In 2007, Marc Boivin was given carte blanche by Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood to develop an improvisation project for his company AH HA Productions. This process, which gave rise to the piece R.A.F.T. 70, was an epiphany for Boivin, allowing him to tap into the boundless creative potential surrounding him and providing the first glimmerings of what was to become his solo project Impact. With R.A.F.T. 70 he acquired a strong taste for the unpredictable, a state akin to the process of choreographic creation, and confirmed his fascination with others, with exchange and risk-taking. For improvisation to happen, it is essential to allow others to feed it, inhabit it, shape it freely. This experience was a paroxysm for Boivin, a revelation of what, in his view, the choreographic act and the scenic event should be. Those participating in a shared project are communicating vessels, transferring wisdom, information and energy to one another. This is the direction that the dancer wishes to take from now on in his work.
Accompanied by the same three collaborators as in R.A.F.T. 70, Boivin began to develop a solo, his first to be performed by himself. Uncertain as to which theme he wanted to address and faced with endless possibilities, he chose to base his work on a determined process rather than on a specific theme. Guided and nourished by his collaborators, he dove into abstraction, developing sequences and improvisations. The echoes of their voices resonate in his work and their experiences permeate it, bringing forth new visions, which take hold of the creator and have impact on his trajectory.
While Impact started out as an autobiographical tale, it quickly became an investigation of trajectories: the crossing pathways of beings who are in perpetual transformation and who receive the imprints of multiple influences. Working with abstraction and in steadfast collaboration with his artistic allies, Boivin realized that the themes emerging from his efforts were precisely those of exchange, transmission and the contribution of others.
Thus, Impact speaks of connections between people and of the magnitude of their influence on one another. To whom do we owe the person we become? How do other beings collide with our own existence and ultimately, what shapes our identity? One by one, humans participate in the world, leaving behind a signature, a trace that someone else will find and make his own. Their ripples collide and converge, embrace one another, morphing into new influences. Impact is also and above all a body onstage, the body of a dancer who has lived and embodied the contributions of many, and who has been attuned to their diverse voices. A body on and in which this symphony of influences is harmonized and divided.
The research that underlies this creation is also documented and represented in the piece I 13 (square). A related project, whose duration is 13 minutes and 13 seconds, this work can be seen as a visual and danced prologue to the solo Impact.
Go to the I 13 (square) section.
Choreography and interpretation > Marc Boivin
Visual environment and conceptual development > Jonathan Inksetter
Rehearsal mistress and artistic consultant > Sophie Corriveau
Music > Diane Labrosse
Costume > Marc Boivin + Jonathan Inksetter
Original ligthting > Yan Lee Chan
Impact is a coproduction of Series 8 :08 and the Dance department of the University of Calgary and Tangente. The choreographer wishes to thank l’Agora de la danse for the residency that led to to the creation of the solo.
This piece was made possible through the support of the Canada Arts Council and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.
crédit photo : Sandra Lynn Bélanger