Presents Anne Plamondon Saturday, June 30 at 7:00pm Sunday, July 1 at 2:00pm & 5:00pm Rubenstein Arts Center Performance: 50 minutes
THE SAME EYES AS YOURS A Creation of Choreography, Direction, and Performance Dramaturgy and Direction Rehearsal Direction Lighting and Technical Direction Music Costumes Scenography Consultant Agent Anne Plamondon and Marie Brassard Anne Plamondon Marie Brassard Shawn Hounsell Yan Lee Chan Njo Kong Kie, Garth Stevenson Julie Charland, Yso Anick La Bissonnière Nicolas Filion, Filigrane Arts Vivants In this audacious first solo work, luminous dancer Anne Plamondon dares to take on the subject of mental illness. In collaboration with director Marie Brassard, she superimposes realities to offer an almost panoramic view of this gripping theme. She becomes, alternately, a lost man a dislocated personality who manifests co-existing and successive abnormal states, verbal delirium, and incoherent behaviour, and a woman witness to the shipwreck, who sees the shimmering mirage of the line that separates insanity from normality. The dancer also incarnates the afflicted man s fleeting memory of the person he was before tilting into madness. Touching in her fragility, she explores the grey zones that inhabit us and cause us suffering, the incomprehension of others, and the body, too small to contain limitless thought. In The Same Eyes as Yours, she draws us, body and soul, into a poetic dance-theater performance, inviting us to contemplate these troubling mental struggles. The Same Eyes as Yours is a co-production of l Agora de la danse (Montreal), the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), and Jacob s Pillow Dance, in collaboration with RUBBERBANDance Group. Produced with the support of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Canada Council for the Arts.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS ANNE PLAMONDON (Choreographer, Dancer, and Director) trained at the National Ballet School of Canada and the Banff Centre for the Arts and graduated from l École Supérieure de danse du Québec in 1994. She immediately joined Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, performing numerous works of the classical repertory choreographed by George Balanchine and Fernand Nault. The following year, she left Quebec to continue her career with Nederlands Dans Theater II in Holland (1995-1998), then with the Gulbenkian Ballet in Portugal (1998-2000). During that time, she performed works from over 30 choreographers such as Jiri Kylian, Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon, Johan Inger, Hans Van Manen, and Ohad Naharin, to name a few. Returning to Montreal in 2000, Anne worked with contemporary choreographers such as Jean Grand-Maître, Estelle Clareton, and Hélène Blackburn. Between 2002 and 2016, alongside choreographer Victor Quijada, she contributed to the development of RUBBERBANDance Group, first as a performer, then as artistic co-director of the company from 2006 to 2015. The inventive daring of Quijada s choreography blending hip hop and b-boying with the fluidity and precision of classical ballet and a contemporary dance sensibility had a pivotal impact on the course of Anne s career. The pair s strong affinity as dance partners fostered a close artistic collaboration, and Anne rapidly became the emblem of the company. She was also instrumental in the formulation of the RUBBERBAND Method, which she now teaches throughout the world. In 2015, wishing to pursue the exploration of her personal artistic language, Anne became an associate artist of RUBBERBANDance Group. In parallel to her extensive collaboration with Quijada, since 2005, Anne has worked with renowned choreographer Crystal Pite and her company Kidd Pivot, creating Lost Action, Fault, The You Show, and a duet that won an Olivier Award in 2015, A Picture of You Falling. After twenty years of practice as a dancer, Anne Plamondon made her choreographic debut in 2012 with the solo The Same Eyes As Yours. Undertaken in collaboration with theatre director Marie Brassard, this piece, which Anne also performed, probed the theme of mental illness. In 2017, Anne worked again with Marie Brassard for a second solo, Mécaniques nocturnes. In this work, Anne Plamondon returns to the sources of the first movement, the first desire: a primitive state of being, the human animal before the emergence of the mysterious, impossible-to-muzzle urge to create and to build. With an emphasis on subjects that have deep meaning for her, Anne s intention is to create works that leave a strong impression as much by their virtuosity as by their emotional authenticity. MARIE BRASSARD (Author, Director, and Actress) From 1985 to 2000, Marie Brassard s career was closely linked to that of Robert Lepage, both in theater and in film. In 2001, she created her first solo work, Jimmy, créature de rêve, presented at the Festival de théâtre des Amériques. The play s strong success inspired her to launch a solo career and establish her own production company, Infrarouge, of which she is artistic director. Since then, she has written, directed, and performed the following works: La noirceur (2003), Peepshow (2005),
