABOUT THE AWARD
In 1996, Toronto dance critic Paula Citron inaugurated a prize to recognize the accomplishments of independent choreographers. She chose as the annual recipient, an artist participating in the fFIDA International Dance Festival because the event is the largest gathering of its kind in Canada. The award is a separate entity from fFIDA itself, although the chosen artist IS given a cheque equal to his or her fFIDA entrance fee.
Ms. Citron prefers the word "recipient", rather than "winner" because this award is not about the first among equals. Rather than separating out "the best" dance piece in an egalitarian festival, Ms. Citron1s very subjective criteria has been to choose a work that compels attention for any number of reasons ‹ an impressive first choreography, highly sophisticated craftsmanship, difficult or unusual subject matter, innovative dance vocabulary, and so on. The object of the Paula Citron fFIDA Award is to congratulate an independent choreographer on his or her artistry in a world where recognition for the "indie" is few and far between. Ms. Citron also hopes that the award will act as an encouragement for the choreographer to carry on in the lonely, and often difficult, pursuit of his or her craft.

PREVIOUS RECIPIENTS
2003 Louis Laberge-Côté and Keiko Ninomiya, Toronto
2002 Kazuyo Hide, Japan
2001 Malgorzata Nowacka, Toronto
2000 Nicole Mion, Calgary
1999 Viv Moore, Toronto
1998 Rebecca Todd and Eryn Dace Trudell, Toronto
1997 Michael Trent, Toronto
1996 Monique Trudelle, Toronto