After 18 Months, House at Home in Toronto Job

Christopher House is relaxed, leaning back in his chair, his black-Army-booted feet propped on his desk. Eighteen months ago, he became artistic director of Toronto Dance Theatre, Canada’s largest modern-dance troupe, and the new job is beginning to fit like a favorite pair of jeans.

After performing at home this winter on the heels of a successful New York engagement, “a number of people came to me and said, ‘It really is your company now,’ ” House said recently.

It has become House’s company gradually. It was in 1978 that he first danced with the troupe, which makes its Greater Los Angeles debut tonight at Pepperdine University in Malibu and then appears at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa on Saturday.

Soon after, in 1981, he joined TDT’s three founders, all Martha Graham disciples, as a resident choreographer. He took over the top spot in 1994 after a short stint as associate artistic director.

House is credited with the 14-member ensemble’s artistic revitalization. Before he joined, TDT had essentially been a respected Grahamesque showcase.

But with House, “the company suddenly acquired the look of surprise,” William Littler, the Toronto Star’s dance and music critic, wrote in the New York Times in 1991. “The dancers speeded up, delivered their messages more clearly. They were basically concerned with dancing itself, rather than the dramatic and emotional issues explored by the founders.”

New York Times dance critic Anna Kisselgoff has described House’s choreography as “downright startling--spewing forth a kinetic brilliance in the form of energy and continuum.”

The fastest-paced dance House ever crafted is among five pieces TDT will perform here on a program, which, like the troupe’s repertory these days, is dominated by his work. (Co-founder and artist-in-resident David Earle provides the program’s only other offering.)

“Glass Houses” (1983) “is about virtuosity, speed and endurance,” House said, qualities he has tried to bring to the 27-year-old company, on and off stage.

“I’m not sure I consciously tried to change anything,” the soft-spoken Newfoundlander said in a telephone interview from his Toronto office. . . . But “I definitely brought a younger and fresher energy, let’s say, because I was really new to the business and had not been through all the ups and downs.

“I think the founders, all of whom have done wonderful work and continue to be quite impassioned, were all at various levels of burnout when I arrived, and that’s probably why there was a place for my works on the program almost immediately.”

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House, 40, has aggressively sought to give TDT dancers a more unified style, particularly because his approach stressed formal concerns over storytelling.

“I’m more specifically inspired by music, and my work is about an approach to movement that is much more abstract, although there are certainly Expressionist elements. My dances are always about dancing, rather than starting out with a specific theme and subject matter dealing with a linear idea and narrative.”

He further describes his choreography as low on theatrical elements such as spoken text or elaborate costumes and sets. He cites as influences ballet, Limon and, of course, Graham. House, who has created works for other troupes including National Ballet of Canada, didn’t start dancing until he was 20. While majoring in political science, he took an actor’s movement class and “about 20 minutes into it I realized it was exactly what I was looking for.”

He began to choreograph for TDT while earning a master’s degree in dance from Ontario’s York University. He took over as TDT artistic director only with the proviso that he’d be chief choreographer.

“I didn’t want to run a company so much as to have a vehicle for what I was exploring [as a choreographer]. It’s been important to have that concentration to clarify the values of the company.”

That concentration will be somewhat diluted, though. Next year, outside choreographers will contribute to a contemporary-music project the company plans (it now dances to pieces by such composers as Steve Reich and Canada’s Ann Southam). House expects a number of company members to eventually contribute works to its repertory.

House won’t dance with the company here and said he plans to end his performing career this year. “Things are changing and will continue to,” he said.

That’s appears to be true on the business side as well, what with recent massive reductions in Canadian governmental arts funding, he said. TDT, which operates on $700,000 annually, already has had to trim its season from 33 to 30 weeks.

According to House, the company could lose as much as 15% of its budget. “That would change the shape our company because we are so bare-bones at this point.”

A depressing thought, mitigated, however, by the company’s current acclaim, perhaps its greatest to date, according to the Toronto Star’s Littler. TDT has visited Poland, Japan and China in recent seasons.

“We’re touring probably more than we ever have,” House said, “and it’s always great to come to the U.S. because American audiences are wonderful. Canadian audiences are a little more reserved.”

* Toronto Dance Theatre performs tonight at Pepperdine University’s Smothers Theatre, 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu. 8 p.m. $25. (310) 456-4522. Also Saturday at Robert B. Moore Theatre, Orange Coast College, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa. 8 p.m. Advance tickets, $21-$24, are available at OCC’s Community Education Ticket Office today and Saturday; $28 at the door. (714) 432-5880.