In Dollhouse, contemporary dance master and choreographer Bill Coleman portrays a figure whose whole world is literally falling in around him. Inhabiting an object-laden room that collapses and breaks at his every touch, Coleman shares the stage with avant-garde composer Gordon Monahan and his unique score, which accompanies the dancer’s descent into chaos. The environment seems to move of its own accord as Coleman tap dances through 60 minutes of theatrical disintegration.

Occupying Gordon’s experimental musical soundscape, Coleman plays the role of modern fakir as he suffers through what at times are almost comic situations on his way to sonic and visual pandemonium. Both eye-popping spectacle and unique score, Dollhouse encompasses tap dancing, performance art, and action in which mechanical and electronic objects, both handmade and found, deliver disrupting and surprising rhythms for the ears and eyes.

Presented by the NAC’s Canada Scene in association with the Canada Dance Festival.