The long and winding road

Composer Jacqueline Leggatt bears all to Douglas’

music students

COMP Yac Mase (e reyes

By Angela Espinoza, Arts Editor

nce a semester, the Douglas
C) cies Music programs

play host to an event known
as Composer Tuesday. Composer
Tuesday is when a Canadian
composer outside of the school
lectures students about their music,
their education, their general
backgrounds, and their overall
careers. This semester, the composer
of focus was Head of Theory at
the Vancouver Academy of Music,
Jacqueline Leggatt.

The January 10 event began with
a reading of a Bernadette Mayer
poem, establishing the tone for the
afternoon. The avant-garde poem
was followed by a recording of one
of Leggatt’s modern pieces.

Throughout the afternoon,
Leggatt played several of these
pieces, all of which consisted of
experimental orchestration and
sound mixing. Leggatt’s strengths
at certain points of her career were
expressed based on the order of
these tracks—such as the first two
movements of her string quartet,
“which [she] started writing in 1994
while [she] was still a graduate
student at UBC.”

Leggatt described in great detail
when she first became involved with
music. She was very honest in that
her beginnings were not necessarily
traditional; “I did start piano very

6

 

young... but I was not in a musically-
encouraging home.” She went on to
say that, “my father hated musicians,
and he was convinced that if you
chose music as a career, you would
be a failure.” According to Leggatt,
she often found herself often arguing
with her father about what was
destined to be her chosen path.

Determined to follow her
dreams, Leggatt eventually applied
to McGill University, where she
took various courses for one year as
the only woman in the program. “I
applied to do my [master’s degree]
there, but I was turned down. So I
went to the dean and I showed him
my portfolio... and he said, ‘Oh,
you don’t want to be a composer.”
Well, much to the audience’s delight,
Leggatt, despite getting turned
down from McGill, trudged on and
eventually earned her master’s at
UBC.

Leggatt’s inspirational story
successfully won over the audience
of Douglas’ music students. She
maintained, “don’t let anyone tell
you that it’s not possible,” and
that anyone really can achieve
whatever they pour their hearts into.
Understandably so, Leggatt had
a significantly more difficult time
getting into music than most do
today. Regardless of who tells you
what, always believe in what you do
and who you are.

 

Anywhere but ‘Adhere’

The Contingency Plan fail to impress at the Fire Hall

By David Hollinshead,
Staff Writer

#

fter scurrying through
Vancouver’s sketchy
Eastside to the Fire Hall

Arts Centre for a presentation
of The Contingency Plan’s two
choreographies, Adhere and Las
Tres Maras, [found myself blinded
by the house lights beaming
down from barely a metre above
my head. I was seated in a small
theatre that would probably fit the
description of “off off Broadway,”
despite it being able to contain
nearly 200 people. The seats were
very tightly packed in an attempt
to bring in a bigger audience,
adding to the discomfort of being
in the theatre.

The first half of the show,
Las Tres Marias, opened with one
of the performers talking ina
comedic fashion 4 la 1970s Steve
Martin. The show was heavily
inspired by religious iconography,

to the religious faces printed on
the backs of their vests.

The second act, Adhere, probed
the question “what is it to be
alone?”, and explored the concept.
The curtains re-opened with three
plastic casket-like boxes added to
the stage. The performers either
crawled or walked into these
boxes and seemingly imprisoned
themselves, and eventually each
performer would tell a story
about what it was like for them
to be alone. Each story was more
disturbing than the last, but
added a sort of intrigue for those
who would permit it. With this
group now into their second act,
it was obvious that if you were
going to take anything out of the
show, some imagination would be
necessary on the audience’s part.

To be honest, the second act
was far more interesting than
the first. Of course, this may
have been due to the fact that
Adhere forced me to project my
imagination onto it. Unfortunately,
imagination didn’t save the show,
as things were changed up again

“By the end of the night, the general consensus from the
audience appeared to be confusion, misplacement, boredom,
and maybe even a little irritation.’

making several references to
Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary.
During the first half of the show,
the audience was left completely
unaware as to what was going to
happen next, which wasn’t exactly
the best direction to go. Several
would-be jokes were left unheard,
as the performers either talked
way too quickly or too quietly,
leaving only a strange echo effect.
The group then proceeded to
perform a dance number, which
was noticeably unsynchronized.
Every so often they took breaks
from their dancing to belt out
Disney songs, none of which
seemed to bear any relation to the
show, leaving the audience feeling
awkward and put off.

The slight stage combat
portions incorporated into
the show felt very amateur,
unpracticed even, as the tricks of
the trade shown appeared far too
easy, with an attempt at a face slap
completely missed. However, the
dancers’ costumes during the first
half of the show were colourful
and bright, making this aspect the
most relatable out of anything due

when the dancing eventually
came to a stop and was followed
by what could only be defined

as “choreographed movements”
in the most basic sense: repeated
sequences that dragged on far
too long, testing one’s attention
span. While making use of the
boxes through miming, the second
performance lacked the intricacies
of Las Tres Martas’ costumes,
coming out in what appeared to
be Lululemon v-neck tops and
leggings—perfectly acceptable
for a rehearsal, but not at all
visually appealing for the already
empty black set. By the end of
the night, the general consensus
from the audience appeared to

be confusion, misplacement,
boredom, and maybe even a little
irritation.