R . A . F . T . 7 0
«Improvisation is certainly a matter of instinct and instant but for me and for this first creation I wanted to recognize that both of these are never without the past, never unreflecting of anterior influences. The act of theatre itself isn’t unlike this past still within us: both speak through hints and propositions, through occurrences still very alive but never whole in themselves. Both answer to a different reality, calling us to find purpose in them… and find purpose. The tension of this quest is the theatrical object. I wanted for this project that everything brought forward by one player whether dancer, composer, visual artist or lighting designer find meaning only as a doorway for the other’s resonance. Nothing is finished in itself.
Between a beginning and an end that will never quite inscribe themselves in time, between the passing of the spectator, an influential witness, nothing is more tangible than the attention of the one passing. »
– Marc Boivin, Concept and artistic direction
« Sometimes, in order to break new ground and move forward as an artist and as a human being, one has to risk letting go of what is familiar and relinquish a degree of control. Paradoxically, stepping back allows for renewed forward movement and a fresh perspective, and perhaps also allows our past to illuminate our future. Marc Boivin and I had the good fortune of being brought together to teach and perform at the EDAM summer workshop in Vancouver some fifteen years ago. Although Marc and I come from different sides of the artistic street, we have developed a rich artistic alliance, which continues to thrive and grow and a love for the art-of-the-moment, which is based on mutual respect and trust.
I invited Marc to conceive of and direct a piece rooted in the particular work that has fascinated and fuelled my artistic development and my personal life for over thirty years, and which my company promotes and produces: instantaneous choreography. In delegating all the details of the creation to Marc, I am passing on the creative reins to him, while surveying the proceedings from the background, a bit like an elder might do within a community or a general manager within a team of players.»
– Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood, AH HA Productions Artictic Director
Concept and artistic direction > Marc Boivin
Dance improvisation > Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood, Marc Boivin, Lin Snelling, David Rancourt, Maureen Shea
Sound concept and improvisation > Diane Labrosse
Visual concept and video improvisation > Jonathan Inksetter
Lighting improvisation > Yan Lee Chan
Costumes > Danielle Lecourtois
External body > Guy Cools
Production director > Catherine Lalonde
photo credit: Jonathan Inksetter
Feldman/Renaud Project
Jeanne Renaud’s latest creation echoes her fateful encounter with composer Morton Feldman in post-war New York City, when she was only 17 years old. Feldman’s music, which allows ample room for sound, silence, time and space, has struck a chord with her ever since. One of the composer’s last works, For Bunita Marcus, a 77-minute piece for piano, is the catalyst for this creation with two of Renaud’s favourite dancers, Louise Bédard and Marc Boivin.
A man, a woman seen from behind. They are far apart. They walk slowly in the space; they don’t see each other. Yet their movements beckon. Without ever touching, they converse with the infinite nuances of the music, performed live by Claudia Chan, in a delicate alchemy. In the magical Bourgie Hall, bathed in natural light, time is erased… An intimate, minimalist experience made up of silence, mysterious resonances and gentle upsurges that invite deep introspection.
Presentation September 11 and 12, 2021 at 2:30 PM
Bourgie Hall of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Performers: Louise Bédard and Marc Boivin (dance), Claudia Chan (piano)
Jeanne Renaud is a dancer, choreographer, artistic director and administrator born at Montreal August 27, 1928. A major figure in Québec contemporary dance, Renaud was closely associated with the Automatistes. Co-founding, in 1962, L’École de danse moderne de Montréal with Françoise Riopelle, she later founded Le Groupe de la Place Royale, which she directed until 1971. As an arts administrator, she has influenced cultural policy at the Canada Council for the Arts and Québec’s Ministère des affaires culturelles. She also served a term as co-artistic director, with Linda Stearns, of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens.
photo credit Jeanne Renaud : Liliana Reyes, courtesy of Dance Collection Danse
photo credit – sepia and b&w pictures : Marc Boivin
photo credit colour pictures : Claudia Chan Tak
at yes of day - Yvonne Coutts & Sylvie Bouchard
at yes of day is a study in concentration, disturbance, resistance, and acceptance. Through a discourse on presence and using tasks of a day as metaphor, the work is constantly in process. The undefined beginning of the work, decided in part by the audience, leads to a real time sorting of details by the performers. The physicality creates relationships, but the question of time and place is always in flux. The action of remembering becomes a process which imprints memory traces with new elements of sensation, perception, thought, or experience in associative connections.
at yes of day is part of a commissioning project that is comprised of solos and duets of 30 minutes each – intimate encounters created by exceptional choreographers with whom Sylvie Bouchard wanted to journey creatively, enabling all collaborators to discover together.
CREDITS
Choreography: Yvonne Coutts (in close collaboration with the performers)
Performers: Marc Boivin and Sylvie Bouchard
Music Composition: Jesse Stewart
Text: Michael Singer, collaborators
Costumes: Collaborators with Cheryl Lalonde
Sound Unit Construction: Peter Earle
Lighting Design: Jareth Li
©John Lauener
La surface du moment
Presented at the CCOV March 4, 2017
For one night, the CCOV became a creative playground where Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood and Marc Boivin assembled sixteen stage artists to explore – via the body, sound and light – ideas of gathering and passage, and how our individual and collective presence in space and time help define our creative urban identity.
Concept:
Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood et Marc Boivin
Dancers :
Marc Béland, Élise Boileau, Simon Chioini, Paige Culley, Émilie Girard-Charest, Susanna Hood, André Houle, Audrée Juteau, Diane Labrosse, Alexandre St-Onge, Andrew Turner, Angélique Willkie, Jamie Wright, Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood, Marc Boivin.
Technical direction : André Houle
Crying in Public - Tedi Tafel
(translation to come) Les performances ont lieu à différents moments de la journée — tôt le matin, en après-midi, au crépuscule ou le soir —, dans trois quartiers de Montréal — Outremont, Petite Patrie et Parc-Extension. Toutes les danses sont effectuées dans un site différent, y compris un sous-sol d’église, un parc et un terrain vide. Votre billet pour toutes les représentations de cet événement est constitué d’une carte et d’un calendrier. Vous pouvez ensuite décider comment vous souhaitez vous engager dans le projet.
Vous êtes invités à créer votre propre manière de participer à l’œuvre, d’en venir à une partie ou à l’ensemble. La multiplicité des danses est comme les facettes d’un diamant, chacune capturant une partie du sens voulu.
« Les pleurs évoqués dans le titre sont pour l’absence de tout sens du sacré dans nos vies en communauté et mon propre désir de voir les mystères plus profonds de notre expérience humaine se manifester dans la sphère publique Mon souhait avec chaque danse de cette série est de montrer comment tous les lieux sont imprégnés d’une richesse cachée, que nous faisons partie de quelque chose de plus vaste et que ce quelque chose est ancré dans notre quotidien. »
– Tedi Tafel
Conception and Direction – Tedi Tafel
In collaboration with:
Performance – Leslie Baker, Marc Boivin, Bill Coleman, Dean Makarenko and Lin Snelling
Lights – Yan Lee Chan
Music – Ana Dall’Ara Majek
Video – Jonathan Inksetter
Dramaturgy – Guy Cools
Production – Letícia Tórgo
Design – Guto Veneno
In collaboration with Les Escales Improbables and Agora de la Danse
photo credit : Tedi Tafel