The Glass Eye (2007), L invisible (2008), and Moi qui me parle à moi-même dans le futur (2010). In these plays, Marie continued to experiment with technology, exploring the uses of sound and light, and her particular approach has made her stand out as a singular voice in contemporary theater. Since then, in collaboration with guest artists from different disciplines and origins, the artist has created surrealist pieces with virtuoso acting skills and innovative video, light, and sound installations. Her unique work, performed both in English or French, received widespread acclaim in many cities across America, Europe, and Australia. She is the artistic director of both production companies Infrarouge and Ultraviolet. SHAWN HOUNSELL (Rehearsal Director) Originally from Saskatchewan, Canadian choreographer Shawn Hounsell danced professionally with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal between 1989 and 2003. An award winning choreographer, Shawn has created and staged pieces for numerous Canadian companies including the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Les Grands Ballet Canadiens de Montreal, Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, Ballet British Columbia, Ballet Kelowna, Le Jeune Ballet du Quebec, and Festival Dance Company. In addition, his works have been performed by American companies such as Ballet Pacifica and Collage Dance Collective as well as in Europe by the Ballet of the National Theatre of Prague. From 2006 to 2009, Mr. Hounsell also served as Rehearsal Director with LaLaLa Human Steps for the world tour of Amjad. Equally a freelance teacher and coach, Mr. Hounsell currently resides in Montreal, Quebec. YAN LEE CHAN (Lighting and Technical Director) Yan Lee Chan, based in Montreal, has been designing lighting for contemporary dance and theater for more than 15 years. He collaborated with many choreographers and companies in Canada, including Marie Chouinard, Denise Filiatrault, Théâtre Momentum, Paula de Vasconcelos, Sylvie Moreau, Hélène Langevin, Marc Boivin, Lin Snelling, Andrew Harwood, Nicole Mion, Stéphane Gladyszewski, and Victor Quijada (RUBBERBANDance). This year, Yan Lee Chan designed the lighting of the newest creation, Réversible, of the circus company Les 7 doigts de la main. NJO KONG KIE (Composer) Njo Kong Kie is a composer for dance, opera, and theater. His works include music for the play Infinity by Hannah Moscovitch and the music theater work Mr. Shi and His Lover (with Wong Teng Chi), the first ever Chinese language production at Canada s National Arts Centre English Theatre. Long-serving music director of La La La Human Steps, Kong Kie has also worked with choreographers Anne Plamondon, Aszure Barton, Shawn Hounsell, and others, providing original music to their productions for companies such as Nederlands Dans Theater, Ballet National de L Opera du Rhin, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Singapore Dance Theatre, and Ballet BC. More at www.musicpicnic.com.
JULIE CHARLAND (Costume Designer) Julie Charland is a Montreal visual artist who works as a costume designer, stylist, and art illustrator. She was noticed for her surprising and singular costume creations alongside director Brigitte Haentjens, with whom she has been collaborating for 20 years. Starting in 2017, she created some forty illustrations for the French Theater seasons at the National Arts Center in Ottawa. Her recent collaborations include, for theater, In the solitude of the cottonfields by B-M Koltès, for cinema, Ravenous by Robin Aubert, for humor, Préfère novembre by Louis- José Houde, and for the music scene, Rêves américains by Thomas Hellman. ANICK LABISSONNIÈRE (Set Designer) Anick La Bissonière approaches the theater stage not as a site for sets but as a space for creative investment. Since 1993, she has designed sets for more than fifty shows, working with Omnibus and Carbone 14 as well as the Cirque du Soleil. In 1999, she joined forces with Brigitte Haentjens on shows attesting to this creative duo s artistic complicity. Prior to being appointed to UQAM s École Supérieure de théâtre in 2010, she was an invited professor at the University of Montreal, teaching in the Master of Architecture program. Finalist for the prestigious Siminovitch prize in both 2006 and 2009, Anick was among the international elite honoured at the 40th Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. She was also awarded the Siminovitch prize in 2015. GARTH STEVENSON is a Brooklyn-based film composer and double bassist. In the past four years, Garth has released two full-length solo albums, informed by his experiences carrying his 150-year-old double bass to the woods, the beach, and the desert. His most recent and critically acclaimed release, Flying, is a seventy-five minute homage to a recent life-changing trip to Antarctica. Stevenson composed the original scores to Chappaquiddick, Tracks, Ten Thousand Saints, The Red Knot, Tater Tot and Patton, Resilience, Seed: The Untold Story, A Fierce Green Fire, The Young Lakota, Elon + Emmanuelle, On Meditation, and L Aubade. In 2008, Stevenson was awarded with the International Society of Bassists composition competition first prize for his innovative piece Grandfather: for double bass and electronics and subsequently served as a judge for the competition in 2010. Stevenson is a founding member of 5707, the ambient duo with guitarist Ryan Ferreira and TAQ, a Polish piano trio with Marcin Masecki and Ziv Ravitz. As a freelance bassist he has recorded on over 50 albums and has performed with John Shannon, the Crash Test Dummies, Fitz and the Tantrums, Annie and the Beekeepers, and Lucy Wainwright. SPECIAL THANKS Anne Plamondon extends her warmest thanks to her artistic partner since 2002 Victor Quijada, to Jodee Nimerichter of ADF, and to the Institut universitaire de santé mentale de Québec, especially François Bertrand, who directs a program accompanying artists afflicted with mental health issues. Four amazing people benefiting from that program had the courage and generosity to share their life experience. Thanks to Fannie Bellefeuille and all the staff at RUBBERBANDance.
Post Performance Discussions Join Us! Post Performance Discussions (PPDs) provide a unique opportunity for patrons to meet the festival artists, ask questions, and gain insight into the creators work and vision. PPDs take place after select evening performances throughout the summer. Please check the calendar located in the middle of the playbill for the PPD schedule.