Encyclopœdia – Compilation

At the invitation of the Festival international de nouvelle danse, I decided to combine for the first time certain sequences on feet and hands from DOCUMENT 1 and DOCUMENT 2: the sections known as les battus (in reference to classical dance), the 50 feet in line, the 100 moving feet, the 50 hands on the floor, the 270 hands, and others. Added to the mix are two videos: Hands by Jonathan Burrows, and Musique de Tables by Thierry De Mey, which form part of the series on hands.

Lynda Gaudreau

Credits

Creation: September 20, 2001, Festival international de nouvelle danse (Montreal, Canada)

Choreography and artistic direction
Lynda Gaudreau

Dancers
Anna Bozzini
Sophie Janssens
Karen Guttman
Monique Romeiko

Material developed in collaboration with
Mark Eden-Towle
Sarah Doucet
AnneBruce Falconer

Scenography and sound direction
Lynda Gaudreau

Lighting
Lucie Bazzo

Costumes
Lynda Gaudreau
Carmen Alie
Denis Lavoie

Integrated videography from original films by
Jonathan Burrows
Hands (1995)

A dance film by Jonathan Burrows, Adam Roberts, Matteo Fargion
Music: Matteo Fargion
Video used with kind permission from the Arts Council of England.

Thierry De Mey
Musique de Tables (1999)
Compositon and direction: Thierry De Mey
Musicians and performers: Géry Cambier, Georges-Elie Octors, Dirk Descheemaeker

Original videography
Lynda Gaudreau
Marianne Halter
Pétanque (2000)

Original score
Rober Racine
Piano (1999)

Rehearsal director
France Roy

Length: 70 minutes (without intermission)

Press Excerpts

The result: even more transparency in the choreographer's artistic approach, as if time had refined even further what was already of great clarity. The juxtaposition of the reprised fragments [...] reflects an extraordinary ability to reorganize what was already meticulously constructed. Those who have not yet experienced the works of Lynda Gaudreau will discover a unique gestural vocabulary that goes straight to the essence of things, pure gestures executed with precision and almost infinite variations.

[...] The result is a dizzying plunge into an world of emotions which, even when formally organized, brings out colorations never before seen in her work.

Isabelle Poulin, Le Devoir (Canada), September 22 and 23, 2001

Four outstanding dancers [...] raised this cross-pollinated study, at first sight abstract and conceptual, to such a level of refinement and perfection that audiences were left speechless, astounded by the momentary feeling – a very carnal one at that – of having understood the mechanisms of life, of having reached the source of all manifestations.

Aline Apostolska, La Presse (Canada), September 22, 2001