events and performances
time for time
Live participatory performance on Zoom
World premiere on September 17, 2020
The COMPAGNIE MARIE CHOUINARD is pleased to present a dance performance event that resonates with the existential questions that inundate our lives.
Over three days, according to schedules adapted to audiences all over the world, the dancers of the Compagnie Marie Chouinard take turns interacting with the audience via Zoom.
These spontaneous dance performances take their inspiration from a heartfelt wish that a member of the audience confides to a performer. In response to this desire, this first step, the dancer plays the role of medium between the forces of life and the unconscious mind of the person who has made the wish, initiating a flow of energy, a movement towards a possible enactment of change. After performing this kind of incantatory dance, reminiscent of the Pythia in ancient Greece, performers take time to regenerate their bodies and minds before undertaking a new performance.
The performer “replies” to each wish expressed with a solo dance which lasts for approximately tree minutes.
On each of the three days, members of the audience are able to view all the dances and all the sharing of wishes.
This moment of exchange is our gift to you. Take the time. Time for Time.
Time for sharing,
time for hope,
time for intimacy,
time for change,
time for introspection,
time for joy,
time for you!
A COMPAGNIE MARIE CHOUINARD production, in collaboration with the Beijing New Dance Festival (Beijing, China), Biennal Internacional de Danza de Cali (Cali, Colombia), the Broad Stage (Santa Monica, USA), Canadian stage (Toronto, Canada), the Centre des arts Juliette-Lassonde (Saint-Hyacinthe, Canada), Conjunto de Artes Escenicas (Guadalajara, Mexico), the Cultural Secretariat of Mexico City (Mexico City, Mexico), Danse Danse (Montreal, Canada), Dance Umbrella (London, United Kingdom), The Domaine Forget de Charlevoix (Saint-Irénée, Canada), GuiDance Festival (Guimaraes, Portugal), Istanbul Theatre Festival (Istanbul, Turkey), the Maison des Arts de Laval (Laval, Canada), the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (Montreal, Canada), the National Arts Centre (Ottawa, Canada), New Dance Horizons (Regina, Canada), the San Javier festival (San Javier, Spain), Seoul International Dance Festival (Seoul, South Korea), Trafó House of Contemporary Arts (Budapest, Hungary) and the Théâtre de la Ville (Longueuil, Canada).
Length | 3 hours
Concept | Marie Chouinard
Dancers (alternating) | Michael Baboolal, Adrian W.S Batts, Jossua Collin Dufour, Valeria Galluccio, Motrya Kozbur, Luigi Luna, Sayer Mansfield, Celeste Robbins, Carol Prieur and other guest dancers
jardin de sculptures éphémères - acte 1
Live performance for live broadcast
World premiere on June 30, 2020 at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
Two dancers move slowly on rectangular wooden blocks which act as bases before being intimately integrated into their bodies. The music follows the refined detail of their movements, making it heard what the two dancers perceive, in a mesmerizing progression, a dramatic rise where their supple flesh intimately meets the edges of the pedestals.
A COMPAGNIE MARIE CHOUINARD production
Length | 23 minutes
Conception and choreography | Marie Chouinard
Performers | Motrya Kozbur and Clémentine Schindler
Original music | Louis Dufort
Set design | Marie Chouinard
Costumes | Marie Chouinard
In museum
Installation and solo performance
Created at Musée d'art Contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul as part of the 30th International Symposium of Contemporary art of Baie-Saint-Paul, Québec, Canada, August, 31, 2012
IN MUSEUM is held in a place where the public freely circulates. A visitor is invited to enter a designated space and share discreetly a hope or a wish with the dancer. From each exchange a
personalized reply will result, a free dance of dazzling spontaneity that conjures up powers to make the wish come true.
IN MUSEUM evolves over each progressive exchange between artist and visitor. Between each encounter, the dancer takes a moment to refocus before again giving form and shape to the
invisible. “The present is our only eternity,” said Marie Chouinard when she created this performance in 2012.The performance brings to mind the white-clad Pythia, the prophetess of Delphi. This
ancient Greek figure delivered her prophecies in a trance like state and in a language that only priests of the temple knew how to interpret. The history of Pythia and the act of divination may
remain a mystery, but the inscription at the entrance to Apollo’s temple at Delphi has lost none of its truth: “Know thyself and thou will know the universe and the gods.”
A COMPAGNIE MARIE CHOUINARD production.
Length | 3 hours
Creation | Marie Chouinard
Performer | Marie Chouinard
Costumes and props | Marie Chouinard (with the help of Jacinthe Loranger for the costumes)
IN MUSEUM V2
Performance
Originally performed by Marie Chouinard in a 3-hour solo, always in a public place, IN MUSEUM is now also being presented by the dancers of COMPAGNIE MARIE CHOUINARD, who replace each other in
turn throughout the performance.
“The present is our only eternity.” - Marie Chouinard
A visitor is invited to share discreetly a hope or a wish with the dancer. From each exchange a personalized reply will result, a free dance of dazzling spontaneity that conjures powers to make the wish come true. IN MUSEUM V2 evolves over each progressive exchange between performer and visitor. Between each encounter, the dancer takes a moment to refocus before again giving form and shape to the invisible.
The performance brings to mind the white-clad Pythia, the prophetess of Delphi. This ancient Greek figure delivered her prophecies in a trance like state and in a language that only priests of
the temple knew how to interpret. The history of Pythia and the act of divination may remain a mystery, but the inscription at the entrance to Apollo’s temple at Delphi has lost none of its
truth: “Know thyself and thou will know the universe and the gods.”
A COMPAGNIE MARIE CHOUINARD production.
Length | 3 hours
Creation | Marie Chouinard
Performance | COMPAGNIE MARIE CHOUINARD's dancers
Costumes and props | Marie Chouinard
La nuit ensoleillée
Nocturnal performance-happening
Created at Espace Marie Chouinard, Montréal, Canada, June 21, 2011
A nocturnal performance that celebrates the summer solstice, the shortest night of the year. From dusk until dawn, dancers perform structured improvisations in an intimate and unusual setting celebrating light, emotion, serenity and even drowsiness and where the public is free to come and go as they please.
A COMPAGNIE MARIE CHOUINARD production
Length | Approx. 7 hours
Creation | Marie Chouinard
Dancers | The dancers of Compagnie Marie Chouinard and guest dancers
morning glories : ) - ( :
Solo
Created at Espace Marie Chouinard, Montréal, Canada, May 27, 2009
This solo marks Marie Chouinard’s return to stage after 20 years. It was presented for the first time on May 27, 2009 at Espace Marie Chouinard (Montreal, Canada).
morning glories will always be peformed at 8:00 a.m. in unusual settings rather than conventional performance spaces.
The morning glory (Ipomea) is a plant native to America, a climbing weed whose flowers open in the morning and live only a day… But it produces new flowers each day all summer long. Its seeds, if ingested in large quantities, produce hallucinogenic effects comparable to those of LSD.
« …could you be interested by a simple shift of weight, a sudden delicate angle, silences of the body that reflect fine threads stretching out towards absolute time, thought that circulates from one gesture to another, a wordless intelligence ?…
It has been getting itself ready for twenty years, this solo - getting me ready for twenty years. It was already there, an almost-nothing happening, a one-way return forging straight ahead. I return to home ground. Nothing catapults along, it all comes forth in a slow-breathing rhythm, falls into place. My dance comes to find me, peaceful, unhesitating.
There is always a division of self when I dance.
I talk about the person dancing as She.
I will choreograph for her, she is fragile, I have to be careful.
For no particular reason, twenty years ago, she withdrew for awhile.
I have to set things up so everything’s OK for her.
She wants nothing from me, OK, I tell her OK.
She wants people to see only her soul, I say : OK, I’ll do my best. »
Marie Chouinard
A COMPAGNIE MARIE CHOUINARD production
Length | 50 minutes
Conception, choreography and set design | Marie Chouinard
Performer | Marie Chouinard
Original music | Louis Dufort
Lighting | Caroline Nadeau et Marie Chouinard
Costumes | L Vandal
Make-up | Jacques-Lee Pelletier