After every performance, the audience exits into a space where a couple of Guestbooks are laid out. Some people write in them; some don’t. Some send emails which are then taped into the books.

 

WIT IN LOVE (2010)

• Phillip Barker enjoyed himself but words are not enough, I cannot explain how much I loved this. ( Phillip Barker)

• Always interesting to see life and death from both sides (now). Always different - thanks. A Tour de Force! ( Vanessa Harwood)

• Spectacular! Wow wow wow! You just made my year. Mad Love!!
  ( Lee Towndrow)

• A moving meditation. I could spend years in the room listening.
  (Cynthia Grant)

• I loved the show!!! The precision, presence and joyful delight gave me much pleasure. One of the best shows I’ve seen in Toronto. Thanks so much. Bravo! ( Bobby)

• Wow. That was strange. I wasn’t sure if I’d make it out alive, but I’m glad I did.  ( Lonny Knapp)

 

she alone (2007)

• I wanted to tell you that I put my finger on the quality that is perhaps what I appreciate most about your work (at least in summation – there are other things I like about it as it goes along), and that is the silence that follows.  I got onto the streetcar home before I realized no one had clapped.  Sometimes clapping is a wonderful thing, but it is not always right.  You let us out of the obligation, and I do applaud you for it, now, and wish to applaud the performer as well.
  
  
• I’m sad and I’ve lost my equilibrium.
  
  
• During the whole performance I had the impression of looking at a Vermeer picture that became alive. (Angelika Betzold)
  
  
• Noone’s ever communicated so much by saying absolutely nothing at all.  (Tiffany Mosher)
  
  
• This was a refreshing break from most site-specific performances attempting to liberate the spectator from passivity to activity - but in actuality to the opposite.  Refreshingly draconian.
  
  
• Like silent Kaspar Hauser.
  
  
• It was quite difficult to watch for me.  This was exactly how my daughter behaved after her dad died.  (Theresa Przybylski)

 

I OF THE BEHOLDER - ballet bagatelle (2006)

• Brutally beautiful  -  love the cast  (Kathleen Smith)
  
  
• I beheld a dialogue between a sincere admiration and critique of the confines of classical ballet.  I enjoyed the hypnotic and humour of it.  The dancing was beautiful.  (Henry Sansom)
  
  
• Hillar - Here is the thing about all of your work.  It’s like sitting at one of the finest restaurants and being blindfolded.  There is always an anticipation, an openness, a willingness for surprise.  Willingness, anticipation of the unknown.  The rigorous discipline, the commitment, the definition of movement and the lines that those girls committed themselves to.  It was lush and encoded. (Cheryl Daniels)
  
  
• I loved your show last night.  It was truly a wonderful experience.  Totally engaging and smart and beautiful and harsh, in the best way - so dark and original and witty.  You are doing dance but you are commenting on dance.  You really are avant-garde in the true and best sense of the word. Questioning the form as you work within it, you are thus also outside it.  (Sky Gilbert)
  
  
• What you made those girls do on stage was filthy ... and beautiful.  Every time that brunette was at the front of the stage, slowly lunging down, then slowly rising up, I couldn’t help but blush.  I spent the afternoon watching World Cup soccer, and the evening’s performance led me to a meditation on the fierce beauty of the ideal human form - the soccer boys and your ballet girls odd, but apt, counterparts.  Both graceful and ruthless.  Thank you for once again wrenching me out of my mundane routine and surroundings, and deliciously confusing my senses.  (Clarissa DeYoung)
  
  
• It was such a treat to see something that was so acutely beautiful in so many ways.  (Lauren)

 

I KNOW AND FEEL THAT FATE IS HARSH BUT I AM SO LOATH
TO ACCEPT THIS - radical ballet (2004)

• I am exhausted in the most beautiful way – exhausted soul…  I’m giggling inside.  Shaky.  Trembling. Thank you everyone.  I will never forget this or forget this feeling. (Ian Carpenter)
  
  
• I am still thinking of the sweet smell of petrified lime, of the constellation of light bulbs, of the far-off and up-close music… the artists you gathered are incredible… and YOU are inspiring with so boundless a vision… I admire your refusal to be confined by the expectations of others and of form... your work is brave and bold and provocative and has the power to make people stop and think… feel extremely.  (Heidi Strauss)
  
  
• So moved… so moving… so beautiful  (Pia Boumann)
  
  
• Surprising, painful, beautiful…  (Clarissa D.)
  
  
• Wonderful!  (Diana Leblanc)

 

THE OBSERVATION (2002)

• The last space – this death room – is my fave. The smell, the heat, the music, the mood make me want to stay and run at the same time. A visceral experience . . . Thanks for taking me out of me and back again.  (Rebecca Burton)

• Like the death of the Mermaids, I want to dance between the shells for them.
  
  
• An achingly beautiful elegy – redolent with the smell of decay but fragrant with the aroma of growth. You keep art meaningful for me. Thanks Hillar. (Rose Jacobson)
  
  
• Normally theatre is a gift, something shared.  This though, is something taken from us.

• Gorgeous, truly alive, I am awake now without the coffee and crying with the joy of life.  Thank-you.
  
  
• The Observation brought me out of a haze that I have lived with for so long and reminded me that I need to feel beyond my boundaries …

• I walked all the way to Bathurst barefoot until I remembered my shoes were in my bag.  Yes, it had that effect.  (Atom Egoyan)
  
  
• The only time I actually believe in the possibility of transcendence is when I am in the presence of DNA.  (Paul Leonard)