Dangerously ADDICTED
The House of Dangerkat is not your typical dance team emerging onto an already crowded scene; in fact, it's more of a creative force. Merging dance, fashion and visual arts under one roof, the House of Dangerkat embodies immense artistry, intensity and innovation, redefining the concept of performance art.
Since its formation in 2007, the House of Dangerkat (HOD) has used its unique blend of contemporary dance, voguing, wakking, hip hop and dancehall to launch its signature dance style and push the boundaries of the art world. Its latest multimedia production, ADDICTED, consists of a dance performance supplemented with photography, live art and video. With ADDICTED, House of Dangerkat has created a platform for various artistic mediums to evolve into a new and groundbreaking form.
“Being from Calgary, the dance community is small, so when putting together ADDICTED, I was able to gather dancers who expressed their interest in the production as well as dancers I have worked with in other productions,” said Kaiti Dangerkat, founder and creative energy behind House of Dangerkat. Kaiti birthed the dynamic concept through her passion of dance, knowledge of art and vast social network. It was while getting her BFA in visual arts in her hometown in Canada that Kaiti came up with the approach of presenting her visual work through the art of dance. It was only natural for her to join forces with other artists who shared similar passions to create a collection of artists now known as the House of Dangerkat.
“ In art school, my network had always been collectively composed of other artists,” explains Kaiti. “From graphic designers, dancers to DJs, it was only right that naturally these artistic mediums would come together.” House of Dangerkat currently has a creative team composed of costume designers, stylists, make-up artists, graphic designers, a videographer, photographer and dancers. Under the direction of Kaiti, HOD has gained international recognition performing across the globe at Paris Fashion Week for names like Colette and London Fashion Week for names like Vivienne Westwood and Nova Dando.
As international attention heightens, the group’s main focus is always to grow and push boundaries. “We are always finding ways to take dance performance to another level,” said Kaiti. In continuously finding ways to push the movement in ADDICTED, Kaiti works closely with choreographer, HOD performer and friend Jenn Doan.
“With Kaiti bringing her aesthetic and her accessibility that her dance form has and revealing that, I think with us working together I’m bring contemporary viewers and Kaiti is bringing urban dance viewers,” said Doan in a HOD production video “The Makings of ADDICTED.” “It is something that is being brought together and taken to another level in terms of stage performance.”
When creating the movement for ADDICTED, Kaiti explains how the performance and choreography also influenced the fashion aspect of the production. “I wanted to be creative as well as bring forth emotion. I wanted the movement to represent us freeing ourselves, so when it came to clothing I wanted us to be able to remove our garments.” The costumes worn by the performers are avant-garde; each piece has strong geometrical shape while some pieces look like creatively crafted armor. Together the movement and the fashion spark a kind of emotion and conviction that make for a captivating performance.
As House of Dangerkat continues to inspire others in the artistic world, Kaiti looks to other dancers as well as HOD dancers (whom she calls co-creators) to fuel her own inspiration.
“We are currently holding dance workshops in Canada and it allows me to teach and that in itself is inspiring to me” said Kaiti. “As a teacher you see how much people are eager to learn but you yourself are learning as well. I love being a student; I will be one for the rest of my life. The kind of exchange you have when teaching is amazing.”
As far as the new heights her inspiration is taking her, she says: “Next I want to conquer the music aspect. I’ve conquered the movement, costume design and visual aspect but, now I want to work with producers to create a sound that is more personal and my own. It isn’t going to be easy, it’s going to take some time but that is what I would like to do.”
Seems like the sky’s the limit for HOD and as they continue to shatter grounds in the art world, we will watch on, ADDICTED to every creative realm they seem to capture next.
(Photo credit: www.DANGERKAT.com)
