I know that a piece of performance art is particularly good when my partner doesn’t look at his watch even once.

He’s not exactly an avid consumer of dance or theatre, so I certainly wouldn’t blame him if he felt a little antsy at certain points and snuck a look at the time. 

But with Côté Dance’s X (Dix), he didn’t need to. Right from the beginning, he was hooked—and for good reason.

The piece, which had its debut Vancouver run at the Playhouse on March 22 and 23, was a mesmerizing, pulsating force. Inspired by the mythical Greek king of Odysseus, it took the audience on its own hero’s journey through the interplay of sweeping, burning, urgent movement.

Company dancers Natasha Poon Woo, Martha Hart, Willem Sadler, Kelly Shaw, and Evan Webb took their jobs to heart, embodying the tragedy, the suffocation, the loneliness, and the joy of finding one’s way home. 

X (Dix) was choreographed by founder and artistic director Guillaume Côté, who dance fans may recognize as a principal dancer with The National Ballet of Canada. With a performance repertoire that is much more classical, I had expected Côté’s own choreography tendencies to lean that way. This was not the case at all, though; instead, the piece planted itself firmly into contemporary ballet territory, with stunning, quirky, and at times even beastly movement (which, of course, never ignored its foundational technique, either).

With simple black costumes and minimal lighting, X (Dix)’s true beauty was its ability to keep us guessing, and to pace appropriately; every time things were just about to feel stale, the music and the tempo changed. It engrossed us, enveloped us, and showed us how to use dance as a vehicle for exploring our own limits. 

“X (Dix)” will be at the HUB International Theatre in Chilliwack tonight (March 25) and the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre in Vernon on March 27.