Inspired and interpreted by Marc Boivin
For the past ten years, creator and choreographer Sarah-Ève Grant has been working on a portrait series of artists from different fields, with a specific curiosity about the people behind the art. What happens when an artist teaches and devotes their life to dance? Sarah-Ève’s work Moins au sujet de moi turns to dancer and teacher Marc Boivin. Walking the line between truth and fiction, the choreographer uses documentary fiction to show a kind of behind the scenes, share secrets, and reveal the infinitely small.
Sarah-Ève Grant
Choreographer
Sarah-Ève Grant is a choreographer and dancer. In 2009, she received her bachelor’s in dance with a specialization in choreography from UQAM. She launched her professional career with Un jour, mon père m’a dit (2010), presented as an opening act for Dave Saint-Pierre. Usine C’s 3rd Floor residencies hosted her for Note à Moi-Même (2011). She presented Dans le cercle (2012) and Le Guillaume Lambert Show (2015) at Tangente, and then Série Portraits (Note à Moi-Même, Jérémi Roy est un Homme Libre and Le Guillaume Lambert Show) at the OFFTA in 2014. In 2017, Corpuscule Danse commissioned her for the project Quadriptyque. She is currently working on Moins au sujet de moi, her most recent portrait of the dance artist and teacher Marc Boivin.
Artistic intent
‘Everything began with an email I wrote to Marc Boivin. We had coffee and discussed my portrait project. I offered to begin the process by observing his dance technique classes. I watched approximately 30 of Marc’s classes over the course of a year, for a total of 60 hours. I experienced every moment in class with Marc as a genuinely pleasurable performance. During our first research period in the studio, we talked. It was my opportunity to learn about him, his teaching career, and his path. I asked a lot of questions, and his answers always inspired me. I recorded our conversations, watched him, asked for his opinion, listened. I gradually confirmed that my choreographic lens would consider his teaching practice. We became closer through the research process. Today, the work is a multiplicity of layers, and only a small fraction of them are perceptible to audiences. I still have my observations notes, the theories supporting Marc’s teaching, concepts around learning, terms, audio recordings, conversations, writings, definitions. I am grateful to you, dear audience, for witnessing us at this point in our process.’ — Sarah-Ève Grant
Practical Informations
Dates
Oct. 2022, 21 – 5 pm
Oct. 2022, 22 – 11 am + 8 pm
Oct. 2022, 23 – 3 pm
Nov. 2022, 18 – 5 pm
Nov. 2022, 19 – 11 am + 8 pm
Nov. 2022, 20 – 3 pm
Get to
Studio 303
372 Sainte-Catherine West – 3rd floor
Montréal, QC H3B 1A2
Box office
Danse-Cité : (514) 525-3595
https://danse-cite.org/en/billetterie
Rates
Regular : 28 $ | Discounted : 24 $
Accompanying person (for spectators with a disability) : 0 $
Accessibility
https://www.studio303.ca/en/physical-location/
Duration of the show
60 minutes
Team
Sarah-Ève Grant — Choreography
Marc Boivin — Performance
Bertil Schulrabe — Percussion
Martin Sirois — Lighting design
Annik Hamel — Rehearsals
Carmen Ruiz — Artists support
Clémence Lavigne — Production direction
Lee Anholt — Technical direction
Video — Jean Martin | Soundtrack — Bertil Schulrabe | Voice — Marc Boivin
Images — Jean Martin
Partners and supports for creation — OFFTA, La Serre Arts Vivants, Circuit-Est centre chorégraphique, Usine C
The creation of this work was made possible thanks to the financial support of: Conseil des arts du Canada.
A presentation Danse-Cité
A coproduction Sarah-Ève Grant & Danse-Cité
When he’s not creating and rehearsing in the studio, dancer Marc Boivin spends a lot of time teaching dance. His role as a teacher is the focus of a new work by choreographer Sarah-Ève Grant, to be presented in fall 2022.
Process and timeline:
This work is part of a series of portraits of individuals and artists from different backgrounds. The series has been in the making for about 10 years. The portrait of Marc Boivin was started in 2016.
2016:
Sarah-Ève attended several of Marc’s classes as an observer (roughly 30 classes, for a total of 60 hours of observation).
Fall 2017:
First period of creation in the studio: extensive discussions between Marc and Sarah-Ève.
Winter 2017:
Period of creation with Marc, a group of 10 dancers and one musician. Essentially a dance class on stage.
Spring 2018:
Another creative session with same number of dancers—only this time, all the rules were thrown out the window! Marc was no longer the teacher, technique no longer mattered, and the students became performers.
Spring 2018 to Summer 2020:
Period of reflection.
Sarah-Ève: “I decided to focus only on Marc, as we had planned at the beginning. I had amassed a huge amount of information, which I needed to organize: observation notes, descriptions of Marc’s classes, learning concepts, terms, recordings, discussion notes and transcripts, texts, definitions.”
January 2021:
Back to the studio to finish Marc’s solo creation on the transmission of knowledge and the ways in which learning and performing shape the human experience.
photo credit : Sarah-Ève Grant-Lefebvre