The audience floats from nostalgic to the deepest level of hardship in the deepest kind of bond. In the end… the most important message isn’t about the politics of the gay identity. It is about love.
-T.M. Chartrand, Urbanely Urbane
FIRST DANCE Performed by Tottering Biped Theatre, Thursday September 20th, 2012 – at the Kiwanis Theatre (Chatham Cultural Centre). $25
Months after gay marriage becomes legal in Canada, a man prepares to marry his male partner. He enlists the help of his friend and professional dance partner to help him devise the traditional first dance. Through Ballroom Dance and theatre their journeys to adulthood as gay men are explored as they set about creating a dance for a ritual that has no history.
Tottering Biped Theatre (‘TBT’) was founded in 2008 as the first professional theatre in the Burlington area. TBT focuses on contemporary works with social issue themes, and emphasizes highly physical and Canadian devised theatre.
The name of the company was inspired by an influential study on human movement and development, P. Tobias’ ”Man, the Tottering Biped: The Evolution of Posture, Poise and Skill.” Tobias’ theme is that, in terms of evolution and the body, humans have not actually completed the process of being fully ‘bipedal’ or two-legged. We are in mid-process, transitioning, incomplete; we are structurally premature to execute the basic motor functions of living. This is a theatre devoted to evolving.
