Skirting it up in Montreal parks with Colombia-inspired dance

Throughout the summer in parks around Montreal and across Canada, masked women in bright flowing skirts will be performing a sinuous routine inspired by Colombia's national dance — a vibrant, visual feast that can be viewed for free.

"We have big skirts. You have the movement of the hips. It's very joyful, I would say. And very sensual," Laurence Sabourin told CBC Montreal's Daybreak Thursday.

The public performances are being put on by the Montreal-based Danza Descalza collective.

The group researches, creates and shares contemporary dance inspired by Afro-Colombian dances. 

Sabourin, along with Yesenia Fuentes and Andrea Nino, are its main members, and work as choreographers, interpreters and educators.

"The collective's primary objective is to raise awareness and democratize dance with different types of audiences," the group's website states.

They will be performing their dance, AKO, in more than 20 parks this summer.

The performance is inspired by contemporary dance and by Cumbia — Colombia's national dance.

"We allow our bodies to find a vocabulary that for us doesn't exist yet," said Fuentes.

"The most beautiful part that we found is that the interaction that we have with people is kind of the climax of the piece."

Central to the performance, beyond the skirts and masks, is a red string.

There is a tall woman — as tall as two women — and she distributes a red string to the public, passing it around.

Figuratively coming from the womb, the red string represents the interconnection between people and how they relate, said Sabourin. 

"We wanted to somehow attract the eye of people since, in the street, there are so many things going on," Fuentes said. "We created this person who is going to transform during the piece."

Sabourin said people are invited to take part in the dance, which is easy to learn and it creates a unity between strangers of all ages.

"Everybody gets involved and magic happens," Fuentes said, adding that, afterward, the audience can approach the dancers with questions.

The group has several performances scheduled for July before they take the show on the road to northeastern Quebec and then westward to Vancouver. They come back to Montreal again in August.

The group will perform Thursday evening at 6:30 p.m. in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, facing city hall. Then on Saturday, there will be shows at 3:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. in  Saint-Léonard's Luigi-Pirandello Park.