Autumn moves

Festivals big and small, the French
dance on Canadian soil, Studio 303
celebrates two decades

SHAOLIN STRENGTH: Sutra

by MARITES CARINO

You know fall is here when local dance fest Transatlantique Montreal takes dance outside of the downtown core into neighbourhoods like N.D.G., Verdun and Rosemont. Headquartered in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, the festival, in its seventh season, showcases new works by Roger Sinha, Zab Maboungou, and Les Imprudanses among others. Keep an eye out for dance film screenings at the NFB, outdoor performances and a retrospective dance photo and video exhibit by Michael Slobodian (transatlantiquemontreal.com, Sept. 17–Oct. 4).

Also this month, Agora de la Danse’s global series Destination Dance heads to France (figuratively, that is) with works from the next generation of contemporary French-from-France choreographers. Former hurdler turned-filmmaker, and then dancer, Pierre Rigal presents his solo Press, a choreographic comedy of sorts that toys with the normal day-to-day (Sept. 16–26).

2009 is a big year for Studio 303. It’s 20 years old so they’re whooping it up with VINGT, a gala-fundraiser. Local choreographer Marie Chouinard, who got her start at this cozy dance space, hosts the event, which invites 20 choreographers to create three minute and three second-long works, where the end of one micro-choreography becomes the beginning of the next, and so on and so forth, until all 20 are strung together in a choreographic collage (Cinquième Salle, Oct. 6).

Same building, different room, Israeli choreographer Hofesh Shechter makes his first appearance with his company at the beginning of October (Théâtre Maisonneuve, Oct. 1–3), with a double bill of group works. The first, Uprising is a driving piece created for seven male dancers. In contrast, In Your Rooms features five musicians and 11 dancers who explore the challenges of communication.

ONE LAST DANCE: Construct

AUSSIE INVASION

Australian talent descends on the city this season at the Cinquième Salle. Aussie dance-theatre collective Force Majeure, who combine theatre, multimedia and dance, present their latest work The Age I’m In. The work for dancers and actors between the ages of 15 and 80 expresses how they experience aging and is set to a soundtrack of interviews (Oct. 14–25). A month later, stop in for Construct, the final work by Tanja Liedtke, a talented Australia-based choreographer who died tragically at the age of 30, shortly before she was to take over the Sydney Dance Company (Nov. 10–14).

It’s been a while since we’ve seen dancer Noam Gagnon of Vancouver-based company The Holy Body Tattoo. This fall, he’s back with his award-winning solo The Vision Impure, which looks to life and death for inspiration (Usine C, Nov. 18–21).

Since its debut last year, everybody’s been talking about Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Sutra. Cherkaoui, a Bruce Lee fan in his teens, developed a fascination with kung fu, which eventually led him to China where he worked with a group of Shaolin monks who move with and on a set of 21 wooden boxes (Théâtre Maisonneuve, Nov. 4–7).

Benoît Lachambre and Louise Lecavalier return to Usine C with Is You Me, their playful work on identity that uses live drawing projections by Laurent Goldring (Sept. 23–26). Same space, different world, choreographer-dancer Naomi Stikeman revisits her Çaturn. With an eclectic cast of whimsical characters, Stikeman combines her passion for dance and film in this mischievous hybrid work (Oct. 13-17).