SLIP urbanvessel 2006
SLIP urbanvessel consists of writer and actor Anna Chatterton, choreographer Yvonne Ng, composer Juliet Palmer and Christie Pearson. In 2006 they presented SLIP, a site-specific interdisciplinary performance for the Harrison Baths, returning the baths to an open, passionate public life. The act of cleansing is both sensual and spiritual; a bath house is a place we become naked, removing our sweat and public personas. In Toronto, these rituals have almost been forgotten. What would our city look like if we reimagined the bath house as shared public space? The Harrison Baths and Swimming Pool are housed in a 1960s building: an urban oasis providing free showers, swimming, washrooms and laundry facilities. In many cultures, the public bath is the focus of community conversation and exchange. SLIP states, ‘the act of cleansing is both sensual and spiritual; a bath house is a place we become naked, removing our sweat and public personas. In Toronto, these rituals have been forgotten. What would our city look like if we reimagined the bath house as shared public space?’ urbanvessel imagined and then performed a collective history for the Harrison Baths, travelling the labyrinth of the Harrison Baths complex from the tiled lobby, through the gargantuan men’s locker room, to the majestic pool, and finally, through the series of intimate rooms making up the women’s space. With jazz singer and improviser Christine Duncan, opera singer Vilma Vitols, Japanese folk singer Aki Takahashi, and drummer Jean Martin with Louis Laberge-Côté and Susanne Chui who added their bodies and voices to the mix, dance was fused to theatre, music and installation. The music was visceral and vocal, combining body slaps with handheld percussion and the sounds of the space itself. A grimy, razzmatazz Hollywood chorus line, a sparse and intimate Japanese folk song, and opera echoed off the tiles. Sound, mist, water and light transformed the everyday into a dreamlike space.
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