Over the past year and a half, and amidst the waves of ongoing uncertainty, our collective relationship to physical touch has been complicated and, perhaps, forever changed. With his new dance experience, Touch, choreographer Guillaume Côté explores the delicate intimacy of human interaction in an environment that has developed hesitancy toward closeness. Embodied within two dancers, Côté’s choreography delves into the evolution of nature through the ebbs and flows of human influence. The narrative itself inspires inward reflection—especially in a period wherein we fear the mere thought of touch—how have we embraced technology in lieu of physical contact?

Influenced by the legendary stage director, Robert Lepage, Côté teamed up with Thomas Payette for the fusion of dance and technology.  In the final stages of development, Côté reveals how directing Touch has changed his artistic relationship to open space, as well as finding harmony between the art of the dance and innovative spectacle.

sM | How did you approach customizing the performance to the Lighthouse Immersive space, balancing the expansive choreography with the logistics of fitting a large audience into the venue?

GC — We’re still fine-tuning. How do we make sure that this very subtle, very delicate interaction they have with each other comes across in this massive warehouse—filled with state-of-the-art projections—and not get drowned out by all of that? We figured out a few of those challenges, but we’re still working. Things like the pillars—we’re considering mirrors on the pillars. Our ideal scenario would have the audience be free to walk around. Now we’re still in the realm of social distancing, so people can’t walk around, so we thought it was safer to have rotating chairs. Ultimately, when the mirrors are put in, the experience gets more fine-tuned.

Dance is this really beautiful thing that when it’s really well-directed, it’s very impactful. It can also fall really flat when it’s not directed well. Even where we are now, we feel we could do better. We’ve successfully incorporated the element of the three-dimensional choreography, which is something that very few people try to do. Choreography very often becomes something that you watch from the front. It becomes this two-dimensional experience, as opposed to being a three-dimensional thing where you watch dancers live. So the adventure of the 45 minutes of Touch, with those two dancers, is just so intense.

People will have to get used to this way of seeing dance and also being in this environment that in itself is the performance, and that is a beautiful thing. You’re coming to live in this space where these two people are having a very intimate experience within this massive world of multimedia. Some of the feedback was “I can’t see the action”, but I say “there’s so much going on around you!” If you just turn your chair, you’ll see a million little details in the projections behind you. You may not see the performers for four seconds, but you are seeing a lot of other things.

It’s like virtual reality, where you have to change your mindset so you’re in charge. You as the viewer are in charge of what you’re looking at and you have to make your own experience meaningful. It’s one thing to say this show is immersive, but it’s another thing to be an audience member at an immersive show. You have to take responsibility to be the one who is curious—what else do they want me to see? That’s part of the learning curve. I’m learning how to craft a show that is not spoon-feeding my audience with “at this moment you look here,” and “at this moment you look over there,” but giving a space an animation that’s always stimulating, with enough that the audience can always have something to look at.