national premiere


Born in canada, Louise Lecavalier has been a professional dancer since 1977. She joined La La La Human Steps in 1981 and went on to perform in each of the company's productions until 1999. She also participated in all of La La La's major collaborations, including David Bowie's Sound and Vision tour in 1990, The Yellow Shark concert, performed by Frank Zappa and the Ensemble Modern of Germany in 1992. As the company's symbol and luminary for nearly two decades, she gave her heart and soul to her art. She embodied dance on the outer edge, performing with passion and generosity, dazzling audiences worldwide.
Since 2003, she has collaborated with choreographer Tedd Robinson, who created Cobalt rouge for her. Following the creation of the solo piece "I" Is Memory, choreographed by Benoît Lachambre, at Festival Steps # 10 in Switzerland in May 2006, Louise has just completed the creation of a solo with Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite for this year's Festival Tanz im August in Berlin.

Lone Epic
solo
choreography : Crystal Pite
dancer : Louise Lecavalier
music: excerpts from Bernard Herrmann's music for Citizen Kane
lighting design: Lucie Bazzo
rehearsal Mistress : France Bruyère
costume designed and built by: Anne-Marie Veevaete
sound engineering: Owen Belton, Diane Labrosse
production: Louise Lecavalier
in coproduction with Steps # 10, Switzerland; Theatre de la Ville, Paris; Tanzwerkstatt, Berlin; Aarhaus Festuge; National Arts Centre, Ottawa; Danse Danse Montréal in collaboration with Quebec presenters

Lone Epic is a 16-minute solo set to selections from Bernard Herrmann's majestic score for Citizen Kane.
The work is decidedly brief and low-tech in contrast to the large-scale big-budget features that influence it. The conventions of epic cinema serve as an unconventional backdrop for a small story that is personal, intimate and true. Lone Epic looks for the possibility of real human emotion within the facade of presentation, while recognizing that the emotions of love and loss, while intensely personal, are of epic importance.
When a performer waves good-bye to the unmistakeable chords of a cinematic ending, framed by proscenium and perfectly-angled light, do we witness the retreat of a genuinely broken heart? Or does convention eclipse the heart and leave us unmoved? Lone Epic is both humble and grand, real and artificial. A spectacle made of the real-life drama of desire. [C. Pite]

Lula and the Sailor
duet from Cobalt rouge
choreography: Tedd Robinson
dancers: Louise Lecavalier, Éric Beauchesne
original music : Yannick Rieu
lighting design: Jean-Philippe Trépanier
rehearsal mistress: France Bruyère
costumes: Yso, Dubuc
production: Louise Lecavalier, Ten Gates Dancing
in co-production with Théâtre de la Ville, Paris, the Venice Biennale, and the National Arts Centre, Ottawa

This duet is an excerpt from the piece Cobalt rouge, first performed in February 2005 at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and at the Théâtre Outremont in Montreal.
The quirky movement vocabulary of this particular duet was never revealed as fully as I thought it could be and now it will stand alone simply and without distraction. The performers are hardly ever physically together and they rarely look at one another. Lula and the Sailor considers the dynamics of a straight line, the clearcut relationship between in and out, and the grey areas of hello and goodbye. A portrait of abundance in an austere frame. A meditation on the
activity of simplicity. [T. Robinson]

"I" Is Memory
solo
choreography: Benoît Lachambre
dancer: Louise Lecavalier
original music: Laurent Maslé
lighting: Jean-Philippe Trépanier
props: Louis-Philippe Saint-Arnault
rehearsal mistress : France Bruyère
production: Louise Lecavalier
in coproduction with Steps # 10, Switzerland; Theatre de la Ville, Paris; Tanzwerkstatt, Berlin; Aarhaus Festuge; National Arts Centre, Ottawa; Danse Danse Montréal in collaboration with Quebec presenters

The coming together of one body with the sinuous twistings of its own movements, "I" Is Memory reveals the mutations of a moving image whose references are turned upside down - the lyrical disintegration of a being in motion, like the dance of the rays of a phoenix becoming a mermaid. "I" Is Memory presents kinetic images shared between Louise and I, creating an aesthetic whose trajectory can take unpredictable turns. The dance leads us directly to the self, dissociated from its references, in the process of developing an empathetic relationship with its
surroundings. [B. Lachambre]