Dancing in the Parc

You know it’s summer when music and applause emanate in a steady stream from le Théâtre de Verdure in the heart of Parc Lafontaine. Montreal’s outdoor hotspot for free cultural activities turns 50 this year, and to celebrate, emerging dance artists are getting a piece of the spotlight.

Choreographer Emmanuel Jouthe is happy to see programmers opening things up to contemporary dance makers like himself. “It permits the public to follow the young choreographers,” he says. “It’s important to give the public access to this generation.”

For the past two years, Jouthe has been reworking and refining AEternam, which formed its roots in a simple shop window performance and has since evolved into a work for five women. Jouthe decided to pare down the original set, which involved a lot of plastic, and focus more on movement in this poetic piece that looks at the rapport between time and space. It’s on next Wednesday, July 19, at 8:30 p.m.

At the tail end of the summer, watch out for other fresh faces like France Pépin, whose interdisciplinary Mosaïque incorporates movement and video (Aug. 16). The following night, Marie-Julie Asselin presents her trio piece, Les Traqueurs (Aug. 17). Keep on top of it all at http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/culture. —Marites Carino

Leaf storm

Green is the colour of summer and it’s being celebrated in the group exhibition Verdure at Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain (372 Ste-Catherine W., #216). Trees are often the centre of attention in this show—from Michel de Broin’s miniature treehouse to Ed Pien’s leafy branches populated with his oddball creatures—but the real high point comes with two paintings by newcomer Dil Hildebrand, one of the finalists in the running for this year’s RBC Painting competition. With the quality of his work, I wouldn’t be surprised if he won. Hildebrand manipulates the paint in a variety of visually interesting ways across each canvas. He seems to be following in the footsteps of Ontario painter Gary Evans with his ability to skillfully blend the realistic and the abstract with surreal results. Check out the work of this Montrealer while he’s on the way up. Verdure runs until Aug. 26, info: 395-6032. —Christine Redfern

Brit invasion

Two words to describe the current British slam poetry scene? “Massively resurgent,” says Jim Thomas, co-founder of Oxford, England’s Hammer and Tongue slam series, and now newly crowned 2006 Ottawa Slam Champion. You can check out the best of the Brits this Sunday when Thomas joins his compatriots Steve Larkin and Rob Gee at Words and Music at the Casa. “Rob’s style is rapid-fire delivery of funny, clever, twisted lines mixed with warm-hearted observations on life and relationships,” says Thomas. “Steve is very much a showman in a cabaret/stand-up style. And I do complex activist pieces dissecting techno-culture, mixed with very gentle love songs.” Hosted by the exquisite Catherine Kidd, July 16, 9 p.m., at Casa del Popolo (4873 St-Laurent), $6. —Vincent Tinguely

Sounds like home

If you are looking for somewhere to rest your eyes from the bright city, head down to listen to Sound Matter at the Darling Foundry (745 Ottawa). This audio installation is a collaborative effort by Aimé Dontigny, Louis Dufort, Chantal Dumas, Steve Heimbecker, Mathieu Lévesque, Thomas Phillip and Hélène Prévost. Under the artistic direction of Francisco Lopez and the coordination of Esther Bourdages, the small gallery (which would be big anywhere else except next to the huge Foundry space) has been plunged into almost complete darkness. There, one experiences an ever-changing loop of private and public Montreal sounds captured and manipulated by these artists. The resulting effect I can only describe metaphorically. If we think of Montreal as a kind of huge animal, it left me feeling as if I was Jonah, listening to its sounds from within the belly of the beast. Live concert July 27, 9 p.m., audio installation runs until Aug. 27, info: 392-1554. —Christine Redfern

Is it Art?

LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH AND DESPOTIC: Another thing, besides being tyrannical dictators, that men like Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Tito, Ceausescu, Amin, Milosevic and Hussein shared in common is that they had nice pads. Or expensive ones, at least, as London-based columnist and style guru Peter York points out in his new book, Dictator Style. Now that all of the above are dead or have been smoked out of their holes, even the citizens of their former regimes have access to York’s snarky yet well-researched picking apart of their decorating tastes, complete with photos and vital stats. And for all the excess, posits York, these places aren’t pretty so much as utterly compelling. The book, reads the back cover, “examines the frightening interior decorating tastes of some of history’s most alarming despots—and proves that absolute power corrupts absolutely, right down to the drapes.” (Chronicle Books, HC, 119pp, $24.99)

ArtsHole

Can’t get enough of looking at Montreal art? Now you can listen in with Swivel, a new Podcast on our visual arts scene produced by much-respected local artists Juliana España Keller and Paul Litherland. Go to www.swivelart.ca to download the latest episode. • BRANCHING OUT: Inspired by the Liane and Danny Taran Gallery at the Saidye Bronfman Centre’s view onto Parc Mackenzie King, eight Montreal artists, architects and landscape architects have designed conceptual tree house maquettes—from an upholstered sculpture to a fort made of modernist cubes. Let your imagination climb at the Tree House vernissage, today, Thursday, July 13, 6–8:30 p.m. (5170 Côte-Ste-Catherine).

ARTISTAT: Number of crews facing off in Just for Laughs The Battle – JFL, a competition pitting breakdancers from Canada, the U.S. and Korea against one another beginning this Saturday, July 15, 11:30 p.m., at the Studio Juste pour rire (2109 St-Laurent), (514) 790-HAHA: 8

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