Les jolies choses
Created in
2022
Intake of Air
Five bodies move to the rhythm of a metronome. Their mechanical gestures are endlessly reprised, the machine runs wild and demands their absolute compliance. With her ripened artistic language, choreographer Catherine Gaudet seeks a space within bodies where desires can be reborn despite the burden of constriction.
This seemingly harmless collective score, with its orderly routes, gives off a scent of cheap veneer that will soon end up cracking. Attuned to the conflicting throbbing of her era, Gaudet surrounds herself with her loyal collaborators to explore the false pretenses of the show business apparatus. After a while, repetition reveals itself to be the troublemaker among the dancers-turned-instrumentalists. It pushes open the whistling valve to release the excess vapour of salted bodies. Indeed, de-pressure is the flip side of grandiosity. Here, the risk of tastelessness is all too real, but necessary in order to maintain balance.
« Sharing complexity also means relying on a detached perspective, but that doesn’t prevent us from drawing a historically validated line between unjust power and legitimate resistance. »
Catherine Gaudet
Teaser © Julie Artacho
Choreographer Catherine Gaudet
Dancers Francis Ducharme, Caroline Gravel, Leïla Mailly, James Phillips, Scott McCabe
Music Antoine Berthiaume
Lighting Design Hugo Dalphond
Costume Design Marilène Bastien
Rehearsal Sophie Michaud
Production and Technical Direction François Marceau
Co-production Festival TransAmériques, Agora de la danse, Centre Chorégraphique National de Caen, The CanDance Network (Toronto), National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Harbourfront Center (Toronto), DLD-Daniel Léveillé Danse