by MARITES CARINO

In the early '80s, a group of Montreal artists' experiments with improvisation in dance and music led to the creation of a popular series of on-the-spot shows called Les Événements de la pleine lune. "The goal was to experiment with movement and sound and try to find the connection between us, to define what we wanted to say through improvisation," recalls Louise Bédard, a founding member of the series that ended in 1986.

Twenty years later, Bédard (now an established choreographer in Montreal) along with another pleine lune veteran, Daniel Soulières (current artistic director of Danse-Cité), are putting together a show that revisits the old approach with an all-new cast. In Célébration 2 Bédard and Soulières stick behind the scenes, passing the torch to a new wave of choreographer-dancers to continue the on-stage exploration.

At a rehearsal during the final week before the show's opening, dancers Nicolas Filion, Élinor Fueter, Emmanuel Jouthe, Geneviève La, Jonathan Turcotte and Catherine Viau fine-tune their improvisational skills. They're joined by musicians Mélanie Auclair (violin and voice), Antoine Berthiaume (guitar), Jean-Félix Mailloux-Desjardins (double bass) and Alexandre Fecteau (saxaphone) - all working under the musical guidance of Jean Derome, another former member of the original group. The musicians sit scattered at both ends of the stage, warming up for an improv exercise in which they cue dancers to stop dancing by quickly interrupting their movement with music. This may sound easy, but it's not always the case. When things don't work out, it's painfully obvious - laughter erupts when cues are missed and Bédard redirects the crew.

Mistakes are part of the game, in Bédard's mind, and although improvisation involves many challenges and hurdles, it has its rewards. "You have to be very open to all sorts of accidents, all sorts of things can happen," she says, "and you have to follow through with these things that will happen to you."

There are those, of course, who are skeptical about paying to watch dancers and musicians make it up as they go. But Bédard sees that kind of risk-taking as the most exciting element. "Improvisation is very lively, even when it stops," she says. "Sometimes it has some not-so-strong moments, but that's the risk you take. It's not always dancing at full-blast. You have to be there to witness those moments of grace or disgrace."

CÉLÉBRATION 2, LES ÉVÉNEMENTS DE LA PLEINE LUNE, RUNS OCT. 2–5, 8PM, AND OCT. 5, 3PM, AT THÉÂTRE LA CHAPELLE (3700 ST-DOMINIQUE), $12. ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSION ON IMPROVISATION OCT. 3 AT 1:30PM, 843-7738