Orange Magpies

Short Description

Dancers in bright orange utilitarian jumpsuits move through the landscape of Vancouver, Canada, acknowledging the traditional territories of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) nations.

Slightly Longer Description

Dancers in bright orange utilitarian jumpsuits move through the landscape of Vancouver. Fast, sharp editing, match-on-action techniques, multiple screens and a driving beat create a structural danced film. Projecting the dances through the cut-out mask of a neoclassical building (the Vancouver Art Gallery) is juxtaposed with the acknowledgement that these dances were shot on sites that are unceded and the traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) nations.

Even More Explanation and Context

The title refers to the association with thievery that magpies hold in European folklore, such as The Thieving Magpie by Rossini (also used in A Clockwork Orange by Kubrick) or Heckle and Jeckle from The Talking Magpies animations of the 1950s. The nest of a magpie is sometimes described as a ‘bed of thievery.’ Physical gestures such as holding one’s hands out before wrapping them away also lend metaphoric meaning, as the improvisational choreography aggressively moves through the different, contested landscapes. The metaphor of the magpie is used through the film, from the title and lyrics of the driving music (Good Morning Mrs Magpie by Radiohead remixed by modeselector), to the impromptu conversation between the dancers about crows (a relation of the magpie). Orange Magpies is an acknowledgement of the legacies of colonialism, and addressing it from the perspective of the settler. The visual transgressions of dance media, that on the surface seem so simple and pleasing, are an entry point for feminists and activists to have their say, an allowance for a complexity of politics, enabled by the moving body through time and space.