It’s important to have a friend when going through endings, says Croatian theatre director and ensemble dance piece choreographer Matija Ferlin. Vancouver International Dance Festival and The Dance Centre presents Ame Henderson Projects + Provincija’s Show Gone (Scotiabank Dance Centre, March 13 and 14)—the last in a triptych of duets created/performed by Ferlin and Canadian choreographer Ame Henderson. 

“It’s an invitation to come and witness it with an open heart and open mind,” Ferlin says. “There’s no doubt that the work will find a way to communicate with you in some way, and you will [leave] the theatre slightly changed.”

Gifting stories

Ferlin and Henderson began working on Show Gone in summer of 2024. They first met in Croatia. The work continued via Zoom rehearsals and another in-person residency in Toronto.

“It’s not about a person coming with an idea and the other collaborator going with that idea,” Ferlin says of their process which involved sharing stories with each other. 

In 2009, they created the first part of this triptych, The Most Together We’ve Ever Been, exploring beginnings. That performance was followed by Out of Season (2015), which focused on continuity.

The collaboration for Show Gone marks the first time in eight years Ferlin and Henderson have seen each other.

“We realized there was a lot to share,” Ferlin says of their creation process. “So, we created a structure where we gift each other various stories from the time that we haven’t seen each other and stories we haven’t shared with each other.”

Meeting once or twice a week on Zoom, they created a list of topics to discuss such as the existential being, loneliness, (dis)trust, activism, social drama, leadership and trans-culturalism.

“While ending something, there is birth in something else,” Ferlin says of Show Gone which reflects on endings. The creators ended up with around 60 stories—approximately 40 made it into the performance. “The work itself is really reflective; it can be read as melancholic and humorous.”

Hybrid spaces

For Ferlin, Show Gone’s humour is about the ability to see lightness rather than making jokes. Both creators are fans of using the spoken word during performances.

“It’s about having a different type of light present in some moments so you can add different colours to physicality and the way you speak,” he shares. “Theatre is not about understanding; it is about experiencing.”

The show also plays with theatrical blackouts. Traditionally, blackouts signal the ending or transitioning of a scene.

“We were working a lot with what it means for the body to start at a certain point, as the lights come on, [and] what kind of transformation does the body undergo once [the scene] needs to end?” Ferlin says.

Their choice of costumes was inspired by an undertaker’s outfit. “I was interested in the subject of service—serving each other in a way,” Ferlin adds.

The duo first met in 2002 at the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam. Ferlin recalls being “strongly connected” to Henderson’s performance from the first meeting.

“We’re both artists working with the body, and we’re in this hybrid project—in between physical theatre, dance and performance art,” Ferlin says. “The unsettling of the genre is what makes it vibrant.”

Ferlin sees their collaboration as enhancing each other’s works. It is not two artists meeting in the middle; rather, it is a sharing of artistic worlds—one that allows them to reach new places.

“You would think of [endings] as a process that is very solitary,” he reflects, adding Show Gone has provided opportunities to collaborate with other Croatian and Canadian artists. “It’s really generous for both of us [to work together] for a year and a half—accompanying each other.”

For more information on the show, see https://thedancecentre.ca/event/ame-henderson-matija-ferlin/.

For more information on Matija Ferlin, see https://matijaferlin.com/. 

For more information on Ame Henderson, see https://amehenderson.com/.