The Toronto Harbourfront Center production brings together two immigrant experiences to create a symphony of harmonious dance and culture.

Harbourfront Centre's new show is a thought-provoking piece that goes beyond the world of dance to integrate the immigrant experience and cultural understanding.

Deciphers is the venue's latest dance performance and part of the centre's contemporary dance series, Torque. It will be performed and choreographed by independent dance artists Naishi Wang and Jean Abreu.

Wang and Abreu are two artists from very different backgrounds. One was born in China and trained in martial arts and Chinese classical and folk dance, while the other was born in Brazil and studied at the Trinity Laban Conservatory of Music and Dance when he moved to London.

Now, Toronto sat down with the pair to find out what inspired the masterpiece Deciphers and what role they played in shaping their diverse upbringing.

“The first part of our conversation was about translation. We were very interested in this translation idea. Again, it depends on our personality, how it was formed and how early we moved from our native countries to new places to learn dance. As movement artists, it felt like we had a very strong area to explore,” Abreu said.

Van is based in Toronto and Abreu is based in London, England, but when they moved to these countries, it was more than two decades ago and there was nothing like Google Translate.

“…I feel like we wanted to celebrate the immigrant experience 20 years ago, in our time, and from today, to reference the immigrant journey that we both share and why it is so important today. , in Canada, we accept many immigrants and help them adjust to their new home,” Wang said.

At that time, decoding a new culture and understanding a new language was very difficult, especially for people of both colors. Through this experience, the couple heard many assumptions and stereotypes about their identity based solely on their place of birth.

Abreu argues that these assumptions lead to many insecurities and great uncertainty about where they fit, as well as overcompensation and the need for self-establishment.

“…Most of it comes from ourselves, from our thoughts about our own insecurities. We always have to do something to feel like we have to prove ourselves in everything… to be superior to other places, natives, or other people in a higher cultural power structure. So I think that's a way for us to address some of those assumptions,” he explained.

“…This dance we do, Decipherscontemporary art… we wanted to use the uncertainty and confusion between these two places, but again we're not predicting the story or the answer, so we're creating an open feeling for our audience to use. our idea or our body gives its answers,” Wang added.

The modern duet is a visceral exploration of being an outsider and the roller coaster of emotions that comes with it.

“In Decipherwe dwell a little bit on this idea of ​​a sense of disconnection, a sense of understanding, but really full understanding and the embodied experience of not being understood,” Abreu said.

The 60-minute performance mainly uses their bodies as a means of linguistic expression, where two dancers with contrasting dance styles are united as one.

It is an intense physical yet cultural exchange between the dancers and touches on their human nature. From this dance, through the harmonious movements of the two, their own language and communication was born, and mutual artistic understanding was formed.

The dance will be accompanied by spoken word performances by Canadian poet Mark Strand and Brazilian poet Fernando Sabino.

After four years of production, Decipher Tickets from $29 to $79 for the Ontario premiere at the Harbourfront Center Theater on February 8-10 at 7:30 p.m.