Montreal-based Marie Chouinard is known around the world as an inventive and fiery performer/choreographer of contemporary dance.
The New York Times has called her work “a hurricane of unbridled imaginativeness,” while the Globe and Mail has declared her shows to be a, “grand adventure for the viewer.”
Having performed several times in Ottawa over the years, this renowned artist is now back with Compagnie Marie Chouinard, the dance company she founded in 1990, as she presents two of her recent works at the National Arts Centre for a one-night only performance on Saturday, January 17.
The show promises to be a stunning combination of art and music.
The first piece, Henri Michaux : Mouvements, was inspired by the 1952 book Mouvements by surrealist painter, writer and poet Henri Michaux. The book contains ink-drawings that in Chouinard’s imaginative mind can be seen as a visual representation of a choreographed dance.
As projections of Michaux’s drawings are displayed on the back of the stage, the dancers use their bodies to mirror and mimic the surreal shapes. The result is like watching human bodies contort, shake and twist themselves until they have become an abstract painting.
The second piece, Gymnopédies, is a gorgeous work that combines music with gentle and sensual body movements that explore the work of composer Érik Satie. In this piece each performer takes turns playing the piano, while the other dancers move in erotic and tender movements that are accompanied by Satie’s beautiful sounds.
With this wonderful combination of music and visual arts this show should captivate the audience, while opening up our imagination on the possibility of dance.
Compagnie Marie Chouinard performs at the National Arts Centre on Saturday, January 17 at 7:30 pm. Tickets start at $40. Please note that this performance contains strobe effects and some nudity.
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