Photo by Yannick Grandmont
Dance Show Of The Year
TORONTO PREMIERE AT LUMINATO
monumental is an explosion of contemporary dance and post-rock music from Vancouver’s The Holy Body Tattoo and Montreal’s Godspeed You! Black Emperor that shatters the façade of capitalist urban culture.
Nine dancers balance on top of illuminated pedestals that resemble a miniature city. A projected backdrop evokes a gritty urban vision. Live music from an eight piece band echoes through the Hearn.
…monumental is a raw, fearless, sometimes harrowing trip in to the darkest corners of our urban, urbane, post-9/11 psyches…
— The Ottawa Citizen
After a 10-year hiatus, Vancouver’s explosive contemporary dance company The Holy Body Tattoo returned to the world-tour circuit, reuniting with Montreal’s post-rock legends Godspeed You! Black Emperor to bring their epic collaboration, monumental, to Toronto.
Together, they hold up a mirror to modern life, exposing mass isolation, oppression, repetition and despair. Movement turns into metaphor and sound into substance as the human need for intimacy and individuality breaks through the noise.
Following a sold-out run in Vancouver, this is a rare opportunity to see Godspeed You! Black Emperor, one of this country’s most legendary and influential musical acts, live in performance with The Holy Body Tattoo. Rocking the Hearn music stage, and monumental in name and resonance, this show is as violent, beautiful and cathartic as art can get.
