MISFIT BLUES
MISFIT BLUES
JANUARY 21-23, 8PM
THE RACHEL BROWNE THEATRE
BUY TICKETS
WCD’s co-presentation with Fortier Danse-Création of Paul-André Fortier’s Manitoba Premiere of MISFIT BLUES and the remount of THIN ICE.Sublime misfits, Fortier and Regina’s incandescent Robin Poitras, get wild and silly in an ‘intoxicating ride through the incomprehensible abstractions and piercing truths of two people experiencing themselves as a unity.’ —BWW Review by Matt Hanson.
Love, Clowning and other Silly Antics
Although they’ve been around awhile, they view intimate relations as an equation with several unknowns, except that today there are no limitations to expressing their enthusiasms and their failings. They love each other, good or bad. They sound each other out, challenge each other, know how to manipulate one another. Thick as thieves, they also get bored, enjoy a good laugh, tread delicately between candour and cruelty. Under the ambiguous gaze of coyotes created by the Amerindian artist Edward Poitras, they present tender, perverse, hilarious characters – angelic tramps straight out of a Beckett play or burlesque cinema. Sublime misfits.
After a successful and brilliant career over the past 40 years, the choreographer Paul-André Fortier pursues in Misfit Blues an adventure that began at the FTA in 2008 with Cabane. In this duo with the incandescent Robin Poitras (Bells, FTA 2013), he appears here in a new light in this bittersweet caricature of the grand human comedy.
Text by Fabienne Cabado
Special Note
Paul-André Fortier wants to recognize the special contribution of Robin Poitras to the development of the choreography ofMisfit Blues. While she is not a co-author of the piece, Robin Poitras fed the creation process with her presence and with her exceptional improvisation skills.
This work is dedicated to Denis Lavoie.
About the Artists
PAUL-ANDRE FORTIER
Paul-André Fortier has made an immense contribution to contemporary dance in Quebec over the past 40 years as a pioneering creator, performer and teacher. He has created nearly 50 choreographies, solos, group pieces and site-specific works. Interested in the crossover between different generations and art forms, he regularly features young dancers in his work, as well as other artists. In 2010, he was appointed Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. In 2012, he received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award and an appointment to the Order of Canada as Officer. At the age of 67, Paul-André Fortier is still performing his unique take on dance polished by maturity.
ROBIN POITRAS
Robin Poitras is one of Saskatchewan’s most prolific dance and performance creators. Creating dance, performance and installation works, she has been actively engaged in contemporary dance practice since the early 80s. Her practice is rooted in a physical world comprised of choreography, dance and actions/acts. She co-founded New Dance Horizons in 1986, where she continues to act as Artistic Director. With an interest in research into diverse fields of artistic and somatic practice she has developed a unique interdisciplinary approach. Robin’s works have been presented across Canada, in Spain, France, Germany, Mongolia and Mexico. She is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2006 Mayor’s Awards for Business & The Arts in Regina, and the 2004 Women of Distinction Award for the Arts.
EDWARD POITRAS
Edward Poitras is a multi media visual artist with a background in performance creation. A product of the experimental Indian Art Cultural programs of the 1970s, Edward has worked as a teacher in the arts and has worked in communications in a audio visual department and as a freelance graphic artist. Edward has also been involved with a number of Aboriginal artist run centre’s and has curated a series of exhibitions whose focus was Treaty Four Territory. He has also co-curated a couple of story teller festivals. Edward has shown his work in international art biennials and other major national exhibitions. Edward lives on George Gordon First Nation.
Thin Ice
Thin Ice was created in January 2015 with two graduating students from the Professionnal Program of the School of Contemporary Dancers in Winnipeg in response to an invitation from Robin Poitras for her Men in Dance Festival held in Regina.
Fortier Danse-Création is remounting Thin Ice in Winnipeg in collaboration with the School of Contemporary Dancers. Aaron Paul, graduated student, and Trevor Pick, 3rd year student, will perform the piece in a double bill program with Misfit Blues. The evening will be co-presented by Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers and Fortier Danse-Création.
About the Dancers:
Aaron Michael Paul began his early dance training at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. After six years in the Professional Division, Aaron continued his studies at the School of Contemporary Dancers. Aaron has had the opportunity to perform works by Stephanie Ballard, Odette Heyn Projects, Constance Cooke, Drive Dance, Gaile Petursson-Hiley, Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, Tedd Robinson, and Paul Andre Fortier. Aaron is thrilled to be apprenticing for WCD this season.
Trevor Pick is currently in the Third Year of the Professional Program of The School of Contemporary Dancers. He will be performing with the graduating dancers of the Program in New Dance Horizons’ Prairie Dance Circuit performance series in Regina in March 2016 and at the Canada Dance Festival in Ottawa in June 2016. Trevor has performed in a professional project with choreographer, Ming Hon, which was presented at aceartinc in June 2015. He was the recipient of a bursary award for the 2015 Pilobolus Summer Workshop Series. He is deeply honoured to have the opportunity to perform Paul-André Fortier’s Thin Ice (Glace vive).
