Montreal-based dance company Animals of Distinction will make its U.S. premiere at Centennial Hall on Friday,  Nov. 1,  with “Frontera,” a work that delves into borders as physical structures and barriers to human interaction.

Arizona Arts Live is bringing the 10-member multimedia  dance troupe to Tucson ahead of its New York City show at the Brooklyn Academy of Music next weekend. 

In “Frontera,” choreographer and troupe founder Dana Gingras delves into the complexities of inclusion and exclusion, examining borders not just as physical boundaries but as barriers between public and private spaces. 

“I guess it started from an exploration, an investigation into the idea of liminal spaces. Spaces that are threshold between what is known and what is unknown,” Gingras said. “With the idea of thresholds came borders, borders that move through us and borders that are around us. …  The big question for me became, where does the body find space to be free? And how do we transcend and move through our own internal borders, not just physical borders, in the world.” 

Gingras formed Animals of Distinction in her native Montreal, Canada, in 2006. The troupe has taken its cutting-edge performances throughout Canada, Australia, Abu Dhabi and Berlin, but never America. 

In addition to Gingras’s choreography, the show includes a stunning light show created by United Visual Artists that blends perfectly with the intense, live music of Fly Pan Am and ambient recordings by Dave Bryant from Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Together, they combine dance, architecture and sound to create a powerful, immersive experience.

“I think the musical component of the show is really interesting,” Gingras said. “You’re getting a concert there as well as a dance show. … I always like to be able to bring different collaborators together, to be able to expand the possibility of what dance can be and how the body is seen. Whether it’s with music or visual collaborators, it’s just being able to kind of open up the world of dance to people that might not be used to going to see dance shows.”  

In her creative process, Gingras drew inspiration from parkour, known as the “art of displacement,” focusing on how it accesses spaces typically off-limits. The goal was to create lines of desire through urban environments, exploring movement beyond physical and social barriers. While the piece isn’t strictly parkour, it uses dance to capture its spirit.

It’s no coincidence that “Frontera” will make its U.S. debut in Tucson, a city shaped by its proximity to the border. 

Chad Herzog, Arizona Arts Live executive director, first experienced the show in January 2020 and aimed to bring it to Centennial Hall that fall. But those plans were derailed by the pandemic. 

“This is a long time in the making,” Herzog said. “Our audience looks like Tucson. Our audience feels like Tucson so that means that over 30% of the audience is made up of students. But we  have people from all over Southern Arizona that will come to this because this is the only place it’s performing outside of New York in the U.S. right now. We have people coming in from Phoenix, California and Texas to see this.” 

The lighting design, which is used in the absence of on-stage props, creates visuals that evoke prison bars, surveillance and the theme of power.

“It’s an interesting way to look at what’s happening with our borders in this country, but not being told by and through a U.S. voice. And it’s not just being told by this Canadian dance company and Canadian band; there’s also United Visual Artists, which is UK based,” Herzog said. “These are people telling a story that we can all relate to. What is it like to have space that is managed by a body, where people are trying to monitor everything we do, using data to gather information, trying to look at how we ourselves navigate the passage of the world.” 

Arizona Arts Liv’s motto is to “experience the unexpected,” and Herzog said he believes this show is no exception. 

“We really hope that people are going to feel,” Herzog said. “We don’t tell people what we want them to feel or what we expect them to feel, but I can tell you that after you see this piece or any of the pieces that we put on stage, you’re going to feel something.” 

Animals of Distinction will perform “Frontera” at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd. on the University of Arizona campus. Tickets are available for $29-$49 online.

Arizona Sonoran News is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.