Workshop with Guest Artists from MAYDAY, Marc Boivin and Brianna Lombardo
Saturday, February 15, 1:00-3:00pm
Workshop with Artistic Director and Choreographer of MAYDAY, Mélanie Demers
Saturday, February 15, 3:15-5:15pm
The Rachel Browne Theatre
$22 for one workshop
$30 for both workshops
Buy tickets here or call (204) 452-0229
Workshop with Guest Artists from MAYDAY, Marc Boivin and Brianna Lombardo
Workshop Description:
The workshop is first and foremost an opportunity to meet and exchange as artists and people. Catered to and altered by the needs and particularities of the group we will start with a chi kung based warm up to awaken the senses, the body, and a deep listening. We will continue by exploring exercises that focus on listening while improvising in different situations. Working with the methods of creation particular to Mayday we will touch on some of the repertoire and creative process attached to the work Animal Triste.
This workshop is geared towards professional and emerging dance artists.
About the workshop facilitators:
Marc Boivin
Marc Boivin is a performer, improviser, teacher, and choreographer. He began his dance career at Le Groupe de la Place Royale under the directorship of Peter Boneham before joining Ginette Laurin and her company O Vertigo Danse in 1985. Since 1991 he has worked as an independent dancer, performing mainly for Louise Bédard, Sylvain Emard, Jean-Pierre Perreault, Catherine Tardif, Tedd Robinson and since 2007, in some of his own creations. He has been affiliated with the École de danse contemporaine de Montreal since 1987 and regularly guest teaches and choreographs in schools and companies across Canada. For his performance in the play WOULD, choreographed by Mélanie Demers, Marc Boivin received the Dora Mavor Moore Award during the summer of 2014.
Brianna Lombardo
Brianna Lombardo completed her professional training at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre, and then worked with various international artists in Europe on a Chalmers Arts Fellowship. As an independent dancer, she worked in Toronto with Michael Trent and Matjash Mrozewski, and in Montreal with Isabelle Van Grimde and Jean-Pierre Perreault, before joining the O Vertigo company from 2004 to 2010. After six years with the company, she rejoined the dance community as a freelancer and worked closely with Mélanie Demers (MAYDAY), Jacques Poulin-Denis (Grand Poney), Frédérick Gravel (Grouped’ArtGravelArtGoup), Caroline Laurin-Beaucage, Martin Messier and Sasha Ivanochko. Alongside her dancing work since 2010, she has been teaching the O Vertigo and MAYDAY repertoires.
Workshop with Artistic Director and Choreographer of MAYDAY, Mélanie Demers
Workshop description:
Mélanie Demers’ workshops are
designed to create a territory where real meetings are possible. Tailored to
the context and the needs of the group, the classes become laboratories to
experiment and take risks in a safe environment, providing a suitable playground
for artists to explore “inner mythology”.
The session starts with a discussion, then continues in a physical application
of the topics raised by the discussion. Guided improvisations take over and the
process is set in motion. Conducted in a spirit of community and shared
experiences, the session addresses the importance of artists connecting with
their creative potential.
This workshop is geared towards professional and emerging dance artists.
About Mélanie Demers:
A multidisciplinary
artist, Mélanie Demers founded her own dance company, MAYDAY, in
Montréal in 2007. Her work has won over audiences with its originality,
intensity, and complexity, all while exploring the bleaker side of the human
condition. An artist who believes in the importance of social engagement, she
has worked abroad as a dance teacher in a number of countries including Kenya,
Niger, Brazil, and Haiti. The harsh reality of these developing countries has
convinced her that art only matters if it is invested with political significance
and serves as a call to action and reflection. Les Angles Morts (2006), Sense
of Self (2008), Junkyard/Paradise (2010), Goodbye (2012) and MAYDAY remix
(2014) were all created with this perspective in mind. Her piece WOULD (2015)
won the CALQ Prize for Best Choreography for the 2014-2015 season, highlighting
the artistic excellence of a work produced in Québec.
In 2016, Mélanie Demers began a new creative cycle with Animal Triste and Icône
Pop. Both works have toured internationally and in August 2017 Icône Pop was
awarded the Buddies in Bad Times Vanguard Award for Risk and Innovation at the
SummerWorks Performance Festival in Toronto. Recently, Mélanie Demers was
invited to work as a guest choreographer at the Skånes Dansteater in Malmö,
Sweden for the creation of Something About Wilderness, and at the Operaestate
Festival in Bassano del Grappa, Italy. Her latest project, Danse Mutante
(2019), is a choreographic relay over three continents kicking off in Montréal.
A single dance duo will pass through the sensibilities of four different female
choreographers (including Demers herself) before it crossed the finish line
with a marathon event in Montréal in 2019, where all four versions—the original
and its “mutations”—will be presented. To date, Mélanie Demers has
choreographed twenty works which have been presented in over thirty cities
throughout Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia.
