17th MACAO ARTS
FESTIVAL
A Showcase of Cultures
11 March to 1 April 2006
Ten
dancers will perform 24 Preludes by Chopin and Chorale under the
direction of the famous choreographer Marie Chouinard on Monday in the Macao
Cultural Centre’s Grand Auditorium. This performance is one of the many gems to
be featured in the 17th Macao Arts Festival beginning this Saturday.
Choreographer Marie Chouinard has lived in Nepal
and Berlin, in Bali and New York. Her more than 50 works celebrate life and draw
on inspiration from East and West. Chouinard’s artistry has won awards in
America as well as Europe, and basked in the applause of audiences all over the
world. She will prove in Macao why she is acclaimed as one of the best
choreographers of our day.
For Marie Chouinard dance is a sacred art, and
movement is the “phoneme” of the body’s thoughts. While 24 Preludes by Chopin
calls upon the intelligence of the body to translate into dance the emotions
evoked by classical music, Chorale gives an equal role to both voice and
movement in the act of awakening universes both strange and familiar.
In creating the first piece Chouinard was
inspired by Frédéric Chopin’s 24 Preludes op. 28. In this very
solemn work she shows how easily she deals with the demands of a classical form,
music in this instance. The dance and music combine to form a very contemporary
whole.
This piece consists of solos, duos, trios and
group movements that marry gentleness with strength, subtlety with rawness, and
evoke human feelings such as passion, ardour, rebellion and introspection.
Chouinard often explores the subtler states of mind.
On the other hand, Chorale is a festive
universe that embodies the notions of sexuality and divinity. Considered by many
to be one of her best pieces, this show invites to the stage ten dancers to
demonstrate that words such as choreography and chorale share the same
etymologic root. Corporeal and vocal architectures are then pushed to extreme.
The dancers fashion irresistible pulsations that stretch them and throw them off
kilter with breathless and ululating voices. Alone, in duets, or as a group,
they call out to each other in situations that are intense, tender, humorous and
very human.
In
the same year that Chorale was staged Chouinard directed her first film,
Cantique no. 1. From the same stock shots she created the multi-screen
film Cantique no. 2 and, in 2004, the participative installation
Cantique no. 3. The first film earned dancers Carol Prieur and Benoît
Lachambre the prize for interpretation at the Moving Pictures Festival of Dance
on Film and Video in Toronto in 2003.
Marie Chouinard has received several awards for
her contribution to the world of dance and the arts in general. In 2003, in
Ottawa, she received the National Arts Centre Award as part of the Governor
General’s Performing Arts Awards. In the same year, she was also awarded the
choreography prize of the Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques (SACD)
in Paris, France.
Compagnie Marie Chouinard has performed at
numerous important events, among them the Venice Biennial, where they premiered
the piece bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS in 2005.
The international reputation of Compagnie Marie
Chouinard stems from twenty-five years of work by the Montreal
director-choreographer. The company has performed all over the world since
Chouinard’s first creation in 1978, a solo piece entitled Crystallization.
This first work led to many more productions that established the
choreographer’s originality and integrity. Choreographic works,
action-performances, vocal works, installations and films have all sprung from
Chouinard’s unwavering interest in formal research and the mysteries of the
human body in all its aspects.
From 1978 to 1990 Marie Chouinard performed alone
on stage, travelling throughout the world and absorbing various cultures,
techniques and philosophies that she would transform into a personal language
with a universal resonance.
Marie Chouinard evokes the fragility of the
human species within the cosmos, along with the unalloyed joy of being alive.
Witness her artistry Monday at 8pm as she stages some of the best work of her
career at the Macau Cultural Centre’s Grand Auditorium.
CULTURAL AFFAIRS BUREAU
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BOX 1
Long-time Partners
Marie Chouinard’s work shines in part due to the contributions of her artistic
collaborators, in particular Louis Dufort, who composed the original music for
Chorale. To name another, Vandal’s costuming helps realise Chouinard’s
aesthetic on stage.
Dufort was born in Montreal in 1970. Trained as a
classical guitarist, he became interested in electro-acoustic composition and
completed his master's degree at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal. He
has won several international awards.
Like Dufort, Liz Vandal is a regular collaborator
of Chouinard’s. She has created the costumes for seven of Chouinard’s works,
beginning her career in the 90’s as fashion designer. She is also a make-up
artist and hairstylist and has worked for a number of performing arts
institutions, among them La La La Human Steps, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de
Montréal and Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal.
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BOX 2
Choreographic Works
Les Trous du ciel (1991)
The Rite of Spring (1993)
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (1994)
L’Amande et le diamant (1996)
Les Solos 1978-1998 (1998)
Des feux dans la nuit (1999)
24 Preludes by Chopin (1999)
Le Cri du monde (2000)
Étude n.º 1 (In 2001)
Chorale (2003),
bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS (2005)
Others
Film: Cantique n.º 1 and Cantique n.º 2 (2003)
Installation: Cantique n.º 3 (2004)
Programme:
24 Preludes by Chopin
Length: 45 minutes
Created at the TanzWochen Wien Festival, Vienna, Austria, 1999
Chorale
Length: 55 minutes
Created at RED (Reggio Emilia Danza), Italy, 2003
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Compagnie Marie Chouinard
24 Preludes by Chopin and Chorale - Contemporary Dance
Monday, March 13 – 8pm
Macau Cultural Centre Grand Auditorium
150, 100, 60 MOP
Credits
Artistic Director, Choreographer and Vocals (Chorale): Marie Chouinard
Dancers: Kirsten Andersen, Mark Eden-Towle, Andrea Keevil, Chi Long, Carla
Maruca, Lucie Mongrain, Isabelle Poirier, Carol Prieur, David Rancourt, James
Viveiros
Music: 24 Preludes, op. 28 by Frédéric Chopin
Original Music (Chorale): Louis Dufort
Sound Design: Edward Freedman
Lighting: Axel Morgenthaler and Marie Chouinard (Chorale)
Costumes: Vandal
Make-up: Jacques-Lee Pelletier
A Compagnie Marie Chouinard production, co-produced with ImPulsTanz-Vienna
International Dance Festival (Austria), National Arts Centre (Ottawa, Canada),
Théâtre de la Ville (Paris) and RED Reggio Emilia Danza (Italy)
Touring Crew
Rehearsal Master and Assistant Artistic Director: Raymond Brisson
Tour Director: Jean La Haye
Technical Director and Sound Engineer: Frédérick Lalonde
Lighting Director: Marc Tétreault
Marie Chouinard wishes to express her warm thanks
to Paul Tanguay and his entire administrative staff, the touring crew, the
collaborators, Marcel Côté, the Board of Directors and all the dancers.
Many thanks to the following organizations and to
the individuals representing them: the Conseil des arts et des lettres du
Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, as
well as the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (Canada).