Jamee Valin is a veritable bundle of energy sitting cross-legged on the couch opposite me. Moments before she had finished giving final notes on the dress rehearsal of locked on SHUFFLE, Valence Movement’s premiere performance of dance theatre, which received a stunning response after its one-night run at the Winchester Theatre on March 10. In the rehearsal studio she had been all business, exhibiting a calm and focused sense of leadership, giving concise and detailed notes. She then told the dancers to work on those sections for half an hour, all the time she had to give to this writer in her hectic schedule. She expected the work to be done by the time she got back.

Valence Movement represents the culmination of a lifelong dream for Valin. “Ever since I started dancing, for the last 15 years, the goal’s always been to own my own company.” Her perfect mix of initiative and artistic vision is a killer combination in the field of entrepreneurship, learning much from her early career doing solo pieces under Sion Irwin-Childs at the Cabaret at the Rivoli. “It was the first time I was commissioned to do choreography, and it made me realize that I was ready to try a bigger show.”

Valin, still a student in the dance department at George Brown College, used both students and faculty from her program as the cast and crew of locked on SHUFFLE. The logistics of staging an event, however, proved to be a challenge. “In my program they really encourage you to stay together with your peers and make your own companies. But they mostly teach you how to be in a company, not really the production side of dance.” And so Valin intrepidly used a class in which students create a business model for a ‘fake’ dance troupe to create a real business plan for her real show.

Working with a company comprised of close friends presents its own unique opportunities and challenges, Valin admits: “They know that when we’re in the studio, it’s time to work. Outside the studio, I’m still just Jamee. It can be tough sometimes, when friendship comes into it. But we’ve got a pretty good understanding worked out.” Calling herself a ‘sit-back-and-watch’ choreographer, she prefers intuition and spontaneity to planning. This approach means putting her utmost faith and trust in her peers, an idea the detail-oriented Valin had some trouble getting over: “It’s like handing over your child, with the umbilical cord still attached, and saying ‘please take care of this.’”

locked on SHUFFLE was the culmination of ten weeks of work by the eleven-member cast, featuring eleven different solo and group pieces which combined text and movement to tell stories and evoke ideas. Valin credits her attitude toward life with the ultimate idea for the show: “I live one day at a time, everything changing but trying my best to enjoy every minute. It’s like listening to your iPod on shuffle; every song is completely different, but you love them all. And you never know what will come next. It’s okay to not know what comes next; it’s okay to be flawed. I’m not into writing down my piece and then getting up and doing it; I just turn on my music and shake my bum and see what happens.”

The soundtrack for locked on SHUFFLE featured uplifting, soulful and catchy indie pop music from a variety of artists, in keeping with the show’s tagline ‘indie dance? IN TORONTO?’ Valin asserts that despite the popularity of indie music, indie film and other indie cultural art forms, dance has not yet found its place in the scene. It is through this indie appeal that Valin is attempting to reach out to a new audience. “If you’re a guy in a dance audience, then you’re dating a girl on stage. Or your sister’s on stage. Or you’re dating a guy on stage. In any case, you’re not there to see dance. I wanted to approach this show like indie music culture; there people have a drink, they scream, they holler, they get excited. Dance audiences think they need to sit there respectfully and applaud politely. I really, really hope they laugh. Have a little chuckle and see what happens.” This message was further communicated through Valin’s pre-show announcement, telling the audience to shout if they want, to holler if they want.

The audience did certainly respond. The hour-long show was as exciting as it was passionate, the pieces moving along with an ease of arrangement and pace. Even pieces that were cryptic in their meaning were enjoyable to the extreme. The full-house standing ovation that finished the show spoke to the audience’s appreciation of the entertaining Wednesday evening, and our appreciation for the gall it takes to strike out on one’s own in the unforgiving artistic community. Valence Movement has arrived, and if locked on SHUFFLE is any indication, they’re here to stay. “I don’t know what’s going to happen after graduation,” says Valin, “and for the first time, that’s okay.”