Cristina Bucci was having a hard time breathing. The air was heavy and thick, and smoke was rolling in like a fog from the forest fires. Ash coated the British Columbia sun and dulled its shine.
Bucci, in a circle with her fellow dancers, kept going. Their limbs sliced through the hot air, bodies ricocheted off one another, arms seamlessly interlocked and then fanned out like rays of light. Contrasting styles like breaking and contemporary flowed together in natural and reciprocal rhythm.
“When you’re creating a piece that talks about what is happening in the world and then it is happening right in front of you…” Bucci says now, “it was quite emotional.”
It’s been three years since that day in the heat dome—the deadliest weather event in Canadian history. Ouro Collective was recording the short film component of 7y98D, a multidisciplinary project inspired by the impacts of climate change. Much of the dancing seen in the film, shot around Vancouver and directed by Dave Ehrenreich and Jeff Hamada, has been translated to a stage piece that will be performed for the first time in full at this year’s Dancing on the Edge, Canada’s oldest contemporary dance festival.
The work’s title reflects the date the street dance group discovered the New York Climate Clock counting down how much time we have to limit global warming to 1.5°C to avoid an irreversible climate disaster. At that moment in 2020, the clock sat at seven years and 98 days. As we go to press, it gives us a little more than five years to change course.
“There’s a lot of breath in the movement, a lot of the inspiration is coming from nature. The other big inspiration is connectivity. How do we work together to solve these bigger issues?”
The clock fit the dancers’ broader vision perfectly. “We’ve always been interested, in everything that we do—our performances or events—to make them sustainable,” Bucci says. “It’s something that’s been embedded in what we do as a collective.”
Like the collective itself, 7y98D is greater than the sum of its parts. It began with a dream collaboration with world-renowned dancer and choreographer Rauf “RubberLegz” Yasit. Both Ouro and RubberLegz employ genre-defying approaches to movement: for Ouro, that manifests as an amalgamation of the diverse dance backgrounds of its members; the undefinable hybrid style of RubberLegz combines breaking, contortion, contemporary—you name it. Together, the artists developed a piece that emphasizes taking care of both the world we live in and each other.
“There’s a lot of breath in the movement, a lot of the inspiration is coming from nature,” Bucci explains. “The other big inspiration is connectivity. How do we work together to solve these bigger issues?
“That part of the movement inspiration is all about connectivity, working together, working in close proximity. And it’s very articulate and very calculated,” she continues. “RubberLegz was really interested in showing a group of dancers having to understand each other and really listen. That’s a big thing that he would say in rehearsals: ‘really listen to each other, know where all the dancers are in this space.’ Because if one person is off, the connectivity, the whole structure, the whole image dissipates.”
Sometimes when dancing this piece, Bucci adds, it’s hard to know whose hand or leg belongs to whom.
Photo by Jeff Hamada.
As in the natural world, a variety of elements are essential in bringing the work to life. In this case, those elements include an original soundscape composed by Owen Belton, evocative lighting by James Proudfoot, and costumes made from recycled and sustainable materials by designer Jean Okada. It all makes for a powerful storytelling tool that Bucci hopes will leave audiences thinking not only about the climate message but also the importance of togetherness to overcome larger divides in our society.
Unity, after all, is partly what inspired Bucci, Maiko Miyauchi, Rina Pellerin, Dean Placzek, and Mark Siller to co-found Ouro Collective in 2014. A community that celebrates diverse cultural backgrounds, an open framework that exists without the usual structural hierarchies found in dance—no leader, no artistic director—instead everyone on equal ground and combining their individual skills to create something new and beautiful and honest. “We’re just interested, I think, in a different model, different way of working, and the importance of having everyone’s voice be heard,” Bucci says. “And really nurturing each other and supporting each other as artists.”
And, she adds, in learning each other’s dance styles. Movements from each discipline—from hip-hop and popping to waacking—fit together like pieces of a puzzle to create a unique aesthetic that pushes the boundaries of street dance and contributes to the group’s mission of showcasing the limitless potential of how it can be created and presented. Likewise, the creative process isn’t restricted to a one-two-step of choreography and then performance. As exemplified by the multiple parts of 7y98D, it is always a journey that moves across many pathways.
For Ouro, part of this perspective serves to help advance public appreciation of street dance. Bucci remembers how, in Vancouver, when the collective first started performing, the expression could mainly be found at Robson Square, the beloved downtown public space where the local scene thrives in the months with no ice rink.
The Ouro Collective’s latest piece emphasizes taking care of both the world we live in and each other. Photo by Teppei Tanabe.
Indeed, Ouro’s earlier work, Sotto 51, was created in tribute to the urban plaza, combining history, photography, architecture, and interviews with community members. Robson Square has a rich history as an underground hub for dancers, a place to gather and play and express and experiment. But even within that context, and even as street dance in the city grew, Ouro represented something unique.
“We felt that we were really trying something new,” Bucci says. “We had b-boys doing very contemporary movements and just, you know, a different aesthetic that Vancouver, especially the street dance community, hadn’t seen before.”
Over the years, spreading the word of the culture—and Ouro’s innovative approach to it—has manifested as digital and live performances, workshops, classes, and a focus on amplifying young emerging voices. The support of festivals such as Dancing on the Edge, which has long advocated for originality and supported Ouro since their first season, has also allowed the group to share with new audiences how beautifully innovative street dance can be through the lens of a big, international stage. That Ouro Collective is marking its 10th anniversary this year, with a meaningful performance of its most ambitious work yet, feels serendipitous.
Founded in 2014, the Ouro Collective is a non-hierarchical community of dancers who fuse their individual styles of contemporary and street dance to celebrate diverse cultural backgrounds and bring people together. Photo by Teppei Tanabe.
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