Montreal jazz,
St. Louis blues

After a hiatus from the summer park performances, [bjm_danse] les Ballets Jazz de Montréal is back on the outdoor stage with works featuring long-time company dancer Edgar Zendejas. After scoring a contract with LBJ more than a decade ago, Zendejas left his home in Mexico City and has been dancing with the company ever since.

This weekend, he presents Guide, Rastay, and his first-ever full-length group piece, Besame... Besame Mucho, which looks at his Mexican roots, faith and human attachment. The latter piece has proven controversial before—it had to be edited when it ran in St. Louis, Missouri, because programmers didn’t take to a scene involving a female impersonator. We’ll just have to see if Montrealers will be as aghast when it makes its premiere in this city. Catch it with short choreographies by Neelanthi Vadivel and Trailerpilot, July 27–29, 8:30 p.m., at le Théâtre de Verdure in Parc Lafontaine, free. —Marites Carino

Triple-X-rated threat

Celebrated queer Montreal artist Evergon continues to push boundaries with his latest show, XXX/L, running until August 5 at Galerie Trois Points (372 Ste-Catherine W., #520). In the show, Evergon juxtaposes classical icons of Western art with images of pornography. A number of the photographs have the artist, who describes his body as “60-year-old, gay male and obese,” posing alongside men in various suggestive positions. Evergon has no shame about his body, stating that he has drawn “incredible strength from my 86-year-old mother, Margaret, who has commissioned me to do nudes of her from 2000 to the present. I have also taken solace from a new boyfriend who, upon meeting, said, “I love fat old men with beards.” Well hello, here I am! The vernissage for “XXX/L” takes place today, Thursday, July 27, at 4 p.m. —Matthew Hays

Divers ciné

Dismayed film geeks accumulating their annual rejection letters from the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema will appreciate director Bruno Carrière’s encouraging words: “Directing is as polyvalent as it is multidisciplinary, with the majority of directors never having formally studied the profession.”

Carrière explores the sheer diversity of directors’ visions, styles and individual talents in a book and exhibit both entitled MÉTIER réalisation. The display runs until Aug. 27 at Espace Création (500 Sherbrooke W.) and features insightful interviews with directors like Charles Binamé and Léa Pool, portraits of many local helmers and a trail mix of their personal items. These range from predictable memorabilia of the clipboard and megaphone variety, to notebooks and etchings giving us a peek into their creative process. The 30 makers showcased wax poetic about the screen—their canvas of choice—and their commitment to making it come alive in an idiosyncratic fashion. That alone warrants a visit to this free exhibit (en français only), www.metier-realisation.ca. —Michael-Oliver Harding

Keep out!

The exhibition Tree House was inspired by the view of the forest visible through the large expanse of windows in the Saidye’s Liane and Danny Taran Gallery (5170 Côte-Ste-Catherine). Visual artists, architects and landscape architects were invited to build a maquette of their imagined retreats on tree limbs within the gallery space.

Landscape architect duo AMMA bring back the strongest memories of childhood by including recorded sounds of children playing. Naomi London adds padded stools to her branch, reflecting her memories of finding just the right perch up in a tree. Rachel Echenberg and Sébastien Worsnip create a more poetic spot to daydream with their boat/tree house sailing amongst the twigs. Lighting wiz Axel Morgenthaler’s installation is definitely the funkiest, bringing to mind a psychedelic tent caterpillar’s nest, while Michael Robinson effectively turns the whole exercise on its head by approaching the tree house as a symbol of “environmental subjugation.” All the exhibition is missing is some leaves. It runs until Sept. 10. —Christine Redfern

Is it Art?

REMEMBER LA VIDA LOCA? Remember when Mike Tyson bit off a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear? And when Tonya Harding’s goons took out Nancy Kerrigan’s knees? Remember mutant ninja turtles, cloned sheep, the purple dinosaur? The Achy-Breaky? The Macarena? Of course you do, it was practically yesterday! But ’90s retro is in full swing (remember how swing was retro ’30s in the ’90s?), and you can bring them back to life with Let’s Paint the ’90s!

Jason Rekulak’s activity book comes with a six-colour paint set and brush, and also includes bonus activities such as a Hannibal Lector connect-the-dots, an “O.J. Simpson High-Speed Freeway Maze” and a “One-Hit-Wonder Word-Search” of ’90s singles by such bands as Extreme, Chumbawamba, Alannah Myles, Haddaway, Right Said Fred and Tone Loc. Bust a move, it’s in stores now!

ArtsHole

NO FEAR OF FLYING: Crazy French trapeze artists les Arts Sauts come to North America for the first time, performing their internationally heralded, physics-defying Ola Kala: Le rêve de voler. It’s at the TOHU (2345 Jarry E.) until Aug. 12, www.tohu.ca. • NATURE, CULTURE AND BIKES: The Musée Plein Air de Lachine mixes the great outdoors with contemporary sculpture all summer long with guided bicycle tours along the banks of the St-Lawrence. Tours take place Saturdays and Sundays, 1–3 p.m., until Aug. 20, beginning at the Musée de Lachine (1 chemin du Musée, corner of St-Patrick). Bike rentals are available near the museum at Bicyclettes Rossi. 634-3478 for more info.

ARTISTAT: Number of years on planet Earth les Grands Ballets de Montréal will be celebrating when they rip out five free nights of starlit performances in Parc Lafontaine’s Théâtre de Verdure between Aug. 2–6: 50

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