HENRI MICHAUX : MOUVEMENTS
about
In 1980, Marie Chouinard discovered the book Mouvements by Henri Michaux (1899-1984). In 64 pages of India-ink drawings, a 15-page poem and an afterword, Mouvements presents multiform figures that Marie Chouinard took pleasure in reading literally, left to right and page by page, as a choreographic score. She then proceeded to decrypt the great artist’s drawings and set dance to these "movements of multiple inkjets, a celebration of blots, arms moving up and down the scales.”
The book’s transition to dance has been done “word for word”, for even the poem in the middle of the book, as well as its afterword, are included in the choreography.
The drawings are projected in the background, allowing spectators to do a simultaneous personal reading of the Michaux score. Echoing the visual presentation of a white page with black drawings, performers dressed in black dance on a white floor.
information
Ballet in one act
Length | 35 minutes
Created at ImPulsTanz, Vienna International Dance Festival, Vienna, Austria, August 2, 2011*
Including a solo created at Cinquième salle, Place des Arts (Montréal) – December 8, 2005
A COMPAGNIE MARIE CHOUINARD production with the support of ImPulsTanz (Vienna)
credits
Choreography and Artistic Direction | Marie Chouinard
Lighting, Set Design | Marie Chouinard
Music | Louis Dufort
Texts and projected drawings | Henri Michaux, from the book "Mouvements" (1951), with the permission of the right-holders Henri Michaux and Editions Gallimard
Lighting, Set Design | Marie Chouinard
Sound environment | Edward Freedman
Costumes | Marie Chouinard
Hairstyle | Marie Chouinard
Translation | Howard Scott
*Dancers for the world premiere | Kimberley De Jong, Leon Kupferschmid, Lucy M. May, Lucie Mongrain, Mariusz Ostrowski, Carol Prieur, Gérard Reyes, Dorotea Saykaly, James Viveiros, Megan Walbaum
press excerpts
« From start to finish, the show may have been the best contemporary dance to come to Pittsburgh in years, The choreography and performance were unrivaled. One goal of Pittsburgh’s “First” festival was to “capture your imagination, challenge you to think BIG, and leave you seeing the world in an entirely new way.” Chouinard’s program did just that. Her work was innovative and hypnotic in a way I had never seen.» Adrienne Totino, Pittsburgh Dance Examiner, Pittsburgh, 2013
« With everything reduced to such inspired essentials, the evening rose to the highest form of art, propelled by a choreographer operating at her creative peak, where we could truly expect the unexpected.» Jane Vranish, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh, 2